Have been a dedicated, make that compulsive, reader of this forum for a few months. Purchased a 15” Liquid Video LCD and am waiting on the new S15 Lens Kit. Was going to purchase the Ushio pulse-strike lamp and m135 coil ballast but the simplicity of the e-ballast plus it’s reasonable price at LL has changed my mind. Also, Brain has named the combination of the LL e-ballast, 400w S400DD MH lamp plus mogul base as the “Ultimate Light Kit” - so that seems a good way to go.
Questions -

1) In the simple projector plans it shows the center of the filament to be 177mm side to side. Relative to Ushio pulse-strike the S400DD is 37mm longer overall and its base to center of the filament is 19mm longer. It would seem that with the removal or shortening of the wooden base for the mogul base the S400DD could be centered properly. Is this a correct assumption?

2) Does anyone have suggestions for a reflector for this size bulb?

3) If “Ultimate Light Kit” does work with the simple projector plans for a 15” LCD is there anything else I should consider before ordering?

Thanks,
henderson

Yeah you've got it right. Just make sure there is enough width in your enclosure for the wide lamp.

For a reflector; If you could find a Norpro, that would work. Since these are getting scarce, any spherical stainless bowl will work just so long as you can center the arc envelope in the sphere and have enough width/arc length to fully illuminate the diagonal of the panel.

An ideal replacement for the Norpro is yet to be found. If you are not in a big hurry there are some next generation reflectors being worked on at this time by Lumenlab. I don't have any idea when they may be available, but they are trying to get them to work with the T15 type bulbs.

I'm using the bulb from the "ultimate light kit" in my 15'' projector. I had to put the bulb at an angle inside the box but was able to easily get it centered. Norpro's will work with the s400dd bulb, however you can also use a smaller reflector since the diameter of the s400dd is much smaller than the previous bulbs. Williams-Sonoma (kitchen store in the mall) has a stainless stell ladel for $15.00 that would work very very well. I'm currently using a double walled stainless mixing bowl that I found a kohls for $8.00 or so. Anything small and spherical should work well, just cut 2 holes for the buld and center the arc and you'll be good to go.


-Jim

Has anyone tried their hand at polishing the interior of their metal bowls to a more reflective finish? It would take a bit of time, but plenty of guys lap the base of their heatsinks to true mirror finishes so I don't think it would be out of the question for something like this. Probably a worthwhile effort too.

And here I thought I was being a real propellerhead taking the polishing head for my dremel and doing the inside of my bowl with it.

I don't know how much of a difference it made, but it makes me feel better.