Hi everyone,

I was reading through the dedicated/medicated? Lucky_Me thread concerning parabollic reflectors, and a thought struck me. So I asked the question in Lucky_Me's thread and he suggested I start a new topic.

I wondered whether anyone had ever painted a bulb. In wondering, I supposed that one might need some highly heat-resistant silver paint and would leave an aperture exposing the arc.

Lucky_Me already suggested that this might be a problem due to heat and that photons bouncing around in the lamp casing would also generate more heat.
However, it would mean virtually no lost light and should prove easier to focus the light.

I would really love to hear from anyone who has tried this any anyone who has any theories about whether it would work or not and why.

Would it be a help that you could customize the aperture to suit the LCD you were using?

Anyways, Lucky_Me seems to have made some excellent progress with his parabola and his thread is well worth the read (if you've got a spare few hours ;p)

You can also have glass selectively aluminized in a vacuum chamber. It's not too expensive if you wait for the coating company work it in with a large batch of glass. You can even build your own vacuum chamber, but it's a major project.

Restricting the aperture to the arc itself and eliminating artifacts presented to the parabolic reflector by covering the bulb surface with either a highly reflective or completely obscuring material such as paint or aluminum are also things I considered as suggestions as I followed Lucky_Me's parabola tests. I'm not sure how relevant these options are now that Lucky seems to have arrived at a workable solution.

-coma

Well, they are things to consider. But....

BE WARNED

I spoke to the place I have been buying bulbs, they didn't think it was a good idea. Then as I was there for over an hour (I bet they were glad I was gone, except for the one guy who was highly excited in this project). Anyways, I was there for over an hour and I spoke to some Commercial Electricians on the matter as they became interested.

They said it is a very DANGEROUS idea to do ANYTHING to the glass. From experience they told me stories of these bulbs EXPLODING. Anything you do to the lamp (their opinion) will cause MORE HEAT, therefor increasing the odds of a self-destructing bulb.

I don't condone it, but if someone tried it - PLEASE KEEP IT CONTAINED/ENCLOSED at all times!!!!




Oh I almost forgot, P.S. - I don't think medication can help me! muhhahaha

Thanks for the responses and the fruits of your conversation in the electrical shop ;p

I took apart an OHP once and the lamp was enclosed in a cylindrical shape, it had a mirrored lense at the rear of the lamp and another lense at the front, and two fans at either end. this seemed like a good solution.

If painting the bulb is out, then perhaps a well cooled surround could be made.

Also, does anyone know if there is such a thing as a proton membrane????

Allowing light through but nothing else. Would this get rid of Lucky_Me's egg yolk????

I think getting rid of the EGG WHITE is ok, but not the YOLK. I think the wider YOLK is caused by imperpect Collimation from the 18" Reflector. I think it is just something you have to live with, Unless you used secondary optics somehow. I had ideas for this but... it just adds to the length.

not sure if this is posted in the correct thread
this may change how we use lighting for everything, check it out!
this stuff can be painted on almost any surface.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6448213/did/9777070/?GT1=7128

http://exploration.vanderbilt.edu/news/new...ntumdot_led.htm