Fluorescent lamps are synonymous with the most depressing aspects of modern life: their soulless flickering presides over vast aisles of big box stores, server farms, fields of cubicles, and parking garages. Yet, as individual objects, they are sleek, glossy white tubes, efficient in both form and purpose. I thought it nice to marry these contradictions into a lamp that used burned-out tubes to diffuse the light from a single, working fluorescent. The result is a study in opposites: lightness and weight, fragility and solidity, delicacy and mass. A concrete base supports a column of white glass, classical in form and color, but modern in material and concept.
After finishing, I discovered another artist's elegant take on the burnout concept here: http://www.castordesign.ca/
I also realized a number of shortcomings upon completion; namely, the tubes being buried permanently in concrete makes it difficult to replace a broken bulb or to move the lamp without threatening the tubes. The next iteration, perhaps, will have sockets which facilitate swapping out the tubes for transport or repair. In the process of making the lamp, one tube broke; I've included replacement instructions here.
Fluorescent tubes are filled with hazardous toxins, namely mercury. Work in a well-ventilated area, and wear a mask if you break a tube. Clean up the shards of glass with gloves.
Salvage the bulbs from your office, home, or school. Counties and towns with bulb-recycling programs might be inclined to spare a few if you ask nicely.
You will need these materials:
eight 1-1/2" dia.burned out fluorescent tubes
8" dia. sonotube or similar
approx. 2' square of 3/4" plywood
approx. 12" of 2" dia. PVC pipe
fluorescent fixture
50 lbs. quick-set concrete mix
three-wire grounded power cord
speaker wire
toggle switch
approx 3" x 6" x 1/4" piece of plexiglass
caulk
drywall screws
You will need these tools:
Drill
Jig saw
Clamps
Box cutter
1-1/2" drill bit
2-1/4" hole saw
Needle-nose pliers
Screwdriver
Sandpaper
Dremel tool or similar
Bucket
Trowel
After finishing, I discovered another artist's elegant take on the burnout concept here: http://www.castordesign.ca/
I also realized a number of shortcomings upon completion; namely, the tubes being buried permanently in concrete makes it difficult to replace a broken bulb or to move the lamp without threatening the tubes. The next iteration, perhaps, will have sockets which facilitate swapping out the tubes for transport or repair. In the process of making the lamp, one tube broke; I've included replacement instructions here.
Fluorescent tubes are filled with hazardous toxins, namely mercury. Work in a well-ventilated area, and wear a mask if you break a tube. Clean up the shards of glass with gloves.
Salvage the bulbs from your office, home, or school. Counties and towns with bulb-recycling programs might be inclined to spare a few if you ask nicely.
You will need these materials:
eight 1-1/2" dia.burned out fluorescent tubes
8" dia. sonotube or similar
approx. 2' square of 3/4" plywood
approx. 12" of 2" dia. PVC pipe
fluorescent fixture
50 lbs. quick-set concrete mix
three-wire grounded power cord
speaker wire
toggle switch
approx 3" x 6" x 1/4" piece of plexiglass
caulk
drywall screws
You will need these tools:
Drill
Jig saw
Clamps
Box cutter
1-1/2" drill bit
2-1/4" hole saw
Needle-nose pliers
Screwdriver
Sandpaper
Dremel tool or similar
Bucket
Trowel
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Signing UpStep 1: Formwork (1)
The formwork for the base is the most complex part of the lamp. Start by tracing the 8" sonotube (cardboard tube concrete formwork for setting piers and posts) onto the plywood.
On two of the circles, lay out eight center points in a radial pattern. Start by pulling one line across the circle, dividing it in two; then measure the center of that line. Take a square and pull a line perpendicular to the first, dividing the circle into four equal pieces. Subdivide again, just like cutting a pie, to create eight even pieces. Measure up each line 2-1/2" from the center and make a mark. Drill each mark with a 1-1/2" bit. Make two identical pieces like this. On one of them, drill out the center with the 2-1/4" hole saw bit.
Cut the two drilled-out circles out of the piece of plywood they are in. Cut them large, so they will rest on top of the sonotube without falling in. Cut the third small, so it will fit inside the sonotube.
Cut the PVC pipe and the sonotube to 12" long. Sand and smooth the pipe's cut edge.
Set all these pieces aside for a minute.
On two of the circles, lay out eight center points in a radial pattern. Start by pulling one line across the circle, dividing it in two; then measure the center of that line. Take a square and pull a line perpendicular to the first, dividing the circle into four equal pieces. Subdivide again, just like cutting a pie, to create eight even pieces. Measure up each line 2-1/2" from the center and make a mark. Drill each mark with a 1-1/2" bit. Make two identical pieces like this. On one of them, drill out the center with the 2-1/4" hole saw bit.
Cut the two drilled-out circles out of the piece of plywood they are in. Cut them large, so they will rest on top of the sonotube without falling in. Cut the third small, so it will fit inside the sonotube.
Cut the PVC pipe and the sonotube to 12" long. Sand and smooth the pipe's cut edge.
Set all these pieces aside for a minute.
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If you spill mercury, please don't vacuum it up. Doing so can disperse it into an airborne vapor. (More than it tends to vaporize by itself.) Mercury has low vapor pressure and will vaporize at room temps. If it breaks up into thousands of little globules, the surface area increases tremendously, thus increasing the vaporization. If this happens get as much air moving as quickly as possible.
Otherwise get the environment as cold as you can as fast as you can and try to make sure the mercury does not get down into any cracks in flooring, etc. If it does, cover the areas with flowers of sulfur. You can then try to suck it up with an eyedropper, solder sucker or baster, but when you're done, do make sure to work flowers of sulfur into the crevices. And don't vacuum there.
http://www.epa.gov/hg/spills/
You can get a special foam device meant to clean mercury up by trapping the globules in its open cells. I have never experimented with other types of foam, but I would want to have one of these things around in case I were to spill any. I have always believed that these should be readily available in hardware stores, and kept in every home or office that uses neon or fluorescent tubing.
To say that a tube contains "less than a droplet" of mercury is meaningless. A very small quantity of mercury can be dangerous. I was a glassblower and made neon for years, and I can tell you that there is enough mercury in neon and cold cathode tubes to be of concern.
Some people will minimize the dangers of exposure to mercury, as they will to any dangerous material, but it's up to you to protect yourself and others who may be unaware of contamination of an area with toxic materials.
Mercury exposure is not something to mess with, especially if you ever come into contact with children, or with people who may ever have children. Mercury should not be ingested in any form, in any amount. Even "less than a droplet."
If you want to risk a myriad of horrible ills, many to yourself but also including birth defects in your unborn offspring and those of others (and by now I am devoutly hoping you decide not to reproduce) then by all means ignore the dangers of this toxic yet ubiquitous substance.
Handling chemicals improperly is not valiant. It is stupid, and comes with criminal penalties if you endanger others through your idiocy and someone finds out.
By the way I wasn't calling you an idiot, but rather people who deliberately or carelessly mishandle chemicals.
Anyway I've said all I can really say on the subject. I'm out . . . argue amongst yourself . . .
;-D
BTW gallium arsenide is one of the main ingredients of LEDs sounds yummy doesn't it? The semiconductor industry has been an environmental nightmare at all phases but that is a topic for another time.
--"BTW gallium arsenide is one of the main ingredients of LEDs sounds yummy doesn't it?" gallium arsenide is indeed a carcinogen, but is used in infrared LEDs, not lamps for general illumination. White LEDs use gallium nitride. Also, any toxic or irritating materials used in LEDs are encased in epoxy, so they do not present a health hazard unless you're doing things you probably shouldn't be doing, like grinding electronics into a fine dust.
--regarding the health and safety risks of mercury in fluorescent and HID lamps, i think they are relatively minimal, but the serious problem arises with haphazard disposal of these lamps in landfills and incinerators. for example, i work in a facility that uses thousands of mercury lamps of various types. there may only be a few milligrams of mercury in each lamp, but let's say we do a group relamping project and change 500 32W T8 tubes at one time. we're (hypothetically) irresponsible with our disposal methods and just throw all the lamps into our trash compactor. we have just released approx. 7 grams of mercury into the environment, way over the OSHA exposure limit.
They are for sale at many hardware stores and at most big box contractor supply.
It's a thought.
M
Although this amagic technology has been found in 19th ,but to many people it is just miraculous happening. wireless power transmission can be found in mobile telephone ,electric toothbrushes, led flashlight and led bulbs.if you type "wireless power led lighting" in google,you'll find many wireless power led lighting,
TO this days ,we can find not only some mobile phones and electric toothbrushes,but also led lighting whichi's power supplied by wireless power ,yesterday I saw some power CREE led flashlight,and power led bulbs from http://www.wirelesspower-ledlighting.com/
it's really wonderful,
If you want to hide the blackened ends, spray paint them. You can create an "airbrush" graduation from fully-painted to fully-lit, without losing much of the light.
I have no idea where you got this from, most fixtures aren't grounded at all.
Before the grounding police comes, there are things to consider:
1) most fixtures won't be accessible from the ground, even if you touch them to replace a bulb, they're to be disconnected at that time anyway;
2) when a fixture is screwed to masonry, often the screws themselves are a good enough ground for the fixture if the fixture ever comes live.
3) grounded fixtures on damp environments often cause erratic electrical problems.
More important than grounding a ballast you'll hardly ever touch would be reinforcing the wire as it comes out of the concrete base. The sharp radius the wire can bend to will strain and break it. That is more likely to cause damage than the lack of grounding.
On most modern ones, you can get the thing to work anyway by connecting the
neutral and ground together, but the lamp will then not start as easily, and will burn out faster. I don't know why this is so, since the ground isn't supposed to carry current.
You can light these with HV RF with out contacting wires.
I m thinking that you could use one of those plasma ball exciters to do this.
All six of your "dead" tubes would light up just fine,
if not as brilliantly as a connected tube.
The phosphor with the tube only responds to short wave UV directly from the Hg vapor.
This short wave UV will not penetrate the glass.