[photo-3d] Homemade viewer bulb

["John Goodman" <jgood@xxxxxxxx>]

Are any of you suffering with an Iloca slide viewer, whose bulb 
is awfully dim compared with the halogen bulbs that are so 
nice in Realist and other battery powered viewers? <smiles> 
(The screw-in halogens are too tall even with the lead contact 
and glass sprue pared way down.) I saw a neat trick that works 
brilliantly and was done for a Dukes 12X View-Master viewer 
light attachment. (Sorry if this is old hat.)

Crack away the glass envelope of a burned out screw-in 
halogen, and solder on one or two of the tiny halogen lamps 
used in AA twin-cell mini Mag-Lite flashlights. The lead wires 
have to be bent carefully or else the tiny glass envelope will 
spall away (possibly ruining the bulb). The screw-in halogen 
bulb filament posts are more robust than the ones in ordinary 
vacuum bulbs.

For a twin filament "Y" concoction, file the lead contact at the 
bottom of the screw-in base so that the left and right bulbs will 
wind up where you want. With care, the homemade bulb's 
base can be screwed in, then the two tiny halogen bulbs 
splayed down so that they will clear the cover and are nicely 
positioned when the reflector is put back. You'll then have 
dedicated left/right illumination that's a lot brighter than the 
factory setup, so whites look nicer.

I don't know the wattage of these "grain of wheat" bulbs, but a 
pair of NiCd "C" cells delivers plenty of current. Neither do I 
know their lifetime, but so far so good, and the slightly lower 
than alkaline battery voltage may help extend it.

jeg

 

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