DON'T THROW OUT THAT LIGHT BULB !!!

[Frances Rhodes]

?!?  

That is not worth the health risk involved. When you break one of those open, there is vaporized mercury in there. That is (the catalyst?). That mercury is also pretty much embedded in all the coating. JUST DON'T DO IT. You should google about how both those systems work.

ETA: If you want something like that, look at your local hobby store for anything that glows. They have about 10 different blacklight reactive paint colors now... should be able to find at least blue, orange, and of course, green. Then you paint the inside of a plastic (clear, my favorite color!) tube and light the inside with the UV LED's. If you get the right stuff (I think the glow-in-the-dark glue should work awesome) it will shine a soft blue through until the material starts to react and REALLY glow. Just remember you want it translucent (maybe even transparent?).

yeah, that's what i thought...
i found UV ultrabright LEDs and transparent fluorescent (invisible) paint on the internet (red, orange, yellow, green and blue) but since the enclosure is already coloured in blue, i wondered if the glow would be bright enough for it to really "shine".
i guess i will also need an anti-UV coat to protect people's eyes from the UV light of the LEDs which is pretty bad for the retina
maybe i should try a bigger art store and ask there

thanks for the heads up though!

[GFR]

http://www.handmades.com.br/conteudo/projetos/pdfs/Bile%20Nervoso%201.0.pdf

from http://www.handmades.com.br/forum/index.php?topic=3466.0

A smps to power tube preamps or pedals, can give over 200V for the plates and 6V for the filaments from 9-30V, AC or DC. And the outputs are regulated!

The inductors are salvaged from light bulbs.

[chumbox]

i've been wanting to reuse the fluorescent powder inside old light bulbs and neon tubes with UV LEDs in translucent plastic cases
is it just me or somebody else had the same idea? and did anyone try?

?!?  

That is not worth the health risk involved. When you break one of those open, there is vaporized mercury in there. That is (the catalyst?). That mercury is also pretty much embedded in all the coating. JUST DON'T DO IT. You should google about how both those systems work.

ETA: If you want something like that, look at your local hobby store for anything that glows. They have about 10 different blacklight reactive paint colors now... should be able to find at least blue, orange, and of course, green. Then you paint the inside of a plastic (clear, my favorite color!) tube and light the inside with the UV LED's. If you get the right stuff (I think the glow-in-the-dark glue should work awesome) it will shine a soft blue through until the material starts to react and REALLY glow. Just remember you want it translucent (maybe even transparent?).

I read the Australian government view on this and you are absolutely right.  Opening one would expose a high but incredibly brief risk, however if you were to do this repeatedly for some reason then you should rethink the decision.  Not worth the risk, even for the sake of recycling.  Im pro environment but pro health first.

Seems like a great concept though and if nothing else stimulates excellent discussion about reuse of old parts.

[BoxOfSnoo]

I *finally* built something (the fluorescent fuzz) from about 4 of these bulbs.  I got a few 13003 transistors from about 3 bulbs, those worked the best.  Of course I ripped the legs off about 3 otherwise perfectly good transistors...

I reclaimed any wire I used from an old PC power supply.  I had to use new jacks, battery clip and resistors so it's not as awesome as I would have liked.  Oh well.  It sounds pretty good, if I do say so myself.  I did add a diode clipper at the output as well, just for kicks, it seems to add some extra something to the midrange.