Enlarger Bulb/Electrical Help Needed

Hi all,
I've recently bought some new halogen globes for my LPL C7700 Colour Head Enlarger after much hunting around on the internet. What I REALLY need to replace, however, is the porcelain lamp holder which has more or less crumbled after many years of use. Locally and on ebay, I can find any number of sources rated up to 50 Watts, but the specific holder I'm looking for needs to be rated up to 100 Watts. I've found two sources in the UK, one being Maplin who don't ship to Australia, and the other is Rapid Electronics. It's a $1 item. Rapid Electronics sell only in quantities of five which is fine by me; I'd not order less for such a long trip overseas and I'm all about having back ups. After waiting a few weeks for them to have more than one in stock, I finally got my chance to order them this evening, however, upon typing in my postal address, I received the notification that postage is Twenty Eight Pounds! That brings my order up over the $50 (Australian) mark for five dollars worth of stock.

Does ANYONE know where I can buy a GX5.3 VJ11M Porcelain (Ceramic) Base? It is specifically rated for low voltages (12 Volts in this case) and up to 100 Watts.

I thought I'd found a supply, but they're the GU5.3 base which can only be used with the GU5.3 base bulbs.

My enlarger is out of commission until I can replace this one tiny, albeit VITAL part.

Ideas, help, bucket loads of sympathy are all very welcome at this stage.

Many thanks in advance for any of the above

LPL has a Japanese website that I think has a shopping cart, might be cheaper than UK?

Also it might be worth checking the suppliers of overhead projector equipment, a lot more overhead projectors were made than enlargers, and they use similar lamps, you might find that an OHP supplier has spare parts that fit?

Thank you so much for that suggestion. I found the website via another thread here on APUG ( http://www.lpl-web.co.jp/ ) and took a bit of a tour using Google Translate. I found my enlarger easily enough, but I'm thinking I'm going to need to rope my Japanese speaking/reading friend into helping me search for fiddly little, obscure bits.

http://www.khbphotografix.com/ in Canada sell LPL Enlargers and parts, but given their $59 postage charge for a $21 globe, I more or less stopped looking further into their site.

Thank you again for the Japanese web site and original part supplier ideas, I really appreciate your time.

G'day... I note their shipping carrier is DHL - a courier service. Ask them to price Royal Mail options which I am certain will be much cheaper. I recently bought from the UK, also something of little value & had my purchase shipped via Royal Mail. I used an untracked option saving heaps. Mind you, the delivery time was slower too... Fred

Dear Fred,

Thank you; great idea. So many people think that everything has to be had NOW and give shipping options to cater to that demand. I'll cheerfully wait months for something if it means I don't have to sell a kidney to pay for it

Thank you, Fred!

Agreed. I, for one, cannot afford to trade my remain kidney: it's the only one I've got! But then... If you just have to have what you want dealing spare parts for other spares might just be the way to go? It's 3 o'clock in the morning here at the Gold Coast! Hopefully you're busy with your photography rather than can't sleep? Fred

Daylight Saving Time down here; it's twenty past four!
I've been putting together photo albums full of prints for the past few hours. Thankfully the prints were finished up before my enlarger became totally unusable (especially now that I've pulled out the offending wiring!)

molli if you want I can buy the maplin item and ship it to you myself. just pm me if you want to go this route

Awww, you're a treasure! Especially considering that I'm fairly certain I owe you a print, so I'm already indebted to you! I was actually wondering if the shipping cost had anything to do with posting of electrical items? If that were the case, it would be expensive to ship for anyone, yes?
If the shipping can be brought down to a reasonable level and it wouldn't be putting you out, I would sincerely appreciate that and gladly take you up on your offer with a great deal of relief and gratitude. This is the item I'm looking at with the original intention of buying at least five of them (which fits in with their minimum order requirements anyway):

https://www.rapidonline.com/international-lamps-vj11m-gx5-3-porcelain-lamp-holder-23-4362

Obviously I would cover all costs and add in some extra in thanks for your time and efforts. THANK YOU!!! :-D

will see what the score is over the next couple of days& pm you when I know what's what

I thank you very, very much. Please know, however, that there is absolutely no rush now. Knowing that there may be light at the end of the tunnel (and it's not a flamethrower), I immediately stop feeling harassed and anxious about the whole thing So, please don't be going out of your way, just whenever, okay?

Thank you. You're very kind!

Have you tried Jaycar? I cannot remember if they carry these as a stock line, regardless I replaced mine in my DeVere enlarger earlier this year. From memory, it landed here from Mainland China for under $3.00.

A quick check of ebay au found this. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/S-4-X-MR...661671?hash=item543ef784e7:g:17UAAMXQTT9RsO0~

There are cheaper ones there, (this is in Hong Kong so they are middlemen) but this was the first that had the specs you require that I came across.

Mick.

Dear Molli,

How about this from ebay?

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

I personally wouldn't worry about it too much. The rating is for continuous use, but the enlarger is only on for short periods of time.

EDIT: This is not advice, just what I would do...


Steve.

Mick Fagan said:

Have you tried Jaycar? I cannot remember if they carry these as a stock line, regardless I replaced mine in my DeVere enlarger earlier this year. From memory, it landed here from Mainland China for under $3.00.

A quick check of ebay au found this. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/S-4-X-MR...661671?hash=item543ef784e7:g:17UAAMXQTT9RsO0~

There are cheaper ones there, (this is in Hong Kong so they are middlemen) but this was the first that had the specs you require that I came across.

Mick.

Click to expand...

We have a winner! Thank you, Mick. I dropped into Jaycar just before closing time this evening and, surprise, surprise, they had them. They were four times the price than those from China but when the world hears the sound of buzzing mosquitoes suddenly go silent and Australia goes dark across the entire south eastern coastline, well, that was me.....but I now have the comfort of a local gentleman I can go and have a little chat with to discuss the issue!

I do want to thank everyone who made suggestions and particularly pdeeh for so generously offering his time and efforts to post some over from the UK for me. I'm sincerely appreciative.

Of course, I came home all excited at the prospect of shorting out the entire neighbourhood's electrical supply and discovered that I can see no clear way to access the point where the leads join into the back of the enlarger.
Possibly, I shouldn't have spent all of my money on these things and spared some for coffee. Obviously the lack of caffeine in my household has rendered my brain entirely inert.

Anyway, I now have everything I need to get my enlarger up and running again, which is the most important thing.

Thank you again for everyone's help. I'm very grateful.

Great that you have found a stockist! For future reference, aren't these (or functionally equivalent) holders used in commercial lighting? It would be worth checking where the local electrical-contractors go to, for their non-domestic-related bits and pieces.

MartinP said:

Great that you have found a stockist! For future reference, aren't these (or functionally equivalent) holders used in commercial lighting? It would be worth checking where the local electrical-contractors go to, for their non-domestic-related bits and pieces.

Click to expand...

Hi Martin,
I checked all of the local specialty suppliers and the highest they were rated to was 50 Watts. As Steve mentioned above, the rating isn't as critical as I've been making it seem....but I didn't know that and I was (and still am, admittedly) rather wary of replacing anything in the enlarger which might damage it or change my standard exposure times significantly. I was given the enlarger and couldn't possibly afford to replace it if anything went wrong so possibly I was being overly cautious.
At any rate, I have new bulbs (one to replace the old one now, and three for backup) and new lamp holders (one to replace the old one now and three for back up), so hopefully I'm all set for some time to come while also being in a position to help out a local in an emergency if they find themselves in sudden need of either of these things