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Thomas safelight issues

ann

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Sep 10, 2002
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3,336
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35mm
Last night during class our safelight decided to act up. It wants to light up ,but just seems to flicker, and at last it just gave up.

Now this has been there a long time, and since i have never had an issue I am a bit lost as to how to determine if the blub just needs to be replaced. Any clues?

I will have someone look at it this morning when i go in for another class to check the wiring , however, my instinct says probably not that is it is never touched.

thanks for any tips.
 
My guess is that the bulb simply gave up the ghost. They last a long time, but not forever. If your school darkroom is anything like mine was, that thing has been burning for thousands of hours, if no tens of thousands. When we replaced the bulb in ours, it had a burned-out look to it, with some blackening near the end, but I'm not sure that is a direct diagnostic. I would guess that if nothing else has been done, it's probably the bulb.They are not cheap, but I've never seen anything that works as well for a large darkroom.
 
Hi Ann

sounds like the bulb gone, I would be interested where you get replacements as I have three of these units in my darkroom


Bob
 
Bulbs are available, ranging from $39-$99 depending on the source. The only other part would be the ballast and I believe they can be found as well.

Please note that the bulbs are "hazardous material" the sodium will react with water, see the attached that came with one of my bulbs:
 

Attachments

  • Low Pressure Sodium Bulbs.pdf
    369.3 KB · Views: 139
If you replace the bulb, check whether the unit remains "safe" - the filters can fade.

Rosco #19 "Fire" is your friend.
 
They are going to check later today, and i have been using google to see what we can find, had a nice note from one our members here and of course there is ebay, and they have several available.

Thanks to all for the support.
 
The bulb is a sox 35 type. Low pressure sodium. You have to push in and turn it a quarter turn to remove bulb. Reverse to install it. I've replaced mine in the past as the original bulb had a sodium leak that progressively darkened the inside of the outer glass with a black mirror like coating that was cutting off light. Philips makes one for about $35.
 
Try Freestyle photo in California they had Sodium vapor tubes the last time I checked or B&H in NYC they can ship overnight.
 
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