I'm making up some LED replacements for the old car. Can't find ready made ones suitable - so I'm using the SBC base from an old bulb. Any tips on removing the glass other than by breaking it? Sometimes the glue gives way and it comes out complete - but never when you want it to. ;-)
Hi Dave
Gentle application of heat, maybe? ISTR that some of the ones I'd played with had a heat-setting glue holding the bulb in place...
Adrian
bonnet lights. The existing are 4 watt tungsten, so pathetic.
dip it in Hydrofluoric ??
or more to the serious point, what chemical will attack and weaken the cement? brick acid?
Surely, surely, surely, this is a job for an angle grinder?
Colin Bignell
Install the light bulb somewhere inaccessible, one where you can only reach the bulb with the tips of two fingers (just). Now try and remove bulb intact. It will now fall apart, or at least it usually does in my hands. ;-)
Tim
best I can suggest is application of pressure on the base using a vice. Squeeze, release, twist, squeeze, release, twist
repeat until the glass breaks anyway.
ultraleds.co.uk
I'd be surprised if they didn't have something
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Gently compress the body with the curved toothy bit of a pair of pliers moving round bit by bit IYSWIM , i.e. breaking the metal-glue seal
Usually works if you're gentle
Make sure you remove all the solder from the base contacts and ensure the wires are completely free.
It will make it much easier to remove the bulb intact when you manage to break the glue seal. Just a thought - the glue has to be heat resistant but what happens if you soak it in water? Or even try boiling it!
Thing is it's the metal cap I want intact - not the glass. Breaking the glass leaves bits inside the cap - and the glue that holds it there. You can't be too brutal with removing that as you can damage the separate glass bit at the bottom of the cap fuse to insulate the contact.
It's rather a specialised application. Most of those sort of LEDs are designed just to replace the existing tungsten. I want something much brighter - but the lamp housing wouldn't stand a larger tungsten.
Excellent !
IIRC an overnight soak in meths does the job. I might not RC though.
NT
It might be worth posting this question to candlepowerforums. There's loads of information on modding stuff using LEDs. Personally I'd be looking to use Cree XML's rather than the Luxeons. Do you really need to use the existing mount? Where are you planning to put the LED driver(s)?
I think the ones I have may well be Cree - they are star 1 watt types. Have had them for some time. I was originally intending using a driver I had lying around - which would drive the two in series. Hence trying to simplify things by making them plug in to the housings. But I've found some low cost and small (PCB only) drivers designed to fit inside a MR16 bulb - so 12 volt input. Which I reckon I can fit inside the housing. So I'll not need to use the SBC cap.
The driver is Ebay Item Number 150575654906. It's meant for 3 LEDs, but seems to drive the single 1 watt one ok. At 350mA. Left it on soak all night with a 14v input.
As I understand it giving the LED's too much voltage, which is probably what you're doing by only using 1, isn't too much of a problem. It's too much current that kills them. You driver is described as 12v but it doesn't say if that's input or output voltage, either way, if it works it will probably continue working.
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