For beautiful mood lighting, just combine off-the-shelf parts -- and add mineral oil
Posted 03.16.2009 at 10:03 am
20 Comments
Bubble Light Parts: Luis Bruno and Paul Wootton
Decide what length of electrical cord and air tubing you want. Cut to appropriate length.
Wire the male plug onto the end of your cord.
Open the housing [A] of the vapor fixture. You should find two screws near the light socket on the upper part of the fixture. You will find the upper part (cap) and the base on which the light socket is mounted. Drill a hole in the base, through which you will run the air tube.
Screw the strain relief [B] to the cap, where you will find a threaded opening at the top.
Run both the air tube [C] and the electrical cord through the strain relief. Tie the electrical cord in a simple box knot -- this will ensure that no strain is placed directly on the connection between the socket leads and cable when the lamp is hung.
Strip the ends of the wires back and connect to the leads with wire nuts.
Feed the air tube through the new hole, again, leaving about 8 inches below the base.
Screw the base back to the cap. When doing this, you should ground the fixture by taking the green ground lead and twisting it around one of the screws that connects the cap to the base.
When you have reconnected the cap to the base, gently tighten down the strain relief via the nut on the strain relief. Don't tighten too much or you will squeeze the air tube.
Screw the bulb of your choice into the socket.
Fill the glass globe [D] about one-third full with mineral oil. Remember that the light bulb will displace the mineral oil, so you don't want too much. Even though the rubber seals work fairly well, if you overfill, a little mineral oil will seep out. For this reason, when you have the whole assembly completed, you want to keep the fixture upright and not on its side.
Screw the globe to the base, and then the aluminum grill [E].
Attach the air tube to the pump [F], plug the pump and the light in and, presto: bubble light!
You can hang it anywhere -- a reflective surface such as a white wall picks up the reflections nicely. To hang, we generally use a quarter-inch eye bolt mounted in the ceiling with a toggler, though of course the method of hanging depends on what you plan to hang it from.
If you choose, you can put a switch or dimmer in line for the light. Do not put a dimmer on the air pump line, as this will burn out the pump.
Enjoy!
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This is just wild and wonderful! Do you use an ordinary light bulb?
Will a CFL work?
Also, what is the run time on this? Can a 50W bulb work the same as well?
is it possible to get a detailed list with part numbers for every item? some are listed here but its a bit vague in places...
@ unknown element)
www.mcmaster.com
LIGHT FIXTURE 14915K55 35.24
18AWG SJOOW 7422K21 0.59/ft.
3 PRONG PLUG 7196K31 7.03
CORD GRIP 69915K63 3.64
WIRE NUTS 7108K31 3.01/14
MINERAL OIL 3190K291 11.98/PINT
COLORED BULB (BUYLIGHTING.COM) 1.55
We've run the 25w bulb for upto 24 hours continuously - no problem. The only issue with higher wattages would be heat but my educated guess is that the mineral oil will keep it cool enough. I'll run a test at higher wattage and post my findings.
The unit will work with any lamp with an E-26 socket (medium base edison).
As far as parts cory25 has got it. I will add that there is some room for variance in exactly what parts you use - for example, there are different vapor fixtures on the market - the important thing is that you get a good seal so the oil doesn't leak - that is messy and slippery. I would not recommend using any other substance than mineral oil unless you are 100% sure it is dielectric. With the possible exception of the mineral oil, most of this stuff could be found at your local hardware store.
We are still experimenting with this and if any one else experiments with this idea, we'd be curious to hear the results
This may mean nothing to most people, but I can't stop staring at the tape on the right holding up the fake 'industrial' wall in the background of the photo. They couldn't crop it, really?
FYI I dunno if I did something wrong, but the 14915K55 fixture is aluminum, not black. big difference, I think that is why pop sci lists a different site..
did you guys paint yours black or what? what kind of paint would stand up to the heat of the bulb and all?
what does the 1/2'' versus 3/4'' hub refer to?
Did anyone ever test this with a higher wattage bulb or a CFL? We have an application that wouldn't work with less than 60 watts of light output...
This was my first product which I built from pop sci. It came out great!! Love it.
If you think this project is cool, check this out.
www.WineClockDisplay.com
Just got finished building one and it looks great. I used mineral oil from the drugstore and after the bubbler has run for a few minutes, lots of tiny bubbles remain suspended in the solution. Is there a certain weight of mineral oil that will minimize the number of residual bubbles?
Did anyone ever test this with a higher wattage bulb or a CFL? We have an application that wouldn't work with less than 60 watts of light output...
http://www.hedefnakliyat.com
Just finished building one for my son's room. He doesn't really appreciate it though, so might have to steal it back!
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I've built 2 of these using cfl's. It works just fine however, it is brighter than the 25w incon. light. It put me back about $110 for both ($60 each). The hard part is locating all the parts. The mineral oil is sold in most local grocery stores in the pharmacy area, heavy oil works fine. I got a double output pump from walmart $10 and local hardware store has the 18 sjoow wire. As for the higher output bulbs use a large gauge cable do to the power factor. Larger bulb consumes more power. 14-16 will work. It will put a lot more heat off!
Great project Thanks!
Monty
This would be a great family project. There is nothing better than families doing in together to complete an activity that will be a pride a joy in the family home .Very cool. Unusual home lighting will always be a reminder of that project and your friends will help by using it a discussion point.
Greg
www.litecraft.co.uk
Well, As far as parts cory25 has got it. I will add that there is some room for variance in exactly what parts you use - for example, there are different vapor fixtures on the market - the important thing is that you get a good seal so the oil doesn't leak - that is messy and slippery. I would not recommend using any other substance than mineral oil unless you are 100% sure it is dielectric. With the possible exception of the mineral oil, most of this stuff could be found at your local hardware store.
Speaking for myself, I never asked for plastic anything. Manufacturers did this to save a buck, not because anyone necessarily liked it. Generally, I have found that many things that used to be made from metal which are now plastic is cheaper, but inferior in quality. Plastic also contains chemicals that have been suspected of leaching into our food. I would welcome its demise.
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What a cute and great project to do with the family. I wonder if you could include scented oil in the mix or color to create a range of lamps. I am thinking like a rainbow of colors. This would be absolutely delightful for special moments.
www.ldj-lights.co.uk
I’ve been thrown into so many situations where I had to develop a solution on the fly working off another developers code—so I can certainly relate to the tedious yet thrilling feeling of getting things patched up just in time.
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