"Cheap & Simple (ish) Scratchbuilt Plasma Reactor" Topic

A neat little project for January, when you have absolutely NO spare cash… link

Very cool looking and a great idea.

Thanks for posting.

Cheers Pictors, hopefully the next one will go a little more smoothly and be a little less lopsided!

Very nicely done. Thanks for the idea.

Looks nice, but knowing how klutzy my friends and I are with gaming pieces I see that glass breaking by the second use.

We broke so many of those at our house. And when you read about the things, it sounds like there is a good bit of mercury in them. You are supposed to just about break out the hazmat suits.

Looks good, but I think I'll skip that one for now.

andy

Yeah, not sure about the risk of breakage, but I think at least in the EU they are supposed to be mercury free now. I managed to bust dead one taking it out of the lamp though the glass is reasonably thick.

Looks great, but the only thing I would have done different is to cut a hole in the lid for the base of the bulb to fit in.

An easy problem to solve.

Take one 1.5" juice bottle lid (has extra texture around it as a bonus)

Take one pop top juice or washing liquid lid.

Take some small hot glue sticks or large hot glue sticks.

Glue the small lid onto the large lid.
Glue a piece of card or another large lid to cover the opening of the large lid.

Melt the tips of 2 small hot glue sticks together then let set and trim.
Heat center of sticks and bend.

Glue 4 bent sticks onto the card/top large lid.

You have a safe light bulb.

Second build is up now, for those interested – this one went a little smoother! skinflintgames.wordpress.com/2018/01/26/terrain-talk-pt-4b-plasma-reactor-no-2-2-of-2

@H Man – neat idea, but my hot glue fu isn't up to it yet!

@Zephyr – ah yes, good idea!

@Ed – thanks man, give it a try yourself :-)

I checked out the mercury content and it's 1% of what as in the old thermometers you stuck in your mouth as a kid, so it's not too hazardous. Plus the glass is pretty tough – just need to be careful storing them, no dropping them in a box!

Fantastic second one! If you ever retrofit the first one, the bottle cap idea would be easier & better than the hole… ;-)

Looks good skinflint but as someone else said they may contain a small amount of mercury ? Apart from the fact that they are made with thinner glass when compared to normal bulbs so are more delicate. Just check before using, especially if they
kids or pets around.
Keep it up

Z

Cheers guys, @Zephyr1 – I may do that actually, Reactor 1 looks a bit on the wonky side :-/

@Zrunelord – they do, but the amount is tiny, no more than 4mg. I'm not sure the glass is thinner, it feels more sturdy to me, but in any case we're being extra careful storing them. Was wondering if coating them in superglue or PVA might make them any more shatterproof..

I'm not sure glue would do it. I think it best to find an alternative.

If you zigzag bend heaps of thin wire and glue in mass to form electric looking rods and bend it over, that may work and look cool when painted like electricity. If you drop them, who cares!