I was at the scrap yard today and found a made in Austin Texas movie projector. I saw an episode about this projector on how it's made some years back. It was a $40,000 machine when it was new. Now it's smashed to hell and cost me $7. I'm going to try and harvest the 250w HID bulb, reflector with enough of the structure to support it and the bulb base with aiming platform and reflector, it also has the appropriate ballast, capacitor and starter for the bulb. See if I can make my self a 250w spot light out of it. Then if it works there are 3 or 4 more of these projectors at the scrap yard.
Alright so I harvested all the parts I needed went to apply power and nothing happened... The 250w bulb looks like it should be working, actually the bulb looks brand new. So I swapped out the capactor, nothing. So then I did what any reasonable person would do, I swapped in my 1,500w ballast from my UV water purifier experiment, while plugged into my 60amp welding circuit. I figure there would be 3 possible outcomes. It turns on. The bulb explodes. I accidentally invent a star trek phaser. I'm good with any of those 3 outcomes. Well it came on. That's pretty sad a $40,000 projector trashed for a $40 to $100 ballast. Too bad all these things are smashed to hell, because I could easy wire in a different type of ballast and they would be working again. Life is tough, it's tougher if you're stupid. As far as being a spot light it's not horrible. It projects about a 20° beam.
Sometimes, there's nothing better than wandering aimlessly around a scrapyard, looking for that next little gem. Pretty neat find, @oil pan 4. I enjoy reading about your little experiments, as a tinkerer myself.
