Stupid Cathode Question

[purdy]

Hey, I've never worked with cathodes before, so I don't know how they work. In my project, I am hoping to put cathode light tubes in smoke stacks as shown below and in my project thread. I want to know if it's possible to have the cathodes installed externally inside the smoke stacks and how I would go about doing that. If someone could help me with this or even give me other lighting suggestions for what to do that would be great. *Also please check out my Project thread!* Lol thanks. I'm out.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l206/purdy44/crappyconceptcrap.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l206/purdy44/crappyconceptcrap2.jpg

Best regards,
purdy (a.k.a. lone_wulf)

[MitaPi]

Place the cathodes in the smoke stacks and make a small hole for wire's? Would that work?

[Slug Toy]

if you have enough knowledge to get things wired up, and enough creativity to put something that is generally cylindrical in shape inside something else that is generally cylindrical in shape, you can do this.

another option is leds. use the super bright ones and you only need one or two per smokestack, and they use a lot less power.

[slaveofconvention]

If things are a lil tight, I've seen projects where the actual cathode tube has been removed from the protective tubing too - I don't know if it's particularly safe to do that, but it worked.... course, you lose the protection from breaking tho..

[Luke122]

Slug Toy's suggestion of LED's is a good one.. why not use a piece of acrylic rod, put in a couple of superbrights at the bottom, and frost the whole thing to make it glow?

This would also give a nice light at the top of the smokestack.

[purdy]

Hey thanks a lot guys, I didn't even consider using LED's before. I'm probably going to go with the acrylic rod idea you suggested Lukifer. And thank you for just suggesting LED's Slug Toy. Now, how would I attach the LED's to the acrylic rod, 'cause those rods aren't hollow. Would I just have to attach the lights to the bottom and facing upwards, or would I actually have to drill a hole into the bottom of the rod?

[Slug Toy]

Would I just have to attach the lights to the bottom and facing upwards, or would I actually have to drill a hole into the bottom of the rod?

either way will work. seems to me the covering on leds is made of plastic as well. you can probably glue them on the bottom. you can also drill into the rod and glue it in there too.

check out defyant's hp res 3 mega. i think he actually ground down some leds to the bare minimum amount of plastic, and stuck it into some frosted sheets of acrylic. thats a good way to do it.


I've seen projects where the actual cathode tube has been removed from the protective tubing too

well, you CAN do it if you know what you're doing. cathodes are usually encased in glass though, and they will shatter if you arent careful. my brother's blue cathode blew up because he put a little too much voltage through it (by a little too much i mean he hooked it up to his 6000 volt jacobs ladder). anyways, it sounds like something id do for the sake of doing it, but you have to be careful.

[purdy]

Yeah, I'll definitely check that out, only thing though; can you post the link to it? Lol, thanks.