bulbs for a Rotary machine?

[coppinpr]

Can anyone tell me the best place to get bulbs for the rotary slot machine I'm currently working on? They are the type that look like a large fuse and I seem to remember were used on pintables in the 60s. Thanks, Paul.............

[slotalot]

Hi Paul , a photo of the required lamp or machine or lamp holder may help, plus the voltage if you know what it is, Regards Stuart.

[operator bell]

Those would be called "festoon bulbs". My German Bingolet is full of them. They come in 12V and 24V versions but most of them are 12V, as they were a popular bulb for interior lights on older cars. I'm unfamiliar with British suppliers but you should be able to find them easily enough.

[badpenny]

Ebay is bubbling with them and interestingly enough there now appears to be an LED version of the same thing.

[coppinpr]

Thanks all, I suddenly realised yesterday that they are indeed the same as car interior lights so went to Halfords and bought some. The old ones are marked 6.3w. Bike and some car ones are 5w. Most are 10w but the 10w don't seem to work. There are LED inc. some that change color but these are expensive so I bought normal just to see if they worked - they do.

[raj]

Watch out for using too high a wattage, 10 w will probably cause any plastic parts nearby to melt, especially in machines like the Bingolett which have little in the way of air flow around the bulbs. Also if there a number on all the time, twice as much current will flow around very old wiring and components and artwork than it was designed for which could create a fire risk

[treefrog]

I am by no means an expert in electrics, but assume that if you put a over spec'ed bulb in it would just not light as it would not have the right voltage, the issue presumably would be the other way round where an under spec'ed one will either blow or overheat

[raj]

Sorry, you are correct, I meant to say lower wattage, not higher...

[operator bell]

Valid point, since the plastic frames round the top lights on my Bingolet were all melted when I got it. But that was mostly due to the previous owner having shorted out the "show last result" switch, resulting in them staying on all the time and overheating. I replaced the plastic frames with cardboard ones. When I feel energetic I may replace the bulbs with cool-running LEDs and short the switch again, since it looks much nicer with the lights on.

[coppinpr]

Interestingly the 5w bulbs are not as bright as the 6.3w old bulbs and the 10w don't work at all. I'm guessing that means the machine runs on less than 12v. I can't find a plate telling me the voltage inside; anyone know? I guess I can put a tester across it. (This is me last time I used a tester on a 70s pinball and got it wrong! ) I'd be surprised if less than 12v, the drive motor gets those reels going at quite a lick now I've cleaned them up.

[operator bell]

Since you haven't told us what make and model of machine it is or showed us a picture, we can only guess.

You may be getting watts and volts confused here. 6.3 VOLTS (not watts) was a popular lamp voltage, since it was the standard heater voltage for vacuum tubes. Most 6.3V bayonet or screw-in pilot bulbs, as used in pinball machines and old radios, would have been in the region of 2 watts. If your 12 volt, 5 watt, bulbs are dimmer than your 6.3 volt bulbs, then the lamp voltage is probably 6 volts. There used to be 6V festoon bulbs, back in the 1950s and earlier when there were also cars with 6V batteries, but I don't know where you'd find them today.

[coppinpr]

just for interest here are a couple of photos of my rotary. one as is and one in dark,no flash to show new bulbs in action, please note,the lights only come on when the machine is running so i had to photo best i could, paul........