1955 Francis Searchlight - 400W Short Arc - Restomod

1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Hi folks!

Here is my second short arc build.
This project started with a Francis marine searchlight made in 1955. I did a rather extensive restoration and modification on the light. It's now a megathrower in a good looking package :thumbsup:
I first tried a 400 watt metal halide lamp in the light, but that is now replaced with a 350 watt modified UHP lamp (Ultra High Performance)

A few details:

-55 Million Candela
-Range: 14.8 Km/9.2 Miles - 0.25 Lux, or 7400 meters - 1 Lux
-19.000 lamp lumens
-200mm/7.9" custom parabolic reflector with Aluminium-Quartz coating from Phoenix Electroformed
-350W modified UHP lamp. 1 mm arc gap
-UHP Ballast
-40 and 60 mm cooling fans
-Borosilicate front glass
-Stand in laminated pine with Mahogany Sapele veneer

Started out like this:



And ended up like this:

You can read the thread for all the build updates, or click on the pictures/shortcuts below:


Starting the sanding:


Reflector mounting:



Air intake/cooling:



Lamp adjuster and air outlet:



Polishing and beamshot with the old MSR lamp:



The stand and install of the old lamp:



Picture of the finished light and some beamshots with the old lamp:


Beamshot with the current 350 W UHP lamp:


Installation of the 350 W UHP lamp and Lux readings:


Comparison with my other SA light:


If you are interested in a different type of short arc project, check out my 62 Million Candela 850W 14" Stock pot light

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Cool !!

Great job on cleaning up the light.

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Restore looking good so far

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Polished brass and bronze -- beautiful!

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Love that you know the history of it. Good luck on the restore......1955 my Birth year.

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Thanks guys!
___________________________________

The goal is to make a badass thrower, in a good looking package. I will try to keep the number of modifications on the housing down to a minimum.

Light was in decent condition when I got it. Almost no dents an no missing parts, just a couple of broken screws. But it had a couple of flaws. A long brass lip was brazed on under the light, as a shield for spill light. The lip was cut off when I got it, but I had to grind off the remains. But the biggest problem was the fact that someone had come up with the not so good idea to sandblast it (including the glass!) to remove paint. On a distance it appeared to have a nice patina, but close up the surface was like coarse sandpaper. Since I want it polished, I had to sand down the surface till all the pits was gone, and that took a while...





I used an angle grinder to remove the remains of the brass lip:



The sanding begins:



The small parts too:



I think the new reflector is an improvement over the old, no?





I won't be polishing the housing before I have fitted all the internal parts and tested it. So I left It with a 240 grit finish for now. I will go up to 400-600 grit before I finish it.
But I did polish some of the small parts, and it's looking pretty good:





Fun fact, the seller told me the history of the light, and I was able to find a picture of the actual boat it was installed on:



More to come.

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

That's awesome, thank you for sharing.
+1

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Have installed the reflector mount. It's a copy of the other light, but that worked great, so no need to change it. I cut the ring out of a 4 mm aluminum sheet with the jigsaw.
What I did change is how I mount it in the housing. To avoid drilling holes, I made these brass studs with threads in, and soldered them on. To get them in the right place, I used the reflector ring as a guide, bolted it on with threaded rod, and fired up the propane torch.







The white plastic strips, that I later pulled out, is to get a little space between reflector and ring for the silicone. No metal to metal contact give the reflector some room for thermal expansion.





The silicone bead is looking rough, but when it's fully dry, I will finish with another bead on top. The silicone is one-part, so I can't build up a too thick layer in one go.



I do have a setback though. I was not able to get the Philips 350 lamp for the price it was listed at. I can get elsewhere for like $295, but that's not going to happen.
So plan B is a MSR 400W SA. Should be straight forward with the ballast I have. Pretty much plug and play, but not quite the short arc I want. (3 mm) But is does produce 30.000 lumens, so that's a plus
Plan C is another 350W UHP lamp with 1.3 mm arc gap that I have. It's a China lamp, and it doesn't ignite/work at the moment. This is actually the second lamp. The first one I had, same model, another brand, exploded violently and set my carpet on fire... (first and last time I test short arc lamps indoors ) I'm not too keen to have another one pop in my new reflector, so there's that.
So I will continue the project with the 400w lamp for now. But I can promise one thing, I have not given up on the UHP lamps

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

:thumbsup: watching adamantly

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Setting the carpet on fire.........Yipes!!

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

sledhead said:

Setting the carpet on fire.........Yipes!!

Click to expand...

Oh yeah... 8 burn marks the size of coin from small pieces of scorching hot quartz glass. One spot catch fire just second after it blew. The burn marks was spread all over the carpet so that was completely ruined. One piece of glass melted itself stuck to a laptop, one piece burned holes through some papers. And there was glass dust on every horizontal surface in the room. Not to mention that all this cr*p was mercury infested :green: So lot's of airing out, then out with the carpet and a 3 hour cleanup and washdown.

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Thankfully only material casualties👍🔦

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

For this light to work, I had to cut a hole for a fan. There was no way around it. It's probably some Francis enthusiasts that wish bad things upon me for cutting up a vintage light, but I'll take my chances :wave:
To make up for the 'damage' this is what I did:



Cut a piece off a brass sheet, bent it to fit the profile of the housing and cut another hole. Soldered brass strips in place, then sanded the outside smooth.
For dust filter I use a #60 stainless mesh, and for the look, a #12 bronze mesh.
I have some brass mesh too, but I thought the bronze was better. It give a nice contrast, and it match the other bronze details on the light. Feel free to agree or disagree.
If anyone was wondering, this fan intake is _under_ the light, so you won't see it unless you look for it.
The screws will be replaced by old style slotted brass screws...









Now on to one of the fan outlets. I drilled a 22 mm hole in the front glass. But there is more to this than just the hole. I have a plan... But waiting on some other stuff, so stay tuned.
A comment about the glass. It's actually made for 3D printers, and I got it really cheap. Just pure luck one of the standard sizes was the correct diameter. Time will tell if it handle the heat...

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

For future cutting of glass using a diamond hole saw, mix some dish washing detergent with water, then place in an old plastic bottle that you punched a ball point pen into. Invert and allow to drip on your work piece.

I see you're using a piece of aluminum as a pilot. I've found that wood makes a better pilot holder as it doesn't transfer aluminum to the diamond.

Can't see what you're using as a backer, but particle board works well.

I'm impressed with your fabrication knowledge. Nice filter cover.

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Thanks and thanks for the tip! First time i'm drilling glass. I used the garden hose for cooling... The pilot was not aluminium, just a piece of pine. Backer was indeed particle board with some hard laminate stuff on top. I think a brand name is formica? Anyway, the drilling went surprisingly fast. Most likely a little bit too fast cause I got some chipping on the back. Look closely on the last pic and you may see it, but It will be covered anyway so no big deal.

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

I have had glass cut with waterjet before. I was not doing anything too complex, but it was pretty reasonably priced as long as I could wait on their schedule. Perfectly clean edges. You can have virtually any pattern cut.

Semiman

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

The original plan was to get custom/water cut glass made, but reasonable price in Norway is a relative term...
Paid $110 for 14" tempered glass for the other light, plus shipping. While custom made tempered glass is a two part process, it's also more common than borosilicate glass, so I think the price would have been similar for this. Anyhow, I stumbled across this 3d printer glass from China. $20 shipped, plus $5 for the diamond hole saw. On the other hand, only a good deal if it doesn't explode 30 seconds after the lamp is lit

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

PolarLi said:

The original plan was to get custom/water cut glass made, but reasonable price in Norway is a relative term...
Paid $110 for 14" tempered glass for the other light, plus shipping. While custom made tempered glass is a two part process, it's also more common than borosilicate glass, so I think the price would have been similar for this. Anyhow, I stumbled across this 3d printer glass from China. $20 shipped, plus $5 for the diamond hole saw. On the other hand, only a good deal if it doesn't explode 30 seconds after the lamp is lit

Click to expand...

I use this waterjet cutter company for other stuff and I have been dealing with him 15 years now and sent business his way. He gives me a break, as long as I don't screw up my CAD files in which case I get at least a verbal lashing.

That sounds really expensive for glass, even tempered. It does look quite thick though.

Solar panel glass, the better tempered grades, come in 4mm I believe. I am not sure if that would work? It is quite cheap for the size. Just have to make sure you get the smooth surface, as numerous surface textures are used to improve performance.

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

It's alive, it's alive! Finally got to fire it up for the first time tonight. Well, not quite. This was just a temp test, and the lamp you "see" is not the MSR lamp, but a GE A1 244, 500 watt halogen lamp.
It has the same base and light center as the MSR so I figured it was perfect to check if the glass and cooling system is able to keep up. And the good news is that I can probably run 1000 watt with this setup. Housing temp was only 10 celsius over ambient! I may slow down the fan, cause it does sound a little bit like a vacuum cleaner now
Edit; Yeah, I forgot to mention the most important thing: I did briefly test the MSR lamp too, and let's just say I won't be standing in front of it taking pictures (unless I want to fry the camera sensor)

Re: 1955 Francis Searchlight - 350W Short Arc - Restomod

Can't wait to see the MSR lamp installed and in action !