I won, I won. G.E. #5 bulbs (on Ebay)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009


Uh, no Katie.  The correct term is actually: "purchased."  

I'm taking one for the team here and trying out these old school G.E. #5 flash bulbs.   I won them on ebay today.  The box contains 12 and with shipping came to $15.00.  It's going to be a sad day if my screen gets ruined but I couldn't find anyone who had actually done this test yet.  I know it might not seem to make a lot of sense to try some old bulbs that are probably harder to come by than the Riso bulbs.  I was thinking that G.E. might find a way to resurrect these from the dead if there is enough interest.  New petition anyone? I'll let everyone know how it goes as soon as I try them.  

I apologize if I ever "give away" anyone's Gocco secrets.  I really think the more information we have to work with, the better the chance that a non-Riso supplier will come along.  

For an update on how these worked, see this post. 
 

11 comments:

Kate said...

Oh exciting, hope they work!!
Thanks for your comment at my blog, good luck with the campaign! The patch workshop idea sounds super, fingers crossed!!

Liz Plummer said...

I think someone over on the Flickr Gocco group said she had used these because they came with her machine... and they worked fine. Good luck with yours!

Miche said...

Any news? I am thinking of bidding on a bunch of these (well, the box looks different, but they are also GE #5 bulbs) on eBay and would love another datapoint before I do so!

Art Wall Katie said...

They arrived the day before I left on vacation (which I am currently on) I will be sure to update when I get back home and try them out!

kathbot said...

Enjoy your vacation - I look forward to your results when you come back and get to play Gocco!

azurerocket said...

Oh, that last comment was me. I couldn't tell which account I was signed into.

Robert Roehm said...

I don't know if they have the same thermal output as the Riso bulbs. The manual conveniently leaves out the technical thermal details - it could be 15000 degrees at .25 seconds, I'm not sure. The magnesium wool in the bulbs could be shaved finer to produce a hotter, more brief output to cause black ink on the master copy to burn off openings in the screen. Ordinary flash bulbs are not designed to put out heat, just white light, just enough to expose photo film cleanly. GE #5s might not get that hot enough as genuine Riso bulbs. With those, you might need to run the flash twice - that can be expensive.

By the way, I lucked out on this thing, seeing that someone tossed a B6 unit out into the trash - It was a complete kit, with only very little black and blue ink used, and 5 screens, with 14 bulbs. Such a criminal act!

I checked it out, with two bulbs, it works, a big bright, warm flash. 12 bulbs left. Haven't done anything with it yet - I will take it to a furry artist house party next month and see if anyone can draw something that would work with it. Bearing that in mind, what is the thinnest black Copic marker that can be used with this? I know it has to be an ink that absorbs and produces sufficient heat to mold the print screen. I didn't want to experiment, wasting all the bulbs. I know there can be a high-tech replacement using xenon flash bulbs, they heat up the air enough when fired with a strong current. (I've actually burned the coating off a few floppy discs and cassette tapes with the flash from a disposable camera - so this idea works, it can be put to use with Gocco.)

Hope to hear from you guys soon.

Art Wall Katie said...

Hi Robert. Congrats on your dumpster dive. Let me know how your experiments go with the disposable camera flash. Here's a post that links to a flickr image of different pens that work with Gocco: http://savegocco.blogspot.com/2009/03/tips-and-tricks-non-riso-pens.html

Tram said...

Hi! I kept meaning to come back to this to post a comment, and now it's 6 months later... Just letting you know that I've also used the mini bulbs (M3 and M5 bulbs) with a flashbulb adapter. This also worked really well. Since it's been so long, I wouldn't be surprised if you already figured this out.

Anonymous said...

it is helpufl tram, just where did you find the adapter?

Art Wall Katie said...

Hi there. I'm not sure what you mean by "tram" The bulbs didn't need an adapter.

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