Looking for someone willing to give/sell any well used/dimmed 100 watt mercury lamps in medium or mogul base  There's something I love so much about dimmed used lamps but most of mine are still pretty bright or brand new, willing to pay price of shipping as well.

Member Tim (wide-lite 1000) has one. See here. Maybe you could try sending him a PM.

PM me your Zip Code and I can get you a shipping quote . I have no use for this thing ! : https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastcom&cat=12766&pos=0&pid=189296

 Lemme know when you're ready as I have to get you a new qoute as USPS shipping rates have changed .

There is a super-easy way to make a mercury lamp well used in a few days if you wish.  Just put it on a timeswitch and set it to run for a something like 15 seconds (or the minimum you can) before switching off and the re-starting.  This was cause extreme sputtering of the electrodes and blackening of the arc tube in almost the same mechanism as happens during life.  After a few days it will look as black as a lamp that has done many years of service!  This setup is used in the factories for checking the quality of the electrodes, and gives a result in a few days instead of the normal process of having to lifetest for many years.

There is a super-easy way to make a mercury lamp well used in a few days if you wish.  Just put it on a timeswitch and set it to run for a something like 15 seconds (or the minimum you can) before switching off and the re-starting.  This was cause extreme sputtering of the electrodes and blackening of the arc tube in almost the same mechanism as happens during life.  After a few days it will look as black as a lamp that has done many years of service!  This setup is used in the factories for checking the quality of the electrodes, and gives a result in a few days instead of the normal process of having to lifetest for many years.

Would this method work for (roughly) evaluating the expected life of a SOX lamp as well, without having to do a several-year life test? (Perhaps have a counter counting start-ups while short cycling the lamp?) I'd be curious to do a life test on those Chinese SOX lamps, but I don't want to wait several years for results! 

Interesting, this would be a good method to evaluate the quality of modern MV lamps too. You can probably rig up a simple control circuit with a self cycling time delay relay set to cycle power every 15 sec (I have a adjustable one that I use in a similar manner to flash my traffic beacons) and a counter used to count the number of cycles.

It would be interesting how this data extrapolates into a more typical life rating in terms of total hours @ 8 hours per start, etc.

Interesting, this would be a good method to evaluate the quality of modern MV lamps too. You can probably rig up a simple control circuit with a self cycling time delay relay set to cycle power every 15 sec (I have a adjustable one that I use in a similar manner to flash my traffic beacons) and a counter used to count the number of cycles.

It would be interesting how this data extrapolates into a more typical life rating in terms of total hours @ 8 hours per start, etc.

That would be really easy to set up with an Arduino + solid state relay.

Mythbusters did a similar test involving several different lamp types to test the affect of frequent switching on lamp life .

That would be really easy to set up with an Arduino + solid state relay.

The SSR would probably be a good option. Less clicking and no contacts to wear out. With some added parts, you could also add a display for a counter and have it run for a set number of cycles.