OK, I wrote gooseneck light, but it doesn’t absolutely need to have that.
I fill a lot of bottles and it helps greatly if I can shine a hi intensity beam through the dark brown bottle to see the level. Yes, I know, the real answer is a bottling line, but I’m a small producer and I simple can’t afford one. I’ve been using a gooseneck light designed for use at a drill press or some such, having, oh, I don’t know, maybe 10 LEDs on the head, but it just doesn’t work as I had hoped. What I think would work is a one LED light with a tight intense beam and I’m thinking a very warm beam, as the bottles I’m using are brown, and I think that light color would best get through. The bluish light I’m presently using doesn’t appear to get through and back to my eyes efficiently.
It needs to be affordable and not be priced like a Hi-intensity lab light. Any ideas BLFers?
Home Brew? If you’re trying to fill the bottles equally maybe backlighting them is easier? Just guessing since I’m not sure what specific process you need to illuminate.
Hm, when I had something like that long ago, the goal was to have exactly the same volume contents, despite variations in the container.
So I used a clear glass measuring cylinder to get the right amount, and then poured the liquid into the containers (and a pipette to make filling the measuring cup precise, since it was lab work, no eyeballing allowed).
Is that the result you want?
As an alternative nowadays with cheap digital scales, you can put the empty container on a scale, zero it, and fill to the desired weight.
Or do you want the level to appear exactly the same in the neck of the bottle, regardless of variation in the bottle itself?
I didn’t want to get into product details. I make a product for retail sale so filling needs to be done rapidly for production. I have the bottles in a grid “holder” and move from one to the next to rapidly fill them. I know the minimum amount by eye, and I make sure that I overfill, again by eye. It’s all done by hand and by eye; I’m a small artisan producer and that’s what my customers expect. They were NOT happy when I moved to more modern packaging from what I’d been using, the former clearly was done by hand but it was just to time consuming. I’m not terribly concerned with overfilling a bottle. I just want to be able to stop before it runs out. I can’t see the level from above.
Hmm, taring out a scale for individual bottles wouldn’t be fast enough, but maybe I could put the grid bottle holder on a scale, then zero it out after each bottle. That might take little additional time; it could work.
Yes, I have been backlighting them. Sorry, I left that part out.
Light bar or fluorescent shop light on the table by the backstop. Should be bright enough for you to see most ales thru brown glass. With a diffuser you should still be able to see the rest of the room when you look away to switch cases. Or maybe light from below through a glass surface?
Not prying, just admiring. A friend and I used to do this on the side for fun and we turned down the chance to start a brew pub. One good recipe doesn’t spell success in our oversaturated market, plus here in CA by the time we finished all of the paperwork it wouldn’t be fun anymore.
This TB store sells a lot of interesting components for goose neck lamp. If you are unable to buy from them direct, perhaps eBay is another good place to source for similar products.
For DIY solution : TaoBao Link
Wow, that’s nice stuff!!
Only add a battery tube with tailswitch…
More nice bits in the link.
Pity my Chinese is a bit… non existent…
(sorry, off-topic…)
I don’t mind discussing it, I just don’t want to get kicked out for spamming. What I make can’t be taken internally. Well, technically it can be consumed, but it’s specifically designed to not be drinkable. An ale bottle is clear compared to what I’m filling. I made homebrew many years ago and had no problem seeing the level with ordinary room light. Alas, as I got older my prostate simply can’t handle beer anymore. I’m not going to go into details.
I’ll try that Ikea light; for $10 it’s worth a try.
Edit: So is that BG light.
Hank, I’m not specifically looking for a different method for filling bottles, but if I can’t find a better light for my use my mind is open to filling by weight. I’m not shutting down any ideas at this point. Daylight works great, but the sun doesn’t always shine when I’m filling bottles.
Great! It’s about getting the right amount of light where you need it. That long flex goose neck works great for getting task light into tight spots. I have several many years old that have been used a lot and the goose neck is still working as new. The switch contacts can get flakey but some contact cleaner takes care of it.
The spectrum is also yellower than my other light and that’s much better in a brown bottle. It beats a $1k hi intensity lab’ light. (or however much I saw them for, whatever it was, they were clearly not going to be purchased)
vape juice?
you might try an incan desklamp.
the oldschool one with a #93 bulb and the transformer in its base.
no point in generating blue that wont pass through the bottle.
