Putty lamp on Ebay

[MattJ]

My putty lamp is on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Putty-lamp-re...ltDomain_3&hash=item3f05b34c88#ht_2375wt_1001

I've read the forum rules and there doesn't seem to be anything to forbid me doing this (as I'm not doing this as a business, just selling on a tool I've finished with), but apologies if this is verboten, please remove the post if that's the case.

Matt

 

[biffvernon]

Whoopee1 I've bid a tenner.

 

[TomW]

Wow! :shock: That's got to be the worlds most expensive one bar electric fire.

 

[robgil]

Whoopee1 I've bid a tenner.

Biff the idea is not to tell anyone.

 

[Penners]

Whoopee1 I've bid a tenner.

O-o-o-o-h no you haven't....! The current bid is £1. Cheapskate! :wink:

 

[biffvernon]

Whoopee1 I've bid a tenner.

O-o-o-o-h no you haven't....! The current bid is £1. Cheapskate! :wink:

Excuse me but:

Confirmation of your bid.

Dear biffv,
You're currently the highest bidder on the following eBay item:

Putty lamp, removes old putty during window restoration
Current price: £1.00
Your maximum bid: £10.01
View Item | Go to My eBay

If nobody else bids more than £10 I will win but they won't know that till they try.

 

[Penners]

Ah - so you've allowed eBay to run your bid up to £10. Maybe I should do Matt a favour and bid £9.

If it reaches £10, I promise I shall publicly withdraw my rebuke!

 

[worms]

Next Saturday at 14.23, this forum will be very quiet as we all bid £10.02!

 

[biffvernon]

Well, it went for over a hundred, which was more than I had in the piggy bank

Come on, own up, who got it and what did you pay

edit: £117 hmmm...ah well.

 

[worms]

Well, I was in there, but beaten! Way beyond my price!

Backto the DIY version!

 

[Penners]

That seems a hell of a lot of money for a single bar electric fire.

Wouldn't something like this (£35) work? (I'm braced to be shot down on the technicalities!):

 

[Feltwell]

I confess - it's me!

Yes, it is a lot, but it's a rare (unique possibly?) opportunity to get one second-hand and I reckon I'll get something close to what I paid for it when it's time to sell it on. I feel guilty saying that as it cost MattJ so much new - hope you got lots of use out of it Matt. I don't have anywhere near enough use to justify buying one new.

I'm guessing one of the primary differences between this and Penners' fire is that the putty lamp has a "curved reflector to focus the heat in a narrow line, so that old putty can be softened without heating the glass or burning the surrounding window frame" - whereas Penners' fire has a reflector that looks like it is designed to spread the heat out into the room rather than focus it in a line.

I suspect there must be other differences as well - Holkhams want £66.79 just for a spare bulb :shock: I sincerely hope for that price there is something special about it!

Mind you, they want £996.79 for the complete lamp :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: . At that price I could just get someone else to restore the windows!

 

[worms]

Well done! Hope it is useful!

 

[Penners]

one of the primary differences between this and Penners' fire is that the putty lamp has a "curved reflector to focus the heat in a narrow line, so that old putty can be softened without heating the glass or burning the surrounding window frame" - whereas Penners' fire has a reflector that looks like it is designed to spread the heat out into the room rather than focus it in a line.

I knew there must be something special about it. Nevertheless, £1000 seems to be a princely sum for a reshaped reflector - as compared with £35. :shock:

Surely there's more to it than that.

 

[biffvernon]

I think the more to it is that it's a lamp not a fire. A lamp that emits strongly in the infra red part of the spectrum that warms putty but to which glass is transparent.

Alternatively, both emit at the same wavelengths and someone's making a lot of money if they sell them.

 

[Moneypit]

.....but to which glass is transparent.

From experience, using one of these lamps is not without it's risks. I find it is necessary to provide protection to the glass or it can still crack. I cut a rectangle of cardboard and cover it in aluminium foil. As most of my putty removal is done with the sash layed flat it is very easy to reposition the shield as I move around the window.

Good luck with it, definitely worth £117.

 

[MdB]

I think the more to it is that it's a lamp not a fire. A lamp that emits strongly in the infra red part of the spectrum that warms putty but to which glass is transparent.

Alternatively, both emit at the same wavelengths and someone's making a lot of money if they sell them.

Very roughly, glass is transparent up to 2.5µm and then it absorbs.

A coil electric heater element will transmit roughly in the 1.5µm to 5µm band so a lot will be absorbed by the glass.

A normal light bulb is very roughly 0.5µm to 2µm so will pass through the glass (the bulb has a glass envelope so most output above 2.5µm will be blocked anyway). I would expect the putty lamp bulb to be similar.

 

[biffvernon]

+1

 

[Feltwell]

A good tip there Moneypit, thank you. MdB, thank you for the wavelength expanation.

I suspect that these are so expensive due to the manufacturer trying to recoup the R&D and patent costs on what is a very niche market, low volume product. The tube itself is clearly nothing that special as Holkhams sell them for £66, and no doubt they make a healthy mark-up - it is a "standard Philips IR-tube available worldwide" according to their website.

So what makes up the £930 difference between the tube and whole lamp assembly? I doubt if there are any electronics in the case that are that sophisticated. My suspicion is that putting it through Swedish SEMKO safety standards and patenting it in 11 countries (as Holkham's website says) doesn't come cheap, the manufacturer doesn's sell many as it's a very specialist product - so it's expensive, which drives the sales volume down further, so each one has to have a heavy mark-up, etc etc.

I did find the website for the chap who developed the product, however my Swedish is not that good.....

 

[MattJ]

Feltwell, well done. I did get plenty of use out of it, as I took over 80 panes of glass out of various windows with it before I refurbished them, and given the quotes I had for someone else to do that job, it more than paid for itself.

Now is anyone interested in a 3ft grate and pair of firedogs?

Matt