Nice that you finally are able to open up the MK2 SL's

good idea, maybe this technic could be used to open MK3 SL .

I have some to clean but I'm afraid to open them

I've tried it now with the one with the yellowed base and here a tiny crack in the plastic developed. I think its still very risky to open them.
I also think the MK3 have a thinner glass so maybe more risky then with the MK2...

That looks like a tough job, glad the perseverence paid off and you could restore this! I have tried to open SL Mk2 before, but could only do it by splitting the base in two along the ultrasonic weld line and then glue it back together again.

I managed to open an Mk3 but I had to make two small cuts in the plastic base as on the Mk1 to get out the glass.

then I stuffed the cuts with white silicone.

the result is clean enough.

I'm far too scared to try that with any of mine..!

Were you able to open the lamp with simple wooden sticks without breaking it? Remarkable! I've never succeeded, so I've always had to sacrifice the external glass or the base!

Yep. Wooden sticks and some old plastic cards. But I am sure I had luck that the nothing broke. I think it is still quite risky to open them. Why must only this brown stuff develope inside - Argh.

Oh YES!! Been there and done this! Spent days at it with thin stainless steel shims and all manner of other little things to poke in there. But since I had about six lamps, eventually I just sacrificed one.

I tried submerging a whole lamp in ethanol, it washed most of the brown goo out but also took all the insulation out of the choke and shorted the turns...and it was bloody difficult to get all the ethanol back out and it was never really clean like you'd get with proper cloth wiping. It also dissolved much of the white paint off the choke too and spread it about inside as a white drossy mist on everything.

In the end I cut the white plastic cowl on one...I think I just melted slots in it with the soldering iron. On another, I broke the glass "jar"...and supprisingly difficult it was too. I braced it in the vice and hit it a few times with the side of the bull-nose pliers....but I was afraid of damaging the tube inside so I heated it with the MAPP gas torch and sprayed water on the hot area...that did it.


So I took the jar off the one I melted open with the soldering iron and after cleaning put it back on the one I broke the jar off with the MAPP gas torch.

I really "take my hat off to you" in working this wonder on a single lamp.

The ones I had/have are the Polish 25w ones which are slightly longer and narrower and the end is more rounded.

The one depicted here will stand on its flat end, but mine won't, their ends are just too rounded. I still have enough of them to do the stunt again, but I choose just to keep them with the ugly brown drops inside.

The one I melted with the soldering iron was the one I had filled with ethanol before.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough of these to sacrifice one, I'll have to try and get a few more before I deliberately break one