Yes, it should work with anything that presents a real load to the triac (in other words, something that draws enough current). Another neon lamp won't do it. Nor will a capacitor.
Try it with a regular light bulb and see what happens.
Yeah it works as it should. I plug the circuit into 120VAC and nothing lights. As soon as the 9v battery is connected the neon lamp lights, pretty damn bright. As soon as the 9volt is removed the neon lamp is totally out. I replaced the neon lamp with a light bulb and it works the same. The difference is the lightbulb "stand" is from an actual lamp so it has the twist nob you have to turn twice for the light bulb to go from on/off. Anyway to remove that?? at this point i am trying to figure out how to use both the light bulb and the neon lamp. When I have both plugged in the lamp is super dim but the neon lamp works fine.
Hmm, that's strange. You say the light bulb works OK by itself, but only lights dimly if you have both it and the neon lamp connected?
If you're going to use both the light bulb and the neon lamp, put them in parallel with each other (put the neon lamp across the bulb connections). And remove the resistor from the neon lamp; you don't need it if you have the light bulb as a load.
It sounds like you tried to connect the neon lamp + resistor in series with the light bulb. That won't work, as you discovered.
Damn your so right. I stupidly did not think of that. I had a hard time cutting a nice hole to mount that piece into. The damn twist knob on the side caused clearance issues when trying to mount the lightbulb. I have a peice that goes around the metal part that I could add, but I would have to make the whole bigger. I will look at it tonight when I get home
the polarized plus had the metal end that was wider than the other. That is ground correct? The other metal plug is a rectangle so I assumed that was the live one?
I have a plastic peice from the lamp that I took the assembly from its brown and goes on top of the light bulb assembly to cover all the metal. I did not use it beacuse it was brown, but since its not safe to keep it how I have it I will use it or find a white one. I used hot glue to hold the light buld assembly in place is that safe??
the polarized plus had the metal end that was wider than the other. That is ground correct? The other metal plug is a rectangle so I assumed that was the live one?
Yes, the wide prong is supposed to be the "neutral" conductor. NOT GROUND! I say "supposed" because 1) there's no guarantee that a particular outlet is wired correctly, and 2) people have been known to grind down polarized contacts to fit into non-polarized outlets (hell, I've even done that myself!). So never, never, never ASS-U-ME that either conductor is connected to any particular part of the circuit (hot, neutral or ground). In fact, you should assume that anything connected to an outlet is potentially hot. So don't leave any part of the circuit that's connected to the AC line exposed.
I have a plastic peice from the lamp that I took the assembly from its brown and goes on top of the light bulb assembly to cover all the metal. I did not use it beacuse it was brown, but since its not safe to keep it how I have it I will use it or find a white one.