Tony,
I am using new T8 ballast and new T8. The grounding did the trick along with something really bizzare that I don't quite understand.
First, I tried it with everything cobbled together on the bench / grounds were half baked and no reflecters behind the tubes - results are described above.
Then I mounted them up where they belonged and hardwired everything in and installed conduit between the fixtures and bonded a ground on the ballast mount and through the conduit to the other fixture. This made a huge difference in light. Then when I finished cleaning up the reflectors I pulled the tubes and installed them and I noticed something really wierd. If you put sheetmetal near the tubes, the light evens out and is uniform from end to end. If you pull the sheet metal away, the light is focused on the ends of the tubes and the middle of the tube starts to flicker a little and isn't nearly as bright? :confused:
The end sockets have two slots for mounting to place the tubes far away from the reflector or clost to it. The T8 tubes are quite a bit smaller in diameter so I moved all the sockets to the furthest recessed position to pull the tubes closer to the metal reflector. Now the tubes burn bright along the whole length and look great.
