Storing Lamps

Dustincoc

Active Member
This summer I've got a job fixing,cleaning, ect the schools lighting system. They want me to replace all the EHD's that are left with FLK's. I can't see throwing out about 20 good lamps so I need a way so store.
 
Wrap the old lamps in the new lamps' foam, and put them in the new lamp's boxes. Use a sharpie to mark VERY CLEARLY what they are, and that they are used. Make sure you redact any FLK on the boxes.
 
I wonder why they want FLK's and not something more efficient?
 
Whatever you do, make sure to put them somewhere else, or odds are in your "personal" inventory, because if they want to relamp with those, you don't want any chance of them getting back out.
 
This summer I've got a job fixing,cleaning, ect the schools lighting system. They want me to replace all the EHD's that are left with FLK's. I can't see throwing out about 20 good lamps so I need a way so store.
I wonder why they want FLK's and not something more efficient?
I have to agree with Lester here: Why FLKs? You will get much better output from the more efficient GLA (HX-605) or GLC (HX-604) with the more modern filament design. However, there are a bunch of thread dealing with this issue, and many insightful posts by Ship about the FLK/FEL style lamps vs the newer GLA/GLC and GLE/GLD lamps. You will pay a little more for the newer lamps, but in my opinion you get much better output from them.

As for the actual storage, just use the boxes the new lamps come in, as has been said. It is convenient, and less wasteful! Just go label crazy!
 
FLK's are what we've been buying for the past couple of years. Before that, it was EHG's and EHD's. All we have as leko-wise are 150ish 360Q's of varying age(mostly older ones, we have a few without the cooling fins), a few 360's that we never use in that space, and a couple of Times Square architectural zooms that also never get used. Cost is more of a consideration than lamp efficiency. If everything is lamped with FLK's the light output of all the units is close to the same. It's also easier know what wattage is being drawn by a unit.

A few yearas ago when we goat a new teacher, he asked why they bought so many 360Q's instead of a more modern fixture. They told him that is because they will do the job while costing less per unit.

I was planning on making them part of my "Personal inventory", as well as the Radial 360Q's(360?) which I've been told they never want to see again
 
Last edited:
That reminds me of something posted by len in the Wrapping vs. Tying cable thread:

A young couple are married. She cooks a ham for the first time. She cuts the ends off. The husband asks why she does it.
"Because that's the way my mom taught me."
So the husband asks mom.
"Because that's the way my mom taught me." was his mother-in-law's reply.
So the husband asks his grandmother-in-law.
"Because the ham was too big for the pan."

I guess I just see no real advantage with the FLK lamps. They may cost less per unit, but maybe they burn gel faster. I'm definitely not qualified to debate the reasons for not using an FLK, but I would think that the filament design of the GLA/C series would make better use of the ellipsoidal reflector design.

If you can get your hands on some old 360 (radial) and 360Q's they could be really useful. You can still buy most of the parts for both.
 
Why store them at all? Perhaps donate them to a deserving High School or Community Theatre in your area? Consider even freecycle.

The lamps all have been in use for at least 2-3 years at 10-12 shows per year. They have very limited life left in them. The tech dept. here at the school doesn't get along with the local HS all that well. Every summer they (used to) borrow our like-new wireless mics and every fall we'd get them back with all kinds of damage. They always told us that they were like that when the got them even though we'd used used them all for the last production of the year and they were still in perfect shape when we put them away after the production.

If you can get your hands on some old 360 (radial) and 360Q's they could be really useful. You can still buy most of the parts for both.

I know they can be useful. The 360Q's are our main leko. The 360's are the ones they want to get rid of.


Not using FLK's isn't really an option. I'm just being brought in to provide the labor and knowledge on how to restore lights that haven't been well treated or maintained in at least 10-15 years. We haven't even bench focused more than a handful of lights during that time. Due to the show schedule and a lack for staff, the most time we have between shows during the school year is 2-3 weeks. And getting students to even help with anything they're not required to is like pulling teeth. There has been more than one "there are no magical theatre elves" email sent out this year.
 
Last edited:
If in FLK something really cheap such as Wiko, perhaps on the FLK, otherwise the pricing between a GLA and FLK should by now be less than a dollar in difference but a world in efficiency and lamp life.

Agreed on re-marking the old lamp boxes as with making them marked “used” than perhaps somewhere on the box - clean with denatured alcohol before use.” The foam or otherwise packaging that comes with the new lamps I am sure Marius means.

The old lamps will be useful at times when say you don’t need full intensity but want to fight amber shift, or when in other situations you need more long life throw away and don’t need as much light. Segregate of course and secure.

On “Personal Inventory” this be it fixtures or lamps - make sure that your personally secured inventory is still one that while is entrusted to you to secure and does not leave without your knowledge, is not viewed as belonging to you. Tricky situation in owing gear verses being personally responsible for it. Difficult also not to view what nobody wants to see again as your own personal gear if it ain’t - just stuff you are securing for future use after that concept is forgotton or such gear is needed again either in another way or inspite of.

Side note on derekleffew’s - I just donated all my old theater’s lamps and those I bought to my local theater. I currently own no Lekos, had no real use for the lamps and in the future when I own more can afford to buy new lamps. Good thought if you are just saving these lamps because they still work but don’t really plan on using them in the near future. Don’t matter to the local theater - lamp life left, any money saved is money that goes into surviving. Donating the used lamps is a really good idea.

Hmm, been thru the don’t get along with concept - don’t function very well does it? I’m more for the new bridges constructed from anything from not getting along with Altman when I first got to work and now these days they are dependable to my first college not getting along with the local high school until I asked and stared the new relationship. Sometimes it’s a person to person type of thing.

Given school policy and teacher politics but details can be worked out be it from repair costs, to paid staff on-site to supervise the equipment to what ever is needed as detail to the extent that the school in question don’t get sound gear but lighting stuff is a different department. Again while fragile the relationship between say a student and those in charged in relations with other entities, general concept is that all support each other. You need a prop say they have, burnt bridges don’t get you that - professionalism or if necessary compartmentalization does.

Need some color of gel late on a rehearsal... who else in town might have it in stock?

Beyond that a college supports the area. Back when I was in high school we never saw or even knew of our town’s college theater yet we frequently saw presentations or borrowed stuff from other schools be it junior high school, community theater or other high school in our area. Your college is part of that kind of community area that serves more than just the local high school in all being in a broad sense or local to it. Heck, my company a few years after we moved still serves not just our once local high school but also its area high schools for an area we are no longer in.

I would say donate the lamps to a theater in your area that will find use for them - so they need to during pre-show perhaps change between lamps at times, still means a few less dollars per year they spend on lamps if using or able to cope with that sort of lamp.

On what you buy... I would say the GLA would be the most cost effective lamps. Even if just a dollar or two more, consider lamp life between a FLK and a GLA and you will average out to 5x the lamp life which is reflected in lamp price, much less lamp accuracy in the reflector.
 
At our school we put them in a box and once it fill sup
we break them and put the glass in a container and throw away the heatsink. That way it can be used for sound effects.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back