By the way, if the parts are still in existance you still can get the
Colortran parts by way of theatrical supply or even your local electrical supply
house. I have
thru both types of source in the past gotten discontinued
colortran parts. Takes
leg work and not letting the sales person forget. Not simple but can be done. Since it's an in-line
switch however, and won't be a very unique and important part to be the same, I would just get one from another brand and save the
leg work for needing a
reflector or something similar.
IF you need the heavy duty walled/protected aluminum or plastic (depending upon which they still make - think it's the aluminum,)
Altman has the same switches for their studio
Fresnel series. Decent priced, bought some recently.
Strand would also. Lowel on the other
hand has a more light duty in-line
switch in use, it's a normal
Leviton or Eagle cable rocker
switch. Such switches if rated for a 1Kw load might be sufficient even if not protected with shields. 1Kw fixtures I consider on the boarderline of needing a heavy duty
switch as compared to the from 650 to 10Kw Studio
Fresnel range I normally deal with.
Could be some on E-Bay also as a theory... but that would take some searching to find "
switch" verses this specific "in-line
cord switch" as further scrolled
thru for a protected high amperage type - that is if anyone has them for sale. Often like in my case, production / rental places for 2Kw and less Studio Fresnels will get the in-line
switch with the
fixture and promptly remove it so as not to take the chance of such a
switch being switched off by accident when hung as if any other
fixture in the rig. IN other words, one tends to get bins full of them thus as a theory on listing them for sale - I don't but others might have the extra ones on E-Bay. Small part and market for them so such a thing probably is not listed on E-Bay but if you have time... Perhaps.
Otherwise places like
www.gear-source.com,
www.lightbroker.com,
www.lightmonger.com,
www.solarisnetwork.com,
www.usedintelligentlighting.com,
www.usedlighting.com, might by way of contacting the webmaster for any or each of the sites might have some about or a contact for some.
Are they missing from the fixtures or have the normal commercial grade switches inside gone bad?
Could also try around to some video/movie houses. An in-line
switch for anything under 2Kw is going to be about a standard 20A
switch, or perhaps a 20A shell with a 15A in it. None the less, as gear goes bad or what ever, a
stock pile of this still servicable part might be around. Barbizon also might be a good source for either the part or for movie production houses that might have a surplus.
Technilux also as a theater supplier (or just about any theater supplier that has a distributer account with them) would potentially be able to get a similar
cord switch thru their
house studio
Fresnel brand Dexel
http://www.dexel.com/.
This assuming that ARRI and Mole Richardson parts were too expensive. Lowel/Omni Lite,
Altman,
Strand/Bambino, amongst other brands of studio
fixture are on the market and all will have some form of 1Kw rated
cord switch available.
My recommendations on solving the problem:
First, it's less the accidential
switch off by way of
switch touching something, and more the accidential
stage hand touching something and forgetting about it. Most
Leviton/Eagle switches have a spring to the
switch which makes them not that easy to
switch off unless intended. While heavy duty switches are better, this is something to consider.
What I have started doing for the occasional show or photo shoot that requires a switched piece of gear is to make
switch adaptor jumpers. Instead of re-wiring a
fixture so it has a
switch, (any in-line
switch is a major pain in the rear to
wire) I just have short jumpers made up that can "taped connection"
plug into the
whip of a
fixture and now have that
switch installed. The adaptors/jumpers are what has the
switch, the
fixture is left alone so most shows not needing a
switch don't have their crew chiefs hacking up the
switch in attempting to
gaff it to the open position.
For such a need I just
stock the heavy duty 2K
switch on a cable,
plug it in and tape the plugged connection into the
cord.