Fixture refurb

Radman

Well-Known Member
At the theatre where I work we are stuck with old 360Q's and Strand Lekos that are all falling apart and missing peices, broken lenses, taped together, you name it. I want to refurbish them back to reasonable condition, as it looks like the chances of me winning the lottery are better than the chances of us getting new gear, and I'm not even old enough to buy a ticket!

Basically what I'm interested in is figuring out where to get the parts and peices I need, like the little knobs and the screws and lens retaining rings and such. The Strands are a undoubtedly discontinued. I at least want to get an idea of how much it would cost, too.
 
Above having dealer accounts with most manufacturers, I have daily if not more than daily orders for repair parts I send to McMaster Carr. www.mcmaster.com
They won't have lenses (but could probably get them) but will have the nuts and bolts solutions others cannot match. Graniger and others can also special order them. Much less a theater supply will have similar vendor accounts and both stock and can get parts in a similar way.

Hub from another posting will have antique parts and advice otherwise for stuff the manufacturers don't have. But also the manufacturers will more frequently than not stock even discontinued parts. You can still get incandescent lamp caps for the 360 series of radial fixture from them for instance. Either direct thru Altman or thru a dealer. They don't sell the casting any longer but even in this fixture, most other parts are standardized with the 360Q.

Dependant upon the era of fixture also, what seems similar in photo will be similar in parts. Major lighting for instance while out of business now and absorbed along with others by Hub, made most of the reflectors in use by other companies. Kupp made the lenses and they were during those days also standardized amomgst brands. The lenses in a 6x9 Altman are most likely the same as that in a Century Strand. There are some companies such as Edmund that specialize in and can still get lenses if otherwise not available also.

Start on the website and get both part number and description of the part. Than look around for the same parts if not just order those once you present the part number. Having a exploded pictoral file with part numbers of all the fixtures in your inventory is very useful in something you can point to.

Beyond this, many companies years since they went all ETC such as us will still have boxes upon boxes full of 360Q parts and especially extra lenses and lens trains. Such parts by way of a production company might not be advertised, but upon E-Mail to them especially the larger lighting companies, inquiring if they have any parts still in stock might prove cheaper parts than even E-Bay and other used gear websites might save you in parts.
 

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