I should take a photo of the wall. Right now it's only about 4'x4' and totally full, with bad cables wrapping around between each of the mounted items. Than I have two more somewhat large boxes marked "scary things" to add to more sections of the wall. But it's going to be a while until I get back to doing such things. I'm kind of waiting until the shop moves, and I'm given my own repair room instead of the very public area I took over and expanded from near the lunch room. At the moment, I'm not allowed to install them because it's a high traffic area for guests. Wouldn't want some big LD to see the "Wall of Shame" and connect it to anything that could be coming from our use even if a lot of it has. We do have things mounted such as boards showing how to tie various knots or how to
wire a slip
plug that would be universally usefull in all school tech rooms. One might consider doing a proper way to do this board besides a wall of shame.
I have noticed that some of those bad but really colorful bulbs loose their color with time unfortunately. But the ones and I agree especially
cyc type lamps that have balooned to over double their normal size will never get smaller. I have things from a 1926 30amp
plug and
socket where the
plug is basically a hollow wooden handle with two steel plates screwed to it and the
socket is
porcelain and huge. Very dangerous and exposed to stray fingers. To the first vapor seal with a twist
plug in weather tight boot I ever experienced. Total melt down of the
plug as I kept twisting but it would not pull loose while live. Believe I have 4 or 5 different sizes of
Stage Pin plug and lots of interesting lamps. Than things like my education in balancing your load... a double pole 100amp
circuit breaker with half of it completely melted down, an it still being in the on position.
Zip cord that has become brittle enough to expose
wire when folded, lamps with those finger prints, lamps with nice shades of purple or silver, lamps with the
filament balooning out of the glass and totally encased inside the quartz
etc. Another cool thing is a
wire nut that was touching a
wire with an exposed
conductor. The
wire actually melted
thru the
wire nut, and became encased within it, than shorted out the
circuit.
In other words, it's never too soon to start a collection of your own cool or scary stuff. Eventually you will get to a place that you can display it proudly. I'm sure this site will eventually also have something like a photomorgue of shame eventually too.
On a side note, some young college pup came up to me today with a CYX 2,000w lamp that had it's tip broken off but
filament still good. Asked me what to do with it and if it was okay. I told him to put it back into the
Fresnel and turn it on to see if it still worked. But alas, I did stop him a few moments later on his way to do so and explained that such a lamp could very possibly explode and he would be cleaning glass out of the
fixture for hours. It was a compitent pup and I didn't want him to waste his time. Other tech people would be fair game. I'm one of those TD types that gets to do what I want for the most part without being questioned about it. Life is good. If I want to demonstrate how a
HPL lamp when thrown up against a wall won't have the "POP" of a old TV tube, I get to do so without fear of being yelled at. Besided the
fixture was going out on the 311 tour and they were already pressed for time in getting all the gear out the door this afternoon. Prepping those 2Kw Fresnels took enough time with cleaning corroded lamp
base pins and all.
I have a method or two that works really well for cleaning the contacts and lamp bases on equipment that's charred much less welded or going bad especially on
cyc lights and movie type high Wattage Fresnels if anyone is interested later. Works on lamps of up to 5,000 Watts in heat but isn't always worth it for lamps of under and including 575 Watts.
Many times it's a forgotten thing to do and much more important than just remarking on the lamps with finger pints on them. With such lamps, they can last an hour or many productions. Just depends upon where the finger print is and the heat involved. Lamp with part of it's
filament hanger broken off but the lamp seems to be okay many times will live up to almost full life and there is no real reason to replace it. If you are in a low budget theater, and the lamp doesn't look that bad, just a
bit finger printed or a touch silvering, in many cases it might be worth it to leave the lamp in given you don't know how long it really will last before it's really going to need to be replaced. Tag the
fixture for constant observation instead of replacing the lamp. Lamp bases and contacts are mouch more time consuming to replace, much less will be a constant source for lamp replacement costs.
At a start I would recommend that when ever you pull a lamp look really good at it's pins or contacts. What do they look like, is it still in like new condition, is there any charring or pitting, much less welding going on? Take a flash light and if possible an inspection mirror and examine the contacts of the lamp
base, does it look good?
Here is why. If you put a bad lamp due to carbon buildup or pitting into another
fixture with a good
base, it's going to destroy that good lamp
base to mach than superseed the damage already on the used lamp you are installing. If you put a new lamp into a
fixture with a bad
base, it's going to destroy the contacts of the new lamp just like it did to the old one. The more resistance to conductance, the higher the heat at the lamp
base will be. Given a high enough wattage, it can be sufficient to actually weld the lamp
base to the lamp
base. Had a
RSC lamp type
cyc light just yesterday where most of the lamp came out of it, but it left behind it's lamp
base contact on one side still attached to the pin. Guess which side. Much of the time, especially on
cyc lights or
RSC type fixtures including Quartz work lights you see at Menards, the springs retaining the lamp become loose with age and this adds to the resistance to a good
circuit. But there is much more.
Where I work, we take a lot more time now than we used to in prepping equipment, but the fixtures we prep and repair - (in the thousands owned), also are less in need of lamp or lamp
base replacements because of it. Now a days, such fixtures are really ensured of working and wear out needing major repairs a lot less due to some preventative maintinence and more care with them than just visually inspecting them and turning them on. A
bit care with them in real maintinence saves a lot of money in replacing stuff. Isn't worth it for most standard
Leko fixtures, but especially for
cyc lights with contacts that are spring mounted, and other high wattage fixtrures, it's worth some extra time with them.
Things like every few years especially on a
cyc light, you should open up the
fixture and examine the wiring in general and especially that section leading to the lamp bases. Many times that
insulation on the
wire will have long before melted away for the first few inches away from the lamp
base. There is a lot of 200c silicone heat
wire out there feeding the lamp
base on
cyc lights that will have melted away as opposed to silicone, fiberglass braded heat
wire that will also melt some and become brittle at times, but still
cover the conductors. Lots of ways to fix this and other things in my experiences with high temperature re-wiring on fixtures. Now I buy a 250c heat
wire for all around usage even if a little less flexable - as long as it takes the heat. Even have a 450c heat
wire on the Peter Gabriel tour right now to see how it holds up to abuse in a 5,200
Watt 8-Light Mole Light type
fixture.
Another thing to look for is shop repairs to equipment using materials that you could find at a hardware store such as
crimp terminals or
wire nuts that are made of nylon, vinyl or
PVC. All of these electrical connectors work fine on lamps under 100 Watts, but once you get higher in temperature, all fail at about 190 degrees F - or 150 Watts. All these connectors are also rated for the same temperature. Had a ME at the shop that was convinced that Nylon was rated for a higher temperature and it was thus used for almost all high temperature applications. I now have equipment to re-wire in the hundreds that all have the same problem. Yes at a high temperature things like a nylon
butt splice won't melt down, but it will become brittle. Move about the
fixture or touch that splice and it's
insulation falls off. Look at the wiring or sleeving to it also. Does it have cuts or rips in it, conductors exposed or abrazed? At times some glue will repair a fiberglass
insulator, but is it time to replace the
whip? Gee there is some SJT
wire used as a
whip on a high wattage light. Melted down really well. Gee there is some SJ
wire coming out of the
fixture, didn't melt down, but it's really brittle to the touch. When inspecting fixtures, especially those repaired by well intentioned people, it's good to inspect them well every few years.
The upshot is that if you at least look at the lamps and lamp bases of the fixtures you are servicing while you are doing so, you can prevent them from a lot of costly repairs later. Setting up a policy of hopefull once a year giving a good service
call to all equipment if not a rotating service plan to the equipment can save a lot of money and give dependable equipment to the inventory.
nuff now on my work inspired sidetrack!