Lee Colortran Lens Grippers

[Garrettgb]

Hi all,
Big fan of all of your work, but I've rarely written in.

Recently inherited 2 old Lee Colortran Elipsoidals, the kind where you can move the lenses and field stops around to change the beam size. They came with a box of lenses and little rubbery (silicone?) grippy things to keep the lenses protected from the metal lens tube shells, but it seems like a few have been lost over time, there aren't enough to change both of my new fixtures over to 40s the way I intend.
Can anyone recommend a safe, rubbery material that one could put into a 1kw leko's lens tube that won't catch fire, get melty, ruin lenses, etc. ?

Cheers,
-Garrett G. Barker

 

[RonHebbard]

Hi all,
Big fan of all of your work, but I've rarely written in.

Recently inherited 2 old Lee Colortran Elipsoidals, the kind where you can move the lenses and field stops around to change the beam size. They came with a box of lenses and little rubbery (silicone?) grippy things to keep the lenses protected from the metal lens tube shells, but it seems like a few have been lost over time, there aren't enough to change both of my new fixtures over to 40s the way I intend.
Can anyone recommend a safe, rubbery material that one could put into a 1kw leko's lens tube that won't catch fire, get melty, ruin lenses, etc. ?

Cheers,
-Garrett G. Barker

Garrett; Out at the edges of the lenses, away from the heat in the center of the beam, you shouldn't have much trouble with heat. Anything providing for shock-mounting and accommodating minor expansion / contraction ought to suffice. Pieces of balled up masking tape if you get truly desperate. Take a look around and get creative with your scissors. Perhaps some soft felt from a no longer used item of clothing?
All the best.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[ptero]

Having a bunch of these we are in the same boat. The grippy things get lost but also degrade from heat and can break apart when changing lens settings, sticking to the lens or the barrel.

I use rubber jacket from S cable. 14 or 16 gauge is about the right size, #12 will probably be too big/think. Snip the jacket to appropriate length to replicate the size of the grippys. Then snip them in half or smaller in the other direction creating little curved rubber 'thingys' that will work for this. After well over 10 years of doing this I can tell you they can dry out in use like the originals but won't melt or burn. With either kind I try to use three equally spaced around the lens. Then you can set two in place with the lens and the struggle becomes fitting the other half barrel and just one grippy into place.

Of course that is also with the 'lens knob slider nutty thing' in the correct groove on the correct side! If it's on the wrong side of the barrel, the castings for a color frame end up upside down. If it's in the wrong section of the groove, the lens will not slide through the necessary range. On mine there is a ridge in the casting that restricts the slider from full travel. The slider belongs in the longer of the sections. Maybe more than anyone wants to know!!!

Good Luck!

btw, there is wiki that includes these at... https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/colortran-10-ellipsoid-213-105.21820/

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Find some silicon tubing and slit it.

I was td for a year in a theater full of these and do not like them.

 

[JonCarter]

Or buy yourself a roll of Scotch 27 tape. (Every lighting tech should have some.) Double or triple it up.

 

[jonliles]

there is always High Temperature (sometimes called red) RTV Silicon sealant. This will work in a pinch. It's good enough to attach dichroic filters inside of a Lycin M2 followspot. In the powerplants I build, the OEM actually specifies "Red" RTV in sealing up turbine compartment walls which can reach several hundred degrees. There is Permatex and Dow Corning 736. I'm partial to the Permatex (can be found in most any autoparts store).

 

[venuetech]

yes you can reconfigure the lenses, but it is best just to set them once and then forget that feature . get a zoom fixture if you need to change things on a regular basis .
if you can find some silicone bake-ware or heat pads, you could cut those up to create the parts. I save any silicone parts from defunct work floodlights.