Maybe time to invest in some Ebay sniper software, so you can schedule your bid ahead of time.
When you get an old
fixture for the museum and it has (its original?)
Asbestos cord, what do you do? If you remove the
Asbestos, aren't you altering its "originality"?
My Mom taught me some form of phylosophy that I agee with in concept. If it were meant to be, it would be. Will have loved to get such fixtures, and I already knew where they would fit - 70' pipe already and I'm starting to top mount for 8" on center clamps. As with me witing on the Circle K Lekos for now, perhaps it wasn't the right time for them. That or given my Wife paid all the bills this week, perhaps not the best time for me to bid on them. That and all I had to do was look in again that night and increase my bid some. I had maximum amount I will have paid. Placed minimum bid in thinking I would get them, someone else has them instead.
As for old fixtures - as soon as I see an
asbestos whip, or one that is probably one, I bag and clip it. Doesn't matter if a fellow employee is bringing in his
fixture for me to have a look at or I get it in a box. After that
asbestos abatement is followed immediately for the rest of the
fixture if mine to work on.
First thing for me is that the
safety of those at work and viewing the gear, and my own health is at
play. Also, any antique lighting
fixture seller advice will tell you that it's ok even on an antique light to re-wire it without loss of resale value. If done properly, it sould increase the value some or at least not
effect it.
Next for me is all the fixtures I present are fully servicable and brought to factory specication or better. I retain the old and unless necessary don't
effect the origional finish, but on the other
hand do preserve their use. A heat duct with surface rust will grow and rust
thru, so will a tail pipe to a car in making it useless later. A rusted
thru fixture is useless thus preventing it and at times work done to it.
Answer is yes. I do alter it's origionality in re-wiring and even major fabrication for missing stuff or saving other stuff done to fixtures. Heck, I even have a pre-62' black texture
Altman 360 ready to go with MR-16 uprade to it. The owner of it wanted that and will do the first
bench focus of it's ENH lamp in such a thing as I never got around to doing so for my own Grand
Stage version with one. Assuming his own work (his other
fixture will be in the museum once we are done sand blasting the rust of both
lens trains), he will be the first with a workable MR-16 based radial
Leko. If converted to DC low
voltage, he can even do color changing
LED MR-16 for it once proven it can
bench focus properly. Such a
fixture has an added hole in it's
base plate for
socket mounting, otherwise is origional and can go back easily.
I also use different chemicals for stuff like treating shutters these days than what will have been used in the past if at all, even grind off up to 1/4" of the
shutter surface in bringing it back from damaged condition when I cannot replace it.. Shutters will never fully close all the way in two out of four shutters, but were saved from scrap and non-function. I invent parts, grind down lenses I think the correct
lens - just too large, or in another
fixture have a new
lens that's too small that I'll be adding brackets to so as to make it fit. Kliegl... if not a 5.3/4"
lens, now they have a 6.1/4"
lens I need to mount and is missing.
For me, first is the
safety of the
fixture. Wiring is replaced in most cases, fixtures are also grounded. Second that they are functional and brought back as best possible to factory specification or better. Some
360Q's for instance I upgraded to clutch cam instead of clutch break they had when broken. What else can you do given this part is no longer sold and would be very difficult to make? Than for my museum in that they function also, that they are as origional as possible - past posts about the question of even a square
nut verses hex
nut date. Mostly I often also add a
cord grip to the
fixture as I don't do the UL knot for smaller wiring.
Cord grip to an old
fixture for me is also acceptable.
Beyond that, many of my lights have been upgraded to modern lamps if antique and went out on the last rental of them. Part of that brought back to factory spec, is them now working... sure why not if someone wants some old lights and will rent them. Next week might get a rental that would pay for like $150.00 worth of lenses and retainers for other old gear in need of parts.
Takes hours to upgrade without damaging an old discontinued
fixture for something else, but the old lamps are no longer for use and often without replacement. This from adding
socket extender to Mog to medium screw
adaptor, to spending a lot of time in spacers and long screws on a 3Kw follow spot in making it CYX instead. Litererally hours spent in
bench focus of it. Only
fixture I cannot touch is one owned by the owner of the company and that's just because I don't see him much these days. He has a c.1936
bi-pin Fresnel that I would love to study and is still
asbestos and in the front
lobby next to my follow spot. It won't stay that way.
"Origional" for that one would have to visit Darak's garage or where ever he has his
stock in storage. The public other than on this website doesn't get a chance to view such gear. He only pulls them up for discussion purposes in handling the
asbestos whips. I'm doing a museum for people to view in exposure to, and where possible rental of the gear as working
props is a good thing that eventually might pay for more of them or at least replacement parts to them. Beyond that, I cannot figure out why anyone would want something so origional that it could be dangerous to be exposed to. Even on "Antiques Roadshow", it's acceptable to have re-wired a
fixture without decreasing it's value. Easy enough and best to do.