Conventional Fixtures Old Strand Lights

This post seemed to generate a little interest in the new Member Forum and so I thought I would put it in the lighting section as well.

I recently stumbled upon this site and am very pleased I did! What a great resource you we have here.

I thought you may be interested is a wee product for converting your old Strand 23s and 123s to take newer and cheaper T/26, 650w lamps. It's called the C-Block and you can check it out and me on the Company website Enter

My interests include collecting and restoring older Strand stage lights and putting them back out there in the theatres. I feel that there are some wonderful beam qualities that are particular to some of the older lamps that are harder to find today in a ‘maximum light output’ driven design. How many remember the fantastic beam angle and smoothness of the 223 Fresnels. Still a great lantern...

Anyway enough of the reminiscing. Today's lanterns are pretty amazing too. Try the Selecon Pacific cool light. Great light control and optics but keep a piece of soft Hamburg frost and a top hat for a nice blending beam.

Cheers

Phill Dexter:)
 
I guess you are in either the UK or Australia or even New Zealand. I am in Canada and I grew up using these lanterns. I have just finished restoring four 123s and 23s and putting them back into service. I agree with your list of lanterns and would include the 743. I normally use the BTL lamp in the 23s and the 123s and the BTR in the 743s. They give good light output with these lamps. I just going to collect some of the new BTHs and I will let you know how the 23s and 123s work with these lamps.
 
Fascinating thing done, well done in adjusting for LCL to make a newer lamp work in an older fixture. Not a fan of putting stranded wires directly under the screw terminal of a terminal block short of the use of ferrules in a high temperature block that doesn’t have plates clamping on the wires, but still well done and thought out.

Often do similar things myself in converting anything from DPY lamp fixtures to CYX lamp fixtures in a number of types from Mole to Bambino, making G-9.5 into P-28s, or even have to re-do Euro type fixtures with GY-16 bases to something 120v. Really a shame there is no conversion lamps otherwise and short of major modification. This much less optimizing PC fixtures with a MR-16 new low voltage lamp source. That kind of stuff is where the fun of it all (re-engineering) comes in.

Welcome to the forum and I hope your interests adds lots to the shared wealth.
 
Not a fan of putting stranded wires directly under the screw terminal of a terminal block short of the use of ferrules in a high temperature block that doesn’t have plates clamping on the wires, but still well done and thought out.

Hi there,
The wires from the lamp base are fitted with ferrules as I am not keen on wires being screwed down either. When we fit these products ourselves we use ferrules on the connecting wires as well. We also recommend this to our customers.

The decision was made on a cost/availability basis and has proved reliable.

All the best, Phill :)
 
Are you sure you are other than from the US? Not a ringer?

Never ran across someone from off continent that saw advantages of ferrules under screw threads before. :)

Well done.
 
Are you sure you are other than from the US? Not a ringer?

Never ran across someone from off continent that saw advantages of ferrules under screw threads before. :)

Well done.

Ship,

We call 'em bootlaces... And even some of us over in noise land are using them...
 
I Finally managed to try the new BTH lamp in my patt 23s last night. Transforms the light output. I have now changed them all over to this lamp.

I still use the 23s they are a Plano Convex lens system so they have a softer edge to the light pool but they are much more defined than a fresnel. So I use them on stage instead of buying a new PC lantern. They work really well in this role. Especially if you have the 23W version because you now have a very short throw version - great for stage without much height to them. You can also play around with different frost to increase the flexability. May be an old lantern but still lots of use I just don't use them as a FOH profile anymore.

The BTH also works great in the patt 123 Fresnel.

Ship has managed to get OSRAM to make a very useful lamp.
 
If you read back, the idea was not mine it was controlbooth members asking for it. I just presented the idea to one of many vendors amongst a few lamp ideas at the time. At Osram, the head of PhotoOptics - a former TD at a theater as opposed to sales person normally in the position took the idea and ran with it..

Good to see some lamp useful in the industry that is end user generated as opposed to market generated. Just spent part of the day updating my notes on Fast Fit lamps. Not fast to fit or a better lamp in my testing, just a lamp that sounds like a good idea in my impression based on some years old marketing campaign from ETC. For the most part still need a screw driver to remove the panel to access the lamp anyway - what's so fast fit about the older technology lamp put into a new base anyway?

But I digress. Looking forward to other lamps including the liquid filled ones - that concept makes the vendor reps sweat. At least those that are more sales person than lighting tech. Is on the market for projector lamps at this point... gonna take a while as with dichroic coated and internal reflector lamps in general to get out there more in efficiency.

Very much looking forward to what GE/Thorn has done with the new HPL lamp TBA I'm hearing about thru back channels. This in not hearing anything about it other than improved.
 

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