Old theatre lights CAN be useful.

derekleffew

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Took longer to open the package than to build the unit.

Lamp kit = $7.46
Shade = $9.96
Bulb = $5.00 ? 14W Florescent = 60W.

Okay, the SourceFour™ yoke label DOES say "Not for Residential Use," but I doubt the mattress tag police are going to come arrest me. And yes, I pulled the shutters from force of habit. Until I need the fixture, it's going to make a lovely addition to my office.

Notice the UL label in picture #2.

As my roommate was walking by, he said "Too bad they got rid of all the VL2Cs, you could have done that to them!" That would be slightly more complicated, but not by much.

I want a cut of each one of these sold on ebay!
 

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Took longer to open the package than to build the unit.
Lamp kit = $7.46
Shade = $9.96
Bulb = $5.00 ? 14W Florescent = 60W.
Okay, the SourceFour™ yoke label DOES say "Not for Residential Use," but I doubt the mattress tag police are going to come arrest me. And yes, I pulled the shutters from force of habit. Until I need the fixture, it's going to make a lovely addition to my office.
Notice the UL label in picture #2.
As my roommate was walking by, he said "Too bad they got rid of all the VL2Cs, you could have done that to them!" That would be slightly more complicated, but not by much.
I want a cut of each one of these sold on ebay!

That is the butt-F _ _ _ _ _ N ugliest table lamp I have ever seen. I guarantee you that is not going into the new house/apartment if your SO has any taste.

SB
 
That is the butt-F _ _ _ _ _ N ugliest table lamp I have ever seen. I guarantee you that is not going into the new house/apartment if your SO has any taste.
SB

But honey it's cool and I made it myself...

Put it in the garage!!


I've got some 40 or 50 year old century fresnels I'm going to rewire and use someday when we get a bigger house.
 
Ya.... I think it would take a lot for my girlfriend let me bring that home... so far I have punched a hole in her fridge for a certain beverage dispenser... ran ethernet cable all over the house.... and who knows what else... I think the placeing an old fixture in our living room might end me out on the front lawn. Now for the office....
 
he he he, my girl friend doesn't mind my tinkerings or my "guy zone" garage... just the amount of time I spend there tinkering. Just finished re-doing the reading lamp over the bed, it's now 54" high with two side arm swivels to it. One a low voltage wash light, the other a low voltage MR-11 flood. Both are controlled indipendantly and swivel to about a 160 degree axis so they can cover the bed or my desk.

My creations are all over the place - sometimes they work, sometimes as with the vinal vertical blinds that came with the house that I glued wall paper to don't work out so well - the glue did not stick so well on some of them. For the most part she is understanding and likes such creations. Definate advantage.
 
Derek, you really don't like old fixtures do you?

Reminds me today, I was moving some of the worklights around, in this case Electro Controls PAR 64's. (Another re-qire project - the list grows). Anyway, the assistant designer just said, "God, those are ugly, I hate them". I was hurt, but the designer from out last show, She Loves Me, just said "Noah, she fails to see their inner beauty". We are such dorks, oh well.

I'm planning a table lamp with one of the old 360Q's I was forced, hear me, forced to scrap. The only useable parts were the reflector, one lens and the retainer ring. This thing was one of those that left me saying, "how did it end up like this?". Currently, it is an empty shell, but I plan on doing the socket on the yoke, along with a small lamp internally to make it glow. With the shutters and reflector gone there are plenty of holes for light to glow from. Put these two lamps on a three way switch and, *BAM*, high class.
 
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Derek, you really don't like old fixtures do you?
I love old fixtures! The one in the picture is a first generation 436 dating all the way back to 1993.;)

Currently, it is an empty shell, but I plan on doing the socket on the yolk, along with a small lamp internally to make it glow. With the shutters and reflector gone there are plenty of holes for light to glow from. Put these two lamps on a three way switch and, *BAM*, high class.
Eggs have yolks; theatre lights have yokes.;)

Please post pictures so we can show those naysayers how attractive stage lights can be. I suppose it helps that I live with a guy who's also into lighting.
 
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So that is an old version of S4? I noticed when I took a tour of the regional theater I'll be interning at that they had those older S4s, though I didn't know it at the time, and I kept scratching my head. I also kept dying a little inside as one of the PAR56s in the lobby needed relamping... STAT!

I have a few "old" lights lying around. Well the 360 Radials, I don't know if they count, but I can't even figure out what to lamp them with. I have a half dozen of those on the side. They are all pretty much messed up. Looks like some kind of screw base... *mutters about radials*

I have two "Strand Century" lights that look to be PC. It has some really weird like blue / yellow knobs, and the whip has no connector. It is on my list of things to do. I want to clean these two out really well, get the ol' stage pin on there, and test their lamps. Maybe the quality of light is worth it. Maybe it's just the variety I'm looking for. I'm slowly amassing our "old lights" into something useable, thinking one of them will be "just perfect" for what I need some day. (So far, they're all just perfect, they shoot light out the end!)
 
To some people, anything not S4 is old, so radial lekos count.

Hey, my college has some of them old S4's too!! I noticed they dont have that handy handle on the back.
 
To some people, anything not S4 is old, so radial lekos count.
Hey, my college has some of them old S4's too!! I noticed they dont have that handy handle on the back.

Exactly what tipped me off from the floor!

Can you even buy replacement lamps for those radials? Are they worth lamping, or scraping? Maybe work them into architectural lighting?

Man, I really wanna know what those Strand PC units are, it's bugging me now. They have a weird front. And it doesn't have a standard yoke, as to those aforementioned knobs, that don't connect to the unit, rather to the yoke. And it has some kind of pin, where I would mount a C-Clamp, I have no clue how to get this into the air. Sorry the description is poor, I keep walking by it, and have yet to actually pick it up to look at it in-depth. It might not even be PC. This sounds like a fun project.

Kudos to anyone that can read my mind / poor description and produce a picture and model number.
 
Umm, I don't know the number, but there are, or at least were, tungsten-halogen lamps that had a long neck so the filament lined up in the focal point of a radial reflector. If your ship, you would just jack the lamp base and use regular lamps.

Man, I reall want pics of those Strands. Did you check the online strand archive yet?
 
Umm, I don't know the number, but there are, or at least were, tungsten-halogen lamps that had a long neck so the filament lined up in the focal point of a radial reflector. If your ship, you would just jack the lamp base and use regular lamps.
Man, I reall want pics of those Strands. Did you check the online strand archive yet?

They looked relatively new too, so I could swear it's just some kind of light that just never caught on, like the 1KL6 series by Altman. I don't mean to mislead you if I'm wrong. The digicam is in my bag for tomorrow though... but I need to remember to take the pics.

Edit:
I thought the Strand archive is inaccessible with the new site?
 
To the best of my recollection, it's not up there. Perhaps I got the manufacturer wrong, though I think I'm right. Maybe it's an after-market yoke that's tripping me up? I intend to find out.

It's called a camera Charc... Use it... Post... Answers will come quickly... :mrgreen:


The big thing around my house is I'm notorious for "fixing" things. We had a portable fan with low, medium, and high push button switches. The buttons died. I went down to my tool box and grabbed this big fat 2" long toggle switch and wired it to high. We've been using the thing for 10 years like that. The fan selector in an old car went out... too poor at the time to afford the $50 part, I managed to rewire it to work in off and high. There have been other similar projects. My wife makes fun of my ability to make everything in life simple. In our house you get a choice of High or off. There is no middle ground in my world baby!!
 
I got a really really old fixture that I found in an old venue, it is sort of like a big par can, I gutted it and turned it into a pot plant, it is growing bamboo at the moment, which I stole from the same venue.

I will post a pic. I wouldnt mind knowing what kind of fixture it actually is...
 
Charc, is the socket in your radial ERSs that you think is a screwbase actually a medium prefocus? If so, you have many lamps from which to choose. Once you post the pictures, I'm sure someone will identify them, then we'll tell you the lamp we used to use, and ship will come up with the preferred modern variety.
 
Okay, actually two different fixtures. Sorry for the confusion.

The first:

Strand Century Polaris Fresnel

The second, an unidentified PC.

My image files are too large, and I can't figure out a way to size them down at school.

Suggestions welcome.
 

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