Opinions - Incandescent "Marquee" Bulbs Clear vs White?

You're not supposed to use insulation displacement connectors on stranded wire, are you? Unless they're specifically rated for that?
@Jay Ashworth This would have been in the fall of '91 / spring of '92. I chased a couple of wholesalers and asked the one who put the most time into selecting sockets and FAX'ing catalog sheets to also put time into choosing the most suitable wire. Our first application was stringing lamps festoon style on a production set in a used car lot. We had three real cars on stage, they were delivered one at a time on flat beds to our loading dock and pushed through our loading bay and onto the main-stage. Getting back to the wire. The most suitable wire of the era ended up being 10 gauge stranded intended for the application. Approved to swing in the wind 24/7/365; exposed to the direct sun, supporting ice loads, entertaining squirrels & birds, come what may. Whatever the recommended wire was, we had to purchase a 1,000 foot put-up to have the wholesaler special order it in on a non-returnable / non-refundable basis. The sockets and the wire were purchased more or less as a system. As we were running pairs of conductors festoon style and several festoons, we pulled four to six hundred feet off the spool for this initial application. This was twenty-five years ago and I'd be BS'ing you if I told you I recall further details as to the wire type. All I can tell you with certainty is the wire and sockets were purchased together to mutually satisfy the scenic designer, who wanted the "look", and electrical & fire inspectors / AHJ's if you prefer. At the time, we were the newly constructed venue in town, it was our first season, we were somewhat of a novelty to the inspectors as we were the first on their horizons to be producing shows from scratch. The major road house in town was predominantly doing 'four walls' rentals with travelling productions coming and going thus the inspectors had pretty much gotten used to that. Now this newly constructed venue materialized producing and performing their own productions. Thus it was raw materials in, some sets into off-site storage, others broken down into dumpsters and recycling. We had wood, painting and welding shops along with costume / sewing shops and were dealing with growing amounts of raw materials being stored on site. For the first couple of seasons we were sort of a novelty to the various AHJ's as they came to grips with overlaps in whose jurisdictions applied in various situations.
Bottom Line: I'm fairly confident in saying the sockets and their wiring met code.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Since we've crossed over into sign construction methods...

The preferred method at my place of employment is to use phenolic tab mount sockets and Scotchlock IDC splices. Its the fastest way to do hundreds of sockets, as no stripping is required. The sockets can last for a dozen or more productions as long as care is taken to cut them off close to the splice when the show closes. It might not be the cheapest method but it seems to require the least troubleshooting.
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I love the classic vampire sockets but finding the proper brew cord for them is becoming harder and harder. Many manufacturers have discontinued the product. The only source Ive found for the proper wire is here: http://www.creativedisplays.com/12-GAUGE-TWISTED-WIRE-BLACK-12-2B.htm. Vampire sockets just don't seem to play nice with THHN or zip cord.
 
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A punch-block style displacement connector would normally be solid wire - since these were "twist on", I suspect there was a single pointed barb doing the piercing which would beg stranded wire.
When I've had to do marquee things like this, I turn to a Christmas lighting store that sells 50-100 light strands. I can get various bulb spacing, loop the extra if less than 12", and not worry about wiring all those sockets.
 
A punch-block style displacement connector would normally be solid wire - since these were "twist on", I suspect there was a single pointed barb doing the piercing which would beg stranded wire.
When I've had to do marquee things like this, I turn to a Christmas lighting store that sells 50-100 light strands. I can get various bulb spacing, loop the extra if less than 12", and not worry about wiring all those sockets.
Understanding, agreeing and elaborating. At one point I was invited to take charge of the fabrication of a rather "interesting", heavily electrified, flown sign to be built here in Burlington, Ontario, broken down into transportable sections, trucked to Broadway, then reassembled and flown in a theatre. There were two smaller signs for SR and SL but the show stopping center piece was powered by 138 circuits (11 x 12 circuit Pyle National mults for 132 circuits plus one 6 circuit Socapex for a total of 138 with only two spares; one in one of the 12 ways and one in the lone Socapex. The up center fly piece included more than 1,000 incandescent lamps of many sizes, primarily candelabra base, plus approximately 240' of totally custom neon. Since the vast majority of the incandescents were specified to operate as three and / or four circuit chases, I turned to Noma, the seasonal (Christmas) light people and ordered many, many pre-manufactured strings on 1' centers, installed the sockets per the LX and scenic designers' layouts running multiple strings with their starting points staggered resulting in pre-wired three and / or four way chases.
The show was a sequel entitled "The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public"
Directed by Tommy Tune with LX design by Jules Fisher assisted by Miss Peggy Eisenhauer.
Never heard of it you say?
I wouldn't be surprised. If I'm remembering correctly it either closed during previews or hours after opening. I suspect Google'll have dates if anyone actually cares. This was in the very early '90's. '91 or '92 perhaps. Please forgive me for being a little fuzzy on many of the details.
As for the show stopping sign? Possibly it was a little too show stopping? (Honestly, I suspect the sign had little to do with the show's "stopping") The sign was a montage of the signage on Las Vegas' strip.
The technique of staggering the pre-fabricated strings to easily permit three and / or four way chases was the point of my post.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Jay, These were designed for #12 or #10 stranded.View attachment 14877 View attachment 14878
The sockets I was using were quite similar though they operated by rotating a non detachable (and thus un-loseable) cap 90 degrees. Occasionally it could be a little awkward getting the wire in place if using them in some signage applications depending upon the scenic designer's requirements coupled with the carpenters' framing and structural needs (Coupled with center of gravity / support and attachment requirements when flying but never losing / misplacing the 1/4 turn cap seemed a worthwhile win in the end.
As I wrote previously: The sockets we chose were initially selected to satisfy the designer's "look" when installed festoon style as they'd appear on a car sales lot of the era. After the initial production closed, we just kept on discovering new uses for them.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 

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