Chrome
PAR cans have not died out, (this is from memory) Kid Rock's last world tour - before the
current "Live Tour" had eight special
truss sections built that were about 8' square and mounted 36 chrome
PAR cans per section. This in addition to other chrome cans on the show. This literally was walls of chrome
PAR cans.
Lots of rock shows still use the chrome
PAR can - to date normally and sure, it's moving lights in the hundreds, various
LED's, and video projection systems are the norm but so is also still the
PAR can - chrome for the bling bling of course is just as often used as much as black ones. Not always used these days but still in constant use. For weddings and small events, chrome fixtures I would think also the norm in if you only have a few fixtures, making them shiny makes it seem more substantial.
Sure for theater or corporate events, one would normally (not always) wish the lighting to be invisible. For rock and
roll, that Chrome
PAR still has a place. This just as much a place for silver
PAR cans as silver
truss. Silver
truss is very common, why would one do black fixtures with silver
truss when a
PAR can? (At times I'm surprised that moving lights don't have chrome side panels that can be swapped out with the black dependant upon the show.
Stock PAR cans in both colors for show use in size from the
PAR 20 to
PAR 64 and all at times are used much less being painted or scraped of paint to make up for shortfalls on a constant basis.
This Chrome can for anything from more modern shows to tours of past bands that want to present the same "Bling" factor they had years past - that's what the audience expects thus that's what they get. Sure, James Talor (believe that's the band but it has been a year or two since the tour,) did an exclusively lit
LED tour (kind of looked like a wedding on
stage in set design though nobody would say it in public), in breaking from the normal lighting. Say Journey on the other
hand, them back on tour might be expected the Chrome Can assumed style. (Don't work directly on shows so all of this is to some extent assumption on my part and by way of remembering the PITA factor of specific shows in what was needed at the last minute thus remembering what gear such shows were or are using. Normally I don't work directly on gear for shows. Tonight I was at work until 1AM in working on some Ribbon Lifts. Don't know what show they are going on, I'm simply working on the gear.) Chrome cans as with cans in general are not going anywhere my main
point.
In paint, I'm a big fan of powder coating - this is what I'm fairly certain is used on the fixtures
ETC makes. A week ago I used a sand blaster for the first time, really cool to use while not clogged, but be cautious about the use of it in potentially damaging the surface coating of the
ETC fixture and in attempting to get all the paint off. Too abrasive or ambitious and you could damage the
fixture or
effect it's ability to cool properly. A powdercoated cast aluminum S-4
Leko or
PAR shape would be very difficult to bring down to bare metal properly in my opinion with this method. Steel takes much better to sand blasting than powder coated cast aluminum. It's very possible that you could damage the equipment by way of slides and tapped holes to say nothing of the potential pebble like finish you might wind up with. Not an expert on powder coating - it's sent out for doing so in volume and comes back done, but short of bare metal, this might not be the best re-painting solution for a S-4. Also once the gear comes back, all holes will need re-tapping or refinement because not only does a powder coat add about 1/64"
thickness above the surface but at times it's a wee thicker in some areas than others. For a very engineered
Leko, such refinements especially in already tapped holes could cause problems in how it functions later.
UL-Listing of a light
fixture is something that must be discussed with the corporate bean counters and upper management where you work. I stress this. Where you work needs specific and understood by all, a corporate policy on this question especially where the liability and insurance gets involved.
At a school,
UL listed fixtures are necessary and extent of them remaining so verses maintinence is a different conversation in itself. In the corporate world of lighting, your company's liability superseeds
UL listed fixtures to some extent where artistic necessity / neatness and function and application is necessary or in what is considered normal maintinence to the equipment - chipped paint on equipment would be a normal thing in maintaing the gear to service. Paint coming off and in general harsh looking fixtures says something very bad to clients, and should there be a problem with the show also says something to those looking at what went wrong by way of how you maintained your gear.
Liability coverage, what you can and cannot do or in following what's factory installed,
UL Listed in being safe and what's needed or able to do out of normal maintinence and care for your gear is a corporate policy type of question and definement of policy on the gear you use question where you work to clarify..
Where I work it's a start of a few million per show in liability and the look of the gear, and supervised and even factory authorized service center of the gear in use superseeds that of a UL listing of what gear comes from the factory if that's the case and necessity in maintaining it. But the extent one company to another maintains their gear or relies upon not doing so by way of it being something perhaps "factory" but chipped to heck or to the extent that the gear you are liable for or recognized in doing factory service and repair to varies one place to another.
Frequently we run out of having enough gear on
hand for shows and have to rent. Believe it's as of today over several million in new moving lights this year alone, yet gear rented is still a common thing. Amazing the seeming truth to the joked about concept of other companies
send us the worst of their gear in order for us to fix it for them in keeping our high standards and
return it in better shape than it left. It's normal to work on the rented gear to the extent it's up to our standards by the time it leaves our door to the
point of renting a bunch of moving lights and half of them have snowballed lamps which we now have to re-lamp to make function - this being almost common our lamps have to go into rented fixtures yet rare the reverse on renting gear that's always prepped as if going out on one of our shows. Thus on
return, they have their own fixtures now having a really good service
call.
From
PAR 46 rented from a local branch of a national company that had cob webs and broken parts in over half of them to
Altman scoops coming directly out of
Altman Rentals - one would think it factory spec. if
Altman gear coming from
Altman the rented gear came in rough condition howerver. On rented gear, there is very often gear that just won't work or work well.
Altman had enough scoops to rent which was a good thing, as for rental gear being ready for use - that’s very common to worry about.
The Euro Patt test
system is even of question for me. Last week a tour left with lots of Euro gear on it mixed in with our gear. Had to adapt some in wiring and
plug types between 230v
universe and 120/208v plugs. One rack I had to do wiring of the
plug for had all sorts of colors in wiring used within the five pin
plug - none of which made sense other than by way of notes taken upon removal of the provided
plug and exchange for the new one. This even if came with a PATT test certification, it did not conform to any standard in
wire color in it - Euro or here yet here was a rack having mystery wiring. Blue for brown
etc. urr, who wired the thing, this much less at times Big Lights from
Martin that come with two different ways they were wired with the Euro
wire color systems that could unless traced and at times corrected, could be dangerous to
power up. Yep, constantly synical and rarely trusting about what I see coming from other places.
You as responsible for the gear to some extent just as much UL listing as that of what the factory sends out which no-longer complies. UL testing of a
fixture by the way is one company that is paid to test a
fixture and certify it will work under certain specified conditions but not all conditions. There are other testing companies just as valid as a UL listing and things in being listed equipment that is not covered - paint finish on a
fixture very possibly is not specifically a part of what
Underwriters Laboratories was specifically paid to test in listing this gear as safe specific to what parameters it was tested within.
UL listed fixtures is within the paramiters of standard use and or within the specified testing parameters. You could seal a
Leko in a 55gal. Drum and turn it on. After eight hours will it become unsafe? Given some things you might do to the
fixture cold be unsafe thus void the recognition of under standard use this
fixture will work properly listed as tested to comply status, it does not
cover all. Your own liability of what gear you use, care for and apply is at times separate from that of what the gear was
UL listed in being tested for.
This past Friday a dozen lamps had to be signed out to prep a show. This show was using rented lights and the lamps in the fixtures came with a range of "working and prepped fixtures" ranging from snowball lamps to ok at best - perhaps a
bit more brown than looking ok. Those are lamps we have to put into rented fixtures so as to use them in our shows and up to our standards - good lamps following a cleaning and even factory service center major repair or two. So in renting the
fixture, we pay just as much for a snowball lamp - limited output lamp as a new lamp in the
fixture, than pay even more to use our own lamps in them. "What would you like us to do with the lamps removed from the rented fixtures?" Hold onto them - my reply, I don't even want to begin
tracking the number of bad lamps out of rented fixtures. Even though in renting the fixtures we are paying for the lamps provided to be used up, we get no discount normally for renting gear that has lamps that are other than useful - this much in the prep for the rental should have been noted amongst other frequent problems.
On a
Leko, a quick touch up might be a paint marker. Otherwise it goes to the paint department which has a autobody shop type of paint gun and pants the fixtures with a high temperature semi-gloss paint that is both high temperature and similar to that of the origional powder coat. Our paint supplier made up a special mixture for the spray booth in doing so. If the casting is in too bad of shape I wonder why and also solve that problem. What ever the case as a concept, take care of your gear and others will also. Don’t and you have gear kicked about.
Final choice when the guys clog up the paint gun is high temperature spray paint. Often yes it does
smoke some for a while. Use a semi-gloss instead of
flat black which retains the heat and just does not look right. Spray paint works, just be careful on color and overspray.
I recommend taking your fixtures to an autobody shop. They will have lots of experience with both paint going on hot gear and doing a good job of both stripping and painting it.