Vintage Lighting Searching for Old Borderlights

[Jim20]

Hi all.

I am restoring an old autotransformer control board from the early 1960s to go in a theater themed rec room and am searching for some cool borderlights to go with it. Most of them have been long since upgraded but I am sure there are some out there looking for a new home. I am looking for the older ones from the 1950s time period rather than the newer Altman R-40 ones. I have included a picture of the style I am hoping to find. Any info on some that are slated for an upgrade would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[gafftapegreenia]

I’d start with calling anyone in your area who does retrofits of existing high school theatres.

 

[TimMc]

My PAC just sent a bunch of old strip lights to the landfill. They go no bids at city auction. I have little nostalgia, professionally, for them. Asbestos wiring, sketchy roundel retention.

As a decor item I might feel differently but I shed no tears when these went to the tip.

 

[SteveB]

Typically contain asbestos wiring, thus nobody has any. You count call some rental shops, 4Wall, PRG, etc…. See if anybody still has any of the 6-8 ft incandescent versions

 

[Jim20]

Thats a good idea on calling some places that do upgrades. As far as the asbestos wiring, its not a big concern for me as I would likely carefully replace the old wiring when I restored them. But I could see them trashing them for that reason.

 

[ship]

Interesting in another thread, a teacher took a bunch home for preservation in use for others. And no-doubt a lot on E-Bay strips for sale any day. Good advice on the asbestos problem. I know I have rewired a lot of strips, even re-porcelained the origional concept of strips in preservation and re-wiring. And to my shame I have a lot of lenses I have not shipped out to people requesting them (re-contact me), and have literally center stage sat with a metal cutting Sawzall blade cutting apart strip lights so they would fit into the dumpster. This in also saving some lenses but the rest trash. There is a lot of old strips out there, your money if you re-wire them safely would be welcome. Shouldn't be a problem for acquiring for your design, just some searching. And as stated proper care in making them safe and servicable... Included with the asbestos wiring is the solder on terminals is lead on the lamp socket terminals at this point. Replace all lamp sockets or deal with the blow torch melted lead going into the air so as to remove the wiring from the terminal. Also, the leaded paint issue as possible for a fixture question.

Was yestreday walking around my Parent's 1914 house with my child. I was describing how every weekend, after chores done.. And some free time, we would all have heat guns and scrapers going in peeling the green paint from the oak molding in the house. We might also help make pizza, especially if we had the longest paint scrape of the day. Green paint was all about the not mansion, but large house. Factory paint of a strip light was probalbly not leaded, but another period cautinon if it was re-painted, or in general of paint, might have been leaded paint.

 

[Jim20]

Thanks for the reply Ship. If you know if any that would be a big help. They have been hard to locate. I rarely see them on ebay or craigslist. I dont mind doing the rework. All restoration projects take time.

 

[Les]

Where are you located, Jim? I have three or four 6' strips. They are Altman, but they're the older A-lamp w/reflector version for 5 5/8" roundels (RWB). I do have the roundels as well.

 

[Jim20]

Hi Les. Thanks for the reply. I am in Seattle. Send over some pictures and lets see what they look like. Thanks!

 

[jack63ss]

So I also have some of these (10?) out of a school. Actually changed out the asbestos wiring in one, but that was as far as I got. Not sure what manufacturer, I'd have to go look, but they are probably from the late 50s. I have all the roundels, in fact I have some extra ones that are orange. I also have some other really old lights (30-40s) that someone gave me. If you are interested let me know, I'm about 30mi west of Boston.

Side story: I was very depressed when they took these out to install a "more modern" system. They went to DMX, which was great, but they all they did was replace 2 electrics worth of borders with a bunch of frenels. And there was no one with any theater experience involved, so they did not understand how to wire them and totally messed it up. Instead of a simple 1-to-1 they had some DMX channels with 3 lights on them. And there were no frames or gel, and no way to change the whole stage to a color as there had been. I saved the borders hoping I could find a way to use them, but they just use too much power. We have started adding LEDs at the venue, on our own $ of course, but at least it is something.

 

[Jim20]

So I also have some of these (10?) out of a school. Actually changed out the asbestos wiring in one, but that was as far as I got. Not sure what manufacturer, I'd have to go look, but they are probably from the late 50s. I have all the roundels, in fact I have some extra ones that are orange. I also have some other really old lights (30-40s) that someone gave me. If you are interested let me know, I'm about 30mi west of Boston.

Side story: I was very depressed when they took these out to install a "more modern" system. They went to DMX, which was great, but they all they did was replace 2 electrics worth of borders with a bunch of frenels. And there was no one with any theater experience involved, so they did not understand how to wire them and totally messed it up. Instead of a simple 1-to-1 they had some DMX channels with 3 lights on them. And there were no frames or gel, and no way to change the whole stage to a color as there had been. I saved the borders hoping I could find a way to use them, but they just use too much power. We have started adding LEDs at the venue, on our own $ of course, but at least it is something.

Hi. Thanks for reaching out. Yes! Post some pictures or send them to me in a message and I will see if they are what I am looking for. Thanks!