Strand Century 1980s Lekolites

[Les]

I'll bet those fixtures last another 22 years. I love surprises like that - I recently picked up a pair of 1970-80's Altman 1000Q's from a church sale for a steal. They have that blue paint job but they look like they were babied and also had their original lamps (I believe), albeit blistered. Another cool surprise were the boomerangs with original gels showing no shrinkage or fading. As much as I admire LED fixtures, I am almost certain that they won't enjoy the long lives of these monsters.

 

[techieman33]

Well, I have been through the entire inventory and was ASTONISHED by the condition of these lanterns. I don't think that these have seen more than 300-500 hours of use in the last 22 years! They were filthy dirty, but about 1/3 of them still had their Thorn FEL lamps in them. No bad sockets. I was able to clean them up, replace a few lamps that were on the edge, bench them and rehang and use them. While not an ETC S4 OR a Strand SL optically, these aren't bad for a 22 year old light. BTW, the inventory consists of 10 2216 (6X16) And 10 2212 (6x12). ALL are stamped May 1992 for production so this was near the end of production for this instrument!

BTW, since the lenses didn't look terribly dirty internally, I did not take the lens tubes apart. That would have taken hours more of work and I wasn't initially charged with that task. The lens mount bumpers were hard, but nothing seemed "loose" so I left well enough alone.

They're tanks, it's hard to break them. I am surprised the insides of the barrel weren't dirty though. I usually have to clean inside ours every 3 years or so. The ones you were working on may be sealed a little better though since they haven't been taken apart. And it is hard to get them put back together just right.