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The Vintage Industrial Look ??

T

tankwilson

Active member
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
41
Location
Iowa
Hey guys i am in the middle of finishing the inside of my new shop. I just got done putting up old corrugated gavanized steel on parts of the walls and ceiling. I am going for the old vintage industrial look but i am having a hard time finding stuff. Looking for

Ceiling mounted lights and/or fixtures (cage that goes around the light)
Door knobs
Light switches
Outlets
Misc.

Where does one find this stuff that doesn't cost a fortune?

Thanks
matt
 
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P

pdham

Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Messages
23
Location
Harrisonburg Va.
I'm not sure if this will suite the need but this is what I did. There is a big push to replace the metal halide lights (The big round fixtures that hung from the Gym ceiling in high school) in industrial spaces for more efficient LED systems. I have found lots of old fixtures to be had for little or nothing. Just check the ballast to make sure they will work on the voltage you have available in your shop. Many times the ballasts are multi-voltage type. Check with local electrical contractors, or with the maintenance department at local industrial plants. These generally draw 400 watts or so. Expensive if you are running them all day every day, but not bad for weekend warrior. These big lights are great but often take a while to come on, particularly if its cold, so I also installed basic single bare bulb screw in light fixtures that come on on a different switch. I installed florescent flood lights into these fixtures. Now if I go out to the shop to get something or work on something that might not require bright lighting, I use the small florescents, If I'm working on something that needs good lighting then I crank up the big boys. I have a 24 x 60 x12h shop with 2 rows of 5, 400 watt MH high bay lights. Its great when I turn them on, there are no shadows in my shop. The front and back rows are controlled separately so I can only run them in the area I'm working in. The florescent are set up on 3 rows of 5. At 13 watts each I can light the shop with half the electricity just one of the MH lights draw. Needless to say I mostly use the floresents. :thumbup:
 
5

5lima30

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2010
Messages
2,442
Location
Mountains of Western NC
Have you considered making some of your own light fixtures? A BBQ restaraunt near us has hanging lights made out of galvanized feed pans (about 4.00 ea at TSC) and hanging with swing set chain. They really look decent for very little $$. Just a thought.
 
J

jktruck150

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
835
Location
Outskirts of Jackson, MS.
I would love to see pictures of your shop now!! You can make your own light switch plates out of just about anything, just use on of the cheap plastic ones as a template. Maybe diamond plate, mabe rusted metal pieces that you bent the edges over. Just mark and drill the mounting holes for the screws.

Edit: The barn my horses are in, use some exterior switches on the inside. They are gray and have a horizontal lever you move up and down instead of a switch that sticks out. Those might be a nice touch.
 
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I

Ign

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
12,769
Location
Butte Peak ND
As much as Jack Olsen's garage would never suit me, his light fixtures w baking pans are pretty cool.

Also saw on Mega Dens (the chick is obnoxious BTW) she used something like metal candle enclosures and put an LED bulb in them, then also did some bike chain top and bottom.
 
Z

zoomzoomjeff

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
1,471
Location
Des Moines, IA area
There's a BBQ restaurant locally that uses galvanized 5 or 10 gallon wash pans that are hung upside down with lights inside, similar to what the poster above described.

In addition, I just saw a ton of those round halide lights on the local craigslist here for cheap. They might pop up here and there as people do replace them.

Actually, I see you're from Iowa. Let me see if I can find that CL find....BRB.




Okay. I found them:
http://desmoines.craigslist.org/grd/2251876176.html
175 watt mercury vapor light fixtures, $15 each. About 40 of them left.

Looks like he used to have 80 of them as of 1-25-11.
http://desmoines.craigslist.org/grd/2179717943.html

Seems pretty cheap to me, but I already have enough lumens in my garage to bug the neighbors! :D On second thought, they are 175 watts. Wonder how many lumens they put out. One can never have too much light, right?

Good luck, hope that helps out.
 
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N

Norcal

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
13,769
zoomzoomjeff said:
There's a BBQ restaurant locally that uses galvanized 5 or 10 gallon wash pans that are hung upside down with lights inside, similar to what the poster above described.

In addition, I just saw a ton of those round halide lights on the local craigslist here for cheap. They might pop up here and there as people do replace them.

Actually, I see you're from Iowa. Let me see if I can find that CL find....BRB.




Okay. I found them:
http://desmoines.craigslist.org/grd/2251876176.html
175 watt mercury vapor light fixtures, $15 each. About 40 of them left.

Looks like he used to have 80 of them as of 1-25-11.
http://desmoines.craigslist.org/grd/2179717943.html

Seems pretty cheap to me, but I already have enough lumens in my garage to bug the neighbors! :D On second thought, they are 175 watts. Wonder how many lumens they put out. One can never have too much light, right?

Good luck, hope that helps out.
Click to expand...

Mercs are so obsolete, it ain't funny....
 
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rwhite692

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 4, 2008
Messages
1,850
Location
Central Valley, CA
tankwilson said:
Hey guys i am in the middle of finishing the inside of my new shop. I just got done putting up old corrugated gavanized steel on parts of the walls and ceiling. I am going for the old vintage industrial look but i am having a hard time finding stuff. Looking for

Ceiling mounted lights and/or fixtures (cage that goes around the light)
Door knobs
Light switches
Outlets
Misc.

Where does one find this stuff that doesn't cost a fortune?

Thanks
matt
Click to expand...


The guys who build the Applebees restaurants
 
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