old light

[ichabod]

Found a couple of old lights on craigslist. Cleaned then up and hung them in the garage. At one time there was a lens/diffuser with them. i cant seem to find any info on these with my internet searches. I changed these over to LED because I need them to work in the cold.

 

[The Cobbler]

golden oldies. nice set up

 

[Bert_]

They are preheat F40t12 so that's '40s or early '50s. Personality I have a hard time seeing them converted to led. I've got some F40T12 preheat stuff and they fire right up in freezing temperatures. I love them. I've some with ballasts from the '40s. The old ones are very reliable.

If they still have preheat ballasts let me know. I am interested in this sort of stuff. I keep an eye on Craigslist but non molested ones don't come up often.

 

[ichabod]

Th ballasts were not marked. No PCB. And one showed signs that it overheated.

 

[Bert_]

All the old HPF ballasts have pcb oil in the capacitor. If it's not leaking an oily substance it not a hazard. A little tar leaking out shows it's probably been abused at one point by leaving dead lamps in or by using 34W lamps. They often last decades like that. Tar leaking is not a hazard.

A few months ago I picked a fixture out of the trash that had been used in a chlorine room for 25 years, very corroded. Original preheat ballast works great. Rest of the fixture will take some work.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, They should work fine for a long time, but they may not be the most efficient.

 

[themiller]

Neat aesthetics. Thanks for sharing.

 

[yeldogt]

Very cool .... I'm a sucker for old light fixtures

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Several years ago Mrs No_Garage and I were taking a walk around the block and we walked past a pair of vintage 2 bulb 48" fluorescent fixtures. I came back with the car 30 minutes later and they were gone.

I would have done the LED swap without hesitation and hung them with pride.

Cheers

Jim

 

[Bert_]

Here's a few that are in daily use. The row mounted ones are mid-late 50's, the others are from the 40's. One of the 3 row mounted lights has a replacement ballast, the rest are completely original.

 

[ichabod]

Bert this one is a beauty.



here is one i got a few years ago. manufacturer is Daybrite.

 

[Bert_]

If you like that one I should tell you I have 2 more. Here's all the adapters I have that are complete. These are called adapters because they fit in an existing light with a 4" globe. They came with a plug and a screw shell - 2 prong adapter. It would replace an incandescent bulb will no wiring required.