What to do with old lighting equipment

[Ian_P]

Hi all,

I've been systematically upgrading the lighting kit at my local stage, and now have a good mix of Selecon Fresnel, Source 4 profiles, and a good number of LED colour washes. So for drama and the types of production we do - I think we have a great set up - very flexible and easy to use.

The old replaced kit is now languishing in the attic, using up space, and having offered some of it to other local groups at zero cost and been turned down, it seems it's worthless. On Ebay similar kit seems to stick and not get sold.

Broadly I have a set of rainbow colour scrollers - not used for 20+ years, a dozen Strand profiles, Par cans, some old CCT Fresnels with the old lamp housing, some no-name locally made dimmers etc.

Is the only option here to tip the lot?

Cheers

Ian

[Dave m]

Bung it on eBay with customer collects. As lamps cease to be made, their value goes down.

I was offered a ton of stuff when a mate went all LED but to be fair, most of the old stuff is regarded as junk/spares

[adam2]

Try offering it for sale cheaply, or even as a give away on this forum. As has been said demand is limited. 

[sleah]

Stick it on eBay but listed as vintage/collectable to appeal to the interior design brigade 😉

[the kid]

Oddly scrollers 5 years ago or so were still used by whitelight . might be a thing they are interested in as lots of the london shows just keep up what they had, or did. Though now phantom will close I assume most shows are some form of intelligent unit.

[Jivemaster]

There have been completed conversions of old lamps/lanterns to home decoration items for sale on Ebay at interior designer prices, whether they sold and at what price.....

[paulears]

The excitement for polished old kit on wooden stands is passing quickly. The historic stage lighting collective is getting lots of interesting kit donated but it’s very sad seeing the pile of what is essentially scrap stuff getting bigger. There’s lots of really historic stuff in good condition being saved but if it’s common and rusty nobody seems interested now. I think I’m most impressed by the Hewitt collection, amazing looking film lights

[paulears]

[kerry davies]

Why should anyone want rusty 240V AC lights that you can't get lamps for? Now if anyone has a pile of polished bronze shields as used in the amphiteatre....????

 

[adam2]

7 minutes ago, kerry davies said:

Why should anyone want rusty 240V AC lights that you can't get lamps for? Now if anyone has a pile of polished bronze shields as used in the amphiteatre....????

 

Why would anyone want old  oil lamps when they have electricity ? (I have several) There is a market for old or retro style lighting for d0m3stic use, the lack of the originally used lamps is of little importance, retrofit them to accept mains voltage GLS lamps or low energy equivalents. For a brighter and better focused output fit a modern vehicle headlight bulb and transformer.

[Junior8]

I think you have to accept that it is worthless and even the traders who polish up Patt 123s for the home interiors market aren't going to give you much for anything. But look at it the other way - you've probably had far more use out of this stuff than you had any right to expect and it certainly doesn't owe you any money. Strip the guts out and get the metal weighed in - it might be enough to buy a few drinks for the cast. 

[kgallen]

It makes me sad knowing such good equipment is now going to waste.

When I first started seriously in amateur theatre 30 years ago, I had next to no equipment to work with and zero budget. I would beg, borrow and (not) steal old Patt23s, CCT Minuettes and Betapacks from wherever and whenever just to get a show lit. I lost count of the hours I spent cleaning and repairing old Patt luminares. Stripping down abused Patt23s to bare metal and respraying and rebuilding into once again quality fixtures. Heck I even used repaired Patt45s as backing lights and Patt237s with 150W GLS in them because that's all I could get my hands on.

It's so galling to read on Reddit, young guns in schools bemoaning that they "only have 'old' Source 4s and Parnels" to work with. I wish.

I've now got plenty of my own kit, including considerable numbers of LED fixtures which of course have their colour mixing, weight and power benefits. But nothing in my - and many others - budget range gives that quality (and intensity) of light you get from a properly designed traditional fixture.

Is there really no local amdram that will take it and has the "old skills" to bring it back into useful application? I secretly hope that the OP finds a proper home for much of that kit. And I hope that home isn't the skip.

Edited August 20, 2023 by kgallen

[Junior8]

I feel your pain!

It was fifty five years ago for me and I agree about the stuff we'd grab and do up and it wasn't much different around thirty years ago as those who remember the bidding wars for ordinary Strand stuff at the (was it 1995?) Stagecraft Salisbury auction of excess hire stock. But even then the price of new equipment was in real terms much higher than imported Chinese now. With the cascading of second hand gear over the past few years I'm not surprised most societies have all they need and if it's simply taking up storage space for one I don't expect the others would be any different. 

[p.k.roberts]

Depending on how the stuff looks, it might be worth an email to a few film/tv prop houses. Bob's Bits and Ancient Lights for example. You never know and it might save a bit more land-fill.

[graemeftv]

Well I am saddened that the worlds largest and only super store of used kit has not struck the Blue room members yet.

We buy up kit and Recycle every part!

If we cant sell it at our silly stupid cheap prices (plugs sockets hook clamps all 15p each!! yes 15 pence)

we will strip down lanterns to remove glass, cables bulbs cables etc. as green as possible! and very time consuming!

more modern stuff gets fixed and even offered with warranty and worldwide shipping.

All with super easy addons like what plug you want fitted etc.

Our average sale time for a product is less than 3 days! the turnover of stock is massive

And to add to that we generate over 60% of our own electric, put less than 10kg of waste in landfill each week and do not purchase any packing materials! its All Reused! 

The most difficult part of the whole process is to get the theatres and owners of kit to make a very small effort to box it, email us back etc. You would be amazed How people just cant be bothered! they would rather let it sit and rust until it is then really scrap! everyone just replaces the new kit and shifts the old to the basement!

 

So apart from this being a plug for our website hopefully it might help save the planet just a little!