PLEASE someone offer me SOMETHING  F40 Preheat in exchange for these "cool" but worthless as tits on a snake lights! I am so dang fed up with half of these dang things. All "work" but never when I NEED them to! They are more reliable below 0c/33f than they are in a heat wave! Total JUNK when I need reliable light in my barn! They are great to look at but SUCK for a reliable light source! I am tired of dealing with this junk. Help me swap it out for vintage preheat  F40s!!

You don't have enough spare F40 fixtures in your shed? Sorry I can't help you out.

I'm VERY surprised to read this, John.  At any rate, I'm sure you'll have members racing to get them from you as soon as they see this. I would certainly have one if it weren't for having no place to put it and nothing to trade it for, anyway.

If only I had some more F40 preheaters... I only have 1 true preheater LOL.

On a side note, I don't think they would work very well where I live either since it gets quite hot here too.

I'm not sure there's going to be a massive demand for F90T17 fixtures now that the lamps are no longer made. I can think of a few L-G members who might have an interest and would also have some nice F40 preheaters to trade, but you might have to wait a while before you get rid of all the fixtures. (Around 30, right?) They are indeed cool fixtures but are pretty worthless for everyday lighting, due to lamp availability AND reliability problems.

John, can we make a deal when I visit you on April 4th? For at least a few of the fixtures.

Hold on a minute John, Not so fast,

I know how much those mean to you and what you went
Through to get them.

Why not just leave you're T-17 fixtures in place and as they fail for what ever reason Then hang a 2or 3 tube
40 watt fixture beside the T-17 fixtures that fail and transfer power from the failed T-17 fixture over to you're F40T12 fixture you  just installed beside it ,

Now it's a win win

Now we know why that cotton mill went out of business

They couldn't afford to keep the T-17s going lol

Also keep in mind Preheat T-17s have always Ben a maintenance headach ,

Look at why they started scraping them in the early
1950s


Roger,





uote author=TheMaritimeMan link=topic=3974.msg25976#msg25976 date=1426641191]
I'm VERY surprised to read this, John.  At any rate, I'm sure you'll have members racing to get them from you as soon as they see this. I would certainly have one if it weren't for having no place to put it and nothing to trade it for, anyway.


[/quote]

What I wonder is, what's going wrong with the fixtures to start with?

You could also rig them up with medium bi-pin lampholders and run F40T8 lamps.

Lately he has Ben having all kinds of problems with them.

1. Ballasts burning up,
2. New bulbs either not firing up
    Or losing vacuums for no reason.
3. Stuck starters.
4. Sockets not always making good
    Contact , Whitch is pretty much par
    For the course,

I have 4 of these fixtures that I use for
Display only and have never fired them
Up because it doesn't take long to realize
They are going to be problematic

I'll bet a lot of factory's could hardly wait to
Get rid of these with the upcoming slimline
Fixtures being introduced in the late 40s
Early 50s. My guess.

What I wonder is, what's going wrong with the fixtures to start with?

So you have some T17 fixtures up for trade?(I'm kind of confused reading all the posts) What would you be willing to trade for?

He wants to trade his T17 fixtures for F40T12 preheat fixtures.

I really don't have anything worth trading (or anything at all compared to John's collection.) Maybe we can make some good deals when I visit John on April 4th. I hope I can leave with a whole truckload of stuff if his prices aren't too high. 

Please don't get rid of all you're T-17 fixtures, Maybe a few to members here,

Any T17 ballasts and fluorescent bulbs that are burned out or have lost vacuums don't send to the recycle center as I will take those of you're hands when I see you so please save the bad T-17 bulbs and ballasts for me,

I use my T-17 fixtures , bulbs and ballasts for display only ,

Thanks John .

Roger,

PLEASE someone offer me SOMETHING  F40 Preheat in exchange for these "cool" but worthless as tits on a snake lights! I am so dang fed up with half of these dang things. All "work" but never when I NEED them to! They are more reliable below 0c/33f than they are in a heat wave! Total JUNK when I need reliable light in my barn! They are great to look at but SUCK for a reliable light source! I am tired of dealing with this junk. Help me swap it out for vintage preheat  F40s!!

I am not going to junk them, so dont worry.  I was just SUPER frustrated when I went to my barn and was putting some stuff out there in preparation for this weekend's party in the shop.  I turned on all the lights and about 1/3 of them did not fully work.  Some kept flashing but would not strike, some had only one tube lit and clearly one had a tube that had lost vacuum.  I have only had to replace one ballast and that was before I hung the lights.  I really can't afford to get rid of them because of the (literally) thousands of dollars I have invested in them.  The fixtures, ballasts and starters seem to be fine, but the tubes SUCK!  I can't do much about it right now anyway because the barn is packed FULL of equipment and "junk", making it difficult to access them.  Don't worry yall...when I do get rid of these or when I croak (whichever occurs first), they will go to fellow members here.