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Old 28th Dec 2019, 12:30 pm   #41
Herald1360
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Quote:
Originally Posted by julie_m View Post
Were you thinking at any point during the operation, of the chandelier scene from Only Fools and Horses?


A friend has a similar sized (though much less ornate) monster in her hall but upstairs there's a small room with a proper winch and steel cable arrangement.
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Old 28th Dec 2019, 4:07 pm   #42
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Thanks Peter [p35*] I might be able to send a hard copy image of the shed [Tank] or seek help from the family. I've got this aberration when it comes to doing links/photos etc on the thread-inexplicable to the average user. It may have something to do with me being the last UK resident with a Clam Shell mobile [it doesn't take or accept photos]. The "Tank" is basically an 8' x 6' concrete box with the buttress's on the INSIDE [water is heavy]. Two foot is below ground level and 3' above. I put in a suspended floor over the drop. The timber framed top half is another 3' with re-cycled DG windows and a gently sloping "flat" roof. The Coughtrie light fitting should look good on it's corner in due course! My neighbour looked at the conversion and asked "Did you do that?" I said "Of course!" but I'm not sure whether her tone was admiring or sceptical

Dave

The house dates from 1910 but was burnt out in 1956 when a Calor Gas bathroom heater in one of the flats it had been converted into fired up with more than the usual customary bang. It's now just a two storey building with a Marley Tile V roof, resembling the Simpsons house of cartoon fame! Originally it was three storeys and an impressive Edwardian Villa but not anymore. Nowadays you'd have to put it back to the original design but it was different a decade after the war!

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Old 28th Dec 2019, 4:09 pm   #43
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Can't seem to get that image, Rubberfingers!

Any chance of taking a screenshot, and posting that instead?
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Old 28th Dec 2019, 4:15 pm   #44
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Even so, dave walsh, it sounds like a fascinating house!

Thankyou so much for your detailed reply.
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Old 28th Dec 2019, 4:21 pm   #45
dave walsh
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"Fascinating" [as Popeye would say]." I use that expression!

Dave
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Old 4th Jan 2020, 2:07 am   #46
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

I observe the architecturally interest of the homes and other buildings in the UK. There seems to be a lot of row houses, where a lot of homes are connected. I live in a home that is connected on one side, with the three other sides are exposed.
Also, most of the chimneys are a work of art, very ornate.
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Old 4th Jan 2020, 11:09 am   #47
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Your home in the UK would be known as a 'semi' ie semi-detached. The row houses are known as 'terraced' . You will find most of the small row houses in areas of bygone industrial activity, they were knocked up cheaply by industry owners to attract workers to their 'satanic mills' and mines..they were not expected to last but some have been hanging around now for well over a 100 years.

I remember visiting an architectural salvage yard when young and seeing all the chimney stacks......I thought they were part of a giant chess game LOL.
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Old 4th Jan 2020, 11:36 am   #48
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

I’ve just finished tarting up one of the FS10’s that was hanging around in the workshop, thought it’d be useful above our back door! It was a bit corroded and scruffy looking to begin with, mostly on the top around the writing, the tube part would not unscrew from the wall plate at all, I tried numerous things to shift it, but it wouldn’t budge, it took some doing to get the tube to unscrew from the lamp holder end, but it came off without breaking. I used Halfords paints on it again, since I used them on the other one that hangs on the corner of the house, so they are both in matching ‘Ford polar grey’.

I think this particular light fitting was one of the later FS10’s, as it has a different lamp holder, and uses pozi or Philips head screws. Also on this one the lamp holder is screwed down directly, and removing the screws makes the top part of the lamp holder section come off, making it easier to clean inside it and respray.

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Lloyd
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Old 31st Jan 2020, 5:50 pm   #49
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Since mentioning that I'd originally saved a couple of these corner type outside light fittings, but only cleaned up and used one of them, particularly as one of them wouldn't accommodate a 'long' style CFL lamp under its glass, I decided to have a look at the fitting that I'd never used. However, when I went to look for it where I thought it was in the shed, I found it wasn't there. I wondered whether I'd put it somewhere up in the roof of the garage, but it wasn't there. Perhaps I'd moved it into the loft of the house, but I couldn't find it there either. So the other day I ended up unearthing half of the stuff in the shed and it turned out that I'd moved it and buried it right at the back - I had started to actually wonder what I'd done with it.

Below are some pictures of this second light unit. This one has the remains of PVC wiring connected to it, so it must have been the first fitting that I remember having old black rubber covered wiring. As can be seen, there's been a separate earth connection made to it, and the strange thing that I'd completely forgotten about is that there's a spare threaded bolt for the globe collar wound into the end of the earth wire for (hopefully) safe keeping, a possibly very useful spare to have. I honestly don't know how I happen to have this spare bolt, unless there was a third fitting that was completely scrap and I managed to salvage a spare bolt from it, I just can't remember as it must be a good thirty years ago when I originally salvaged them.


I've found that in the time that I've had one of these fittings up on a rear corner of the house, that it's gone through a couple of CFL low energy type lamps in less time than they would have survived in a fully ventilated fitting inside a house, considering the equivalent hours of use. I've thought about possibly trying a LED lamp, but again, although the electronics of these don't run particularly hot, in the (virtually) un-ventilated environment of these light units, the life span could be somewhat shortened. They're made for tungsten filament lamps (bulbs) that run hot, but survive in the 'very' hot confines of the light unit - note the ceramic/porcelain bulb holder used in these fittings just for this very reason.

The fitting shown below is ripe for a good clean up and re-paint, and I've got another corner of the house where it can be fitted when it's ready. It also has no gasket for the glass, so one will have to be made. Since the fitting that's already been in use has been up on the wall, the original gasket that wasn't particularly good at the time has since rotted badly and fell to bits on a previous lamp change and I had to fabricate a replacement.
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Old 31st Jan 2020, 6:31 pm   #50
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

I have found that wasps and woodlice crawl along inside the conduit and end up inside the glass 'globe'.

If I install one of these I will either put some acrylic caulk or loft insulation fibres in the conduit to keep the insects out.
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Old 31st Jan 2020, 6:44 pm   #51
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Yes, I think that fibrous material would be the best due to the fitting needing to be able to breathe. If it was completely sealed it could perhaps lead to the glass cracking or the gasket blowing. However, due to these fittings generally being used outside and even in the summer, they would normally be used only after dark when the surrounding air temperature is cooler, this external cooling would probably prevent anything extreme happening - still better to let the fitting breathe I would have thought, while still preventing those insects getting in and dropping into the bottom of the glass.
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Old 31st Jan 2020, 6:58 pm   #52
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Loft-insulation, or maybe a lump of wire-wool, to pack the tube would be my preferred path.
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Old 31st Jan 2020, 7:21 pm   #53
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

A point to mention regarding the fitting shown above not being able to accommodate a long CFL lamp inside the glass, is that it's actually to do with the dome shape of the fitting itself being different between the two fittings, and nothing to do with the length of the glass - the bulb holder sits lower than it does in the first fitting that I put into use.

Wire wool would be good to keep the insects out, although it might eventually rust away, depending on conditions. Depending on the wattage of the lamp fitted, it could possibly cause induced currents in the wires of the wire wool, causing it to heat up - Yes, I know, I'm thinking far too deeply here!
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 11:41 pm   #54
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Here's a picture of my fitting that has been in use for a few years now, but taken in daylight a few weeks after the first picture. Note the difference in the dome of the fitting, allowing the lamp holder to sit higher. I realised that I was pushing it a bit by running a fairly large CFL lamp in a virtually un-ventilated fitting. I reckon that I could easily get away with an LED lamp in that unit, as the electronics generate a lot less heat than the electronics in the old CFL type do, so should survive better in that environment - and certainly be a lot more economical to run.
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Old 8th Feb 2020, 2:57 pm   #55
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Here's another Coughtrie classic retrieved from the garage. These were very popular in their day (1960s/70s?) It appears to be a model 'SY10'. I think they're rather nice and this one will be cleaned up and pressed into service before long. In fact I'm sure I have another one somewhere...

This house also has an original Coughtrie lamp in working order and looking good with a clear tungsten bulb that's probaby been in there for many a year.

Steve
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Old 11th Apr 2020, 11:59 pm   #56
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

I have just rescued one that was due to be taken away by the scrap man at our local allotments. I asked and got an instant "help yourself to it".
The first port of call after hitching a ride home with gardening tools will have to be bomb disposal as a tape bomb has been discovered between the corner bracket and the stand-off.
There is a couple of paint chips on the back of the lamp holder but otherwise it looks like it will clean up.
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Old 12th Apr 2020, 12:13 am   #57
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Nice save there, got one waiting in the shed myself, but someone bent the straight pole bit between the bracket and head, so it sits a bit wonky! Yours looks in great condition.

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Old 12th Apr 2020, 12:29 am   #58
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Default Re: Coughtrie light

Mine does not look bent.
I take it that there is a couple of screws either side of the bulb holder to get the back off for painting.
The bulb holder carrier and corner bracket look like they will both just need cleaning.
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Old 12th Apr 2020, 8:59 am   #59
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Yes, the back of the head should come off for painting, if it’s pozi screws holding the bulb holder directly to the head, the other version has some metal tabs that hold the bulb holder in place, and I’ve not been able to disassemble one of those type, probably because the ones I’ve tried it on have been too corroded!

It’s my one that’s bent, here’s a photo! I did manage to straighten it a little bit since that photo, but it still sits a bit wonky.

Regards
Lloyd
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Old 12th Apr 2020, 9:55 am   #60
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The standoff may well be the same size as steel conduit.
It is well worth trying a bit if you can find one.
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