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  #1  
Old 12-07-2012, 12:56 PM
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DavGoodlin DavGoodlin is offline
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Vintage christmas lights

I am disgusted with the flimsy 50/100 light sets. Each year, at least two strings that worked the year before quit working and I waste time using a neon lamp to probe the lamp holders for the 1 in 50 culprit. The LED sets are an improvement of sorts, but nothing says holidays like an incandescent filament glowing inside an American made lamp, especially a vintage GE C-7 Lamp.

There is no reason you cannot use vintage lights safely and without adding hard-burn hours to your unobtanium lamps.

The first series-strings of 8 lamps, only 14 volts each with screw-in mini-candelabra base.
If you apply the full 120 volts, these are obscenely bright and get pretty hot as well.
These sets are from the 30s and 40s. I got some Westinghouse lamps at some "closeout stores" pretty cheap becuase they had no idea what used them.
IMG_3275.jpg

The bottom lampholder/end cap shown here are from the mid 1960s and have been faithfully working every year, and must be wound around a coffee can then stored very gently. The metal branch hooks are perfect for using the Raylite and Paramount Bubble lights. The top one is from the late 80s, sadly probably the last USA-made ones, also still fully intact. The all-plastic construction was not an improvement though.
Xmas lite 1.jpg

The photo below is a 3-gang blue plastic outlet box with the ears sawed off. If you are going to use the older lights and stay out of trouble, you need to have a good safety plan. This includes a common 600-watt dimmer to reduce voltage and greatly extend lamp life, a GFCI receptacle and a 10-amp type W Edison-base fuse. This was especially important to me because of the 20-amp circuit breaker feeding the receptacle in the dining room. I plan to add a breaker with a CAFCI (combination arc-fault circuit interrupter) when the price of those becomes reasonable. For now, this is more precaution than anybody ever used before.
xmas lite 2.jpg

Last edited by DavGoodlin; 12-07-2012 at 05:04 PM.
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Old 12-08-2012, 09:14 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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The best way to get more life from those old lamps, is to splice in a few more lamps into the string, from a scrap set.
I saw that hint in an old Popular Mechanics, when those lights were more commonly used.
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Old 12-08-2012, 04:31 PM
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jr_tech jr_tech is offline
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I display vintage series string Noma and Paramount bubble lights 24/7 year round in a 8 lamp candelabra with a diode inserted in series with the string. Most bubble lights will still bubble ok with the reduced average voltage, although they are running much cooler. I get only one or 2 "burnouts" per year.

jr
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Old 12-08-2012, 11:39 PM
ctc17 ctc17 is offline
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This is great. I used to be real into collecting the energy hoggs. The Idea I had if I ever dig them out was to run a diode in series to half voltage them. Either that use a buck transformer and drop them 20 volts or so.
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Old 12-10-2012, 08:39 AM
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DavGoodlin DavGoodlin is offline
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Thanks for the comments guys, the mounting number of bubble lights in my "to be restored" box was prompting me to do this.
Once I get one apart easily, I will post a thread on replacing the lamp.
The diode idea is probably better than a dimmer. No wasted energy in the form of heat.
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Old 12-12-2012, 12:13 PM
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compu_85 compu_85 is offline
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I can't stand how cheap modern lights are... and it seems like they overdrive the lamps to make them whiter... then they burn out after one season. And the C6 / C9 lamps you can get now are all junk.

I have several old strands of lights saved up, most still have vintage lamps in them. They hare really great color

I "worked around" the problem buy buying LED lights. The ones on the bushes and hanging in the front window are 3 seasons old, no failures





I need to crack out my meter to confirm, but I think the whole display takes about 100 watts.

-J
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Old 08-31-2013, 11:56 AM
kramden66 kramden66 is offline
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how about a string of tubes for christmas lights ? wont be very bright but unique , could be brighter if fed 7 or 8 volts.
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Old 09-02-2013, 12:41 AM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kramden66 View Post
how about a string of tubes for christmas lights ? wont be very bright but unique , could be brighter if fed 7 or 8 volts.
Expensive too... just to make a neat idea more cost-effective, how about a tube candelabra for window display?

Now, someone try beating Clark Griswold's display, not to mention his rant when he found out his cheapskate boss suspended Christmas bonuses.

Last edited by Jon A.; 09-29-2015 at 04:15 PM.
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  #9  
Old 09-05-2013, 04:04 AM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavGoodlin
There is no reason you cannot use vintage lights safely and without adding hard-burn hours to your unobtanium lamps.
No there isnt and they look MUCH NICER than these LED pieces of garbage!!


I miss christmas's we used to have in the 80s and before...... NICE BIG THICK COLOURED LIGHTS..... BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Now we have white LED lights and they are disgusting looking .... I wouldnt even care if we didnt setup a tree anymore!!
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Old 09-05-2013, 05:28 PM
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compu_85 compu_85 is offline
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I was happy with the led lights we put on our house last year. You just have to find ones with good color - sometimes a challenge as many are ugly and flicker too much.

-J


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Old 09-06-2013, 02:23 PM
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Ed in Tx Ed in Tx is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavGoodlin View Post
Thanks for the comments guys, the mounting number of bubble lights in my "to be restored" box..
Geez.. I remember when I was a kid going to Kresge's and buying those bubble lights NEW! Back in the '50s.
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  #12  
Old 09-07-2013, 08:03 PM
walterbeers walterbeers is offline
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I used to love going to look at all the Christmas lights when I was a kid. They seemed so bright and colorful then. Now, everyone has these tiny string lights that don't even impress me. Plus it was fun replacing those 7 and 9 watt bulbs, making sure every one of them was lite every night. Maybe it's just because I'm getting old, but Christmas lights just ain't what they used to be.
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Old 09-07-2013, 08:57 PM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by walterbeers View Post
I used to love going to look at all the Christmas lights when I was a kid. They seemed so bright and colorful then. Now, everyone has these tiny string lights that don't even impress me. Plus it was fun replacing those 7 and 9 watt bulbs, making sure every one of them was lite every night. Maybe it's just because I'm getting old, but Christmas lights just ain't what they used to be.
Not necessarily, I'm 32 and nothing new impresses me.
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Old 09-08-2013, 01:47 AM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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Same here bud!!
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Old 09-16-2013, 03:08 PM
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DavGoodlin DavGoodlin is offline
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The formative years of my best Christmas light memories were in 1966 or 7 in Texas.
The indoor C7 sets had green/red twisted conductors, metal branch clips, fused plugs....and we had the larger C9 set outside on the bushes. Im sure most came from Monkey-Wards. Still have them too.

Staring at a blue GE C7 lamp for what seemed like hours, imagining the tiny paint bubbles were stars in the night sky. A few of the off-shore lamps infiltrated our stock somehow, with thier yellow-metal screw shells, odd colors EXTERNALLY applied to clear lamps. Looked like hell when the paint chipped off.
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