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Wow a Nice Find Today!!!!
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My dad and I went here there and everywhere looking for a can of Krylon Dove Gray paint (no luck) and i found these at a local hardware store and bought them all (9) for a dollar each. Oddly enough they have 400W Sylvania MH lamps in OLD looking sleeve, though i passed on them since i don't have a fixture for them. I'll be testing them tonight on my grandpa's F90T17 fixture. How old are these?
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Oh I forgot to mention this but if you want cheap and have a good number of fixtures and have a lot of time sometimes it might be worth it to scrounge up ballasts for eBay or CL.
however some instant start electronic ballasts can be killed with all lamps dead /removed for too long
In the mean time, he still has the reflector to my OV-10. I gave it to him almost a year ago to buff out and it hasn't happened yet. He said he also has a huge box of fluorescent starters (i don't know why; he only has one preheater lol) but he can't seem to find it. When i can go to the shop again, he said if i can find it, the box is mine!
The T8 route will probably be cheaper than HID though since you can keep the existing fixtures and wiring and just change out the ballasts and lamps.
I'll probably end up retrofitting them since it will be cheaper like you said. Probably a few lights at a time so he's not spending a large amount all at once. Extra lights should ideally be added though since there are dark areas of his workshop/garage/shop. The new fixtures to fill in the dark spots will probably be F32T8 strip lights since new 8ft T8s are simply too expensive. Thankfully the ballasts aren't though.
He has a couple of cheapo 4ft plastic shoplites that he has in a couple of spots. I think their cords are cut and they're hardwired to the supply feed of the closest 8ft reflector strip light. I'll make sure those are taken down though since it's likely not an up-to-code installation.
Interestingly looking of F96T8 ballasts today, I came across this magnetic ballast for them. It's for the old style F96T8 introduced in the '40s but I heard they run the modern T8s just fine.
BTW, i found the suprise i've been looking for for a long time! F90T17 ballasts for less than these! Now if only the $20 one had free shipping.
Also, is operating a 2X F90T17 fixture with one of the lamps and starters removed going to harm the ballast? My grandpa has been doing it to his T17 for a decade now and i want to make sure he's not ruining the balalst.