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The Pride of my Mounting Arm Collection: 6ft Tapered Elliptical!
I really love these tapered elliptical arms. I've been trying to track one down for awhile now and finally have one. And in great shape too! This thing was chock full of dead wasp nests. It even came with the thru-bolt to mount it to the pole too! I believe this is made by HAPCO. This particular one is from former Eastern Utilities Associates territory (now NGrid) but New England Electric/Narragansett Electric (NECo) used these exact arms.

If this were a NEES arm, it would have originally had a 60s M-400, 60s M-250R, 60s M-250A, 70s M-250R1, 70s M-400 split door, Westy OV-15, Westy OV-25, ITT 25, or ITT 13. 

Since this was a EUA arm, I'm not positive what it originally had but it would have been a 100W MV. So likely either a M-250A, M-250R1, OV-15, or ITT 13. Its original 100W MV light was replaced with a 70W HPS M-250R2 FCO in 1993 and that light was installed on the arm until this morning when I took the light off it to fit it in my car.
Keywords: Gear

The Pride of my Mounting Arm Collection: 6ft Tapered Elliptical!

I really love these tapered elliptical arms. I've been trying to track one down for awhile now and finally have one. And in great shape too! This thing was chock full of dead wasp nests. It even came with the thru-bolt to mount it to the pole too! I believe this is made by HAPCO. This particular one is from former Eastern Utilities Associates territory (now NGrid) but New England Electric/Narragansett Electric (NECo) used these exact arms.

If this were a NEES arm, it would have originally had a 60s M-400, 60s M-250R, 60s M-250A, 70s M-250R1, 70s M-400 split door, Westy OV-15, Westy OV-25, ITT 25, or ITT 13.

Since this was a EUA arm, I'm not positive what it originally had but it would have been a 100W MV. So likely either a M-250A, M-250R1, OV-15, or ITT 13. Its original 100W MV light was replaced with a 70W HPS M-250R2 FCO in 1993 and that light was installed on the arm until this morning when I took the light off it to fit it in my car.

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Filename:032617_001.JPG
Album name:Mike / My Collection
Keywords:Gear
Filesize:421 KiB
Date added:Mar 27, 2017
Dimensions:2048 x 1536 pixels
Displayed:211 times
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=21660
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Comment 1 to 9 of 9
Page: 1

lite_lover   [Mar 27, 2017 at 03:33 AM]
Nice score Mike!
streetlight98   [Mar 27, 2017 at 03:38 AM]
Thanks Darren! What I like best about these is that there's no weld lines on the sides or anything. It's just one solid pipe. Some of the tapered arms I've seen elsewhere have weld lines toward the fat end.
lite_lover   [Mar 27, 2017 at 03:44 AM]
Nice, my two footer is like that and doesn't have weld lines but my 8 footer does.
streetlight98   [Mar 27, 2017 at 03:57 AM]
They used 8ft and 10ft ones here too. I don't think those had weld lines either. Not sure why they don't I'd imagine the ones with weld lines are a cheaper way to produce it?
lite_lover   [Mar 27, 2017 at 04:10 AM]
It seems like it would be cheaper / easier to weld in a tapered piece than producing a solid tapered arm years ago, but now with newer manufacturing processes shaping into a solid tapered arm may be faster cheaper.
streetlight98   [Mar 27, 2017 at 04:18 AM]
True. These arms date back to the 60s and have no weld lines, though apparently some companies still weld multiple pieces together. HAPCO is like the top dog in the aluminum light pole business so they probably have top of the line equipment to make these arms with no welds except at the base. I noticed a cool ribbed texture on the inside and outside of the arm running around the circumference of the pipe, like yard drain pipe. It's a very fine ribbing. I assume it has something to do with the way they form the taper in the pipe.
joe_347V   [Mar 27, 2017 at 04:25 AM]
Nice! Over here most of the aluminium tapered elliptical arms were made by Powerlite and now Thomas and Betts Al struct.
streetlight98   [Mar 27, 2017 at 04:32 AM]
Ah I wish we still used tapered arms here. NGrid occasionally reinstalls a removed one someplace else but it's uncommon. Lithonia distributes arms from Utility Metals IIRC.
lite_lover   [Mar 27, 2017 at 07:56 AM]
Mike: Yes the very fine ribbing would be produced during the taper forming process.

Joe: My 2ft tapered elliptical arms are Thomas and Betts Al Struct.

Comment 1 to 9 of 9
Page: 1