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Message Icon Topic: Mylar Curtains/Vinyl Banners: Flameproofing?(Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply Post New Topic
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Mr. Lowell
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bullet Topic: Mylar Curtains/Vinyl Banners: Flameproofing?
    Posted: 9/28/09 at 5:09pm
Has anyone looked into the fire safety of mylar rain curtains and vinyl banners? 
 
Obviously the liquid flameproofing chemicals won't soak in to these materials.  But are they what are called "inherently flame retardant"...like gels for lights?
 
I never gave it much thought before, but it would be good to find out more about it before the next show where we use printed banners or split rain curtains.
 
Thanks, Dana
Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School
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David McCall
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bullet Posted: 9/28/09 at 6:44pm
I've seen gels burn under one conditions.
 
I used a deep blue gel a 2000 watt ellipsoidal that had a 6" lens once.
I pulled up the dimmer and walked out into the house to see how it looked. Then noticed a funny sound "speesss-futt" (it's hard to spell it). When I went back to check it out, there were tiny fireballs of gel falling from the light to the floor. That is the only time I ever saw that happen though.
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Mr. Lowell
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bullet Posted: 9/29/09 at 9:54am
Originally posted by David McCall

When I went back to check it out, there were tiny fireballs of gel falling from the light to the floor. .
 
Wow..."buzz bombs"!  Burning plastic buzzes as it drips.   Good thing this didn't happen over the audience during a show...you could set a gramma's blue hair on fire!
 
By the way, I have about 300 cuts of Roscolux gel, mostly blues, that have holes the size of quarters burned through them from my darn 750 watt Source4 lekos.  The reflectors are defective and no matter how I bench focus them, they still burn a hole through dark gel in about 30 seconds!  (But I found some gel extender tophats that help...and try to buy a few more extenders with each show budget...100 more to go!)
 
 
Mr. Lowell,
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at Greensboro Day School
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David McCall
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bullet Posted: 9/29/09 at 10:31am
Source 4s aren't supposed to do that. At least not in 30 seconds. They used to suggest using a pounce wheel to punch a bunch of tiny holes that allowed the gels to ventilate a little. . I'm not sure it did much, but I never did a real test.
 
Speaking of the old days. We used to use gels that were actually made of gelatin. They went away pretty quick when quartz lamps came out. A light with one of the new lamps would burn right through even the lighter colors in short order. One of the few good things about real gels was that you could wet them down and mold them around low wattage light bulbs to make colored lights.
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bullet Posted: 9/29/09 at 11:03am
Yes, I tried a punch wheel.  It just gave the burning holes a faster head start!
 
The problem with my particular Source4's is that the reflector mounting springs were manufactured to the improper tolerances, making the focal point of the beam converge right at the gel frame.  So it's like a kid burning ants with a magnifying glass!  (Although a few instuments have the opposite focal quirk, where they project all the little squares in the glass reflector like some funky gobo!...and still others project starburst striations all over the place.)  But don't get me wrong, ETC is my favorite company in the industry and they give tremendous support.
 
Well, I'm not old enough to remember gelatin gels, but I once knew all the Roscolene numbers by heart!  Roscolene was much thicker than Lux, and after a while the colors would fade and it would get brittle and crack. 
 
 
Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School
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Gaafa
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bullet Posted: 9/30/09 at 9:39pm
I cut my teeth on the old 'Cinemiod' gels, gawd I'm that old!Embarrassed
Like you Dana I knew the gel colour numbers by heart, luckily Lee Filters adopted the same colour number system, when they came on the scene, only adding 100 [prefix] to the Cinemiod colour number system.
I soaked a piece of the latest gell in fire retardant &
put in the gobo gate of an old Strand Patt 23N profile, which I upgraded to take a 1250 watt bubble, to use as a Lime [Dome] followspot.
The effect was great a bit like the old oil colour wheel. The globes heat evaporated the fliud eventualy, but it took quite a while. Mainly because the new gels surface has a metalic finish, thus reflecting a lot of the heat from the bubble side of the gel.
With the 23N I also made up a slide bracket, for the front of the extended concile lens. Which allowed more air flow between the lens & gel frame. This tended to extend the gels life dramaticaly.  

One thing that amases me is why they still use the old Bakers Tray sheet maesurements that the sizes gel sheets come in?

      Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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bullet Posted: 9/30/09 at 10:15pm
With Slash Curtains one other thing I have done, was to use old VCR tape.
I got a pile of old cassetes & got our warm props to roll the tape out & make up the slash curtain.
It was very effective & the cast had heaps of fun knocking it up.
      Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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