Insulator Tips
Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", January 1999, page 12
GLASS SHELVING
Most people know about using glass blades from louver windows as shelves for
insulators. They come 3" and 4" and up to four feet long. I think the
4" depth is the best. But few know you can get 4", knife-edge brackets
for this glass, but not at regular hardware stores.
Try an industrial hardware
store that sells to people who make kitchen cabinets and furniture. Two brands
are: Kanpe-Voit #K-180 and Reeve #RE-41. Current price is about $1.25 each for
brushed chrome. You may have to grind or file the inside of the front return a
bit, for more room between the bracket and the metal wall standard. Mount these
on the wall at 16" O.C., with screws long enough to go 1" into the
wood behind the plaster. It holds a ton, and looks great.
Note, louver windows
are less common now. Some cities have outlawed them because it's so easy for burglars to break in.
Ron Smart, Los
Angeles, CA
DISPLAY OF THE MONTH
I've been collecting insulators for about five years. While building a small
patio around a mulberry bush fence, I came up with the idea of displaying some
of my colored "jewels."
I was really impressed with the covers of CJ
from April 1997 and October 1997. I have made display shelves in front of
windows inside my house, but allowing natural sunlight, uninhibited to strike my
colored insulators really does them justice. I'm sending in a picture of my
latest creation in hopes of maybe starting a trend. Perhaps Crown Jewels of the
Wire can run "a picture of the month" showing how collectors display
many of their prized possessions. Anyway, here is my entry. I hope you like it!
Neal Starkey,
North Miami, FL
starkey_n@popmail.firn.edu
The basic structure was made with pressure treated 4" by 4" boards.
The insulators are mounted on wooden insulator pins purchased from Louis Bornman.
Some of the insulators are CD 162's and CD 102's in amber, cobalt blue, purple,
aqua, green and carnival. Some glass suspension insulators, with one large
cobalt "mud is goot" suspension, hanging in the middle. The large
glass insulator on the table is a CD 303/310 in aqua. While some collectors have
to hibernate for the winter, we down here in Miami, Fl. can enjoy our treasures
year round. Neal Starkey NIA #5886
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