Couple of recent projects for September.

[CrownVic97]

Well, I figured I'd share for the heck of it. Gotta do this more often, ya know .

My supervisor at work texted me a couple of pics of this Federal 15 Junior Beacon Ray with NOS amber dome his father-in-law had in storage and was dug out for auction. He allowed me to have first dibs on it if interested. Yes, they are GLASS domes.


Well, as neat as these are, I don't feel the need to have it in my collection. Luckily, I have a contact in Bismarck who has a client looking for a vintage beacon like this, so I made him a good deal for both the beacon and amber dome.

Some pics after working on this a little bit.

Short video. It runs smooth and quiet for its age!

Next was a Facebook Marketplace find, and I had no idea I was gonna find something like this on there after punching in "lightbar"! Good thing it was only a 2.5 hr drive to Lemmon, SD for me. Worth the trip and a $100 12X TwinSonic is always good in my book .

Original ad picture:


After getting back and doing a quick rinse-and-wipe:




Teardown and cleaning started. Thankfully it was just dusty and not greasy. The siren speaker is a 58 watt Heath undercover-type speaker held with padded steel strapping. It worked for the fire department it was with I guess!


Lucky the original terminal label was just laying inside and not lost forever! That got glued back in it's rightful spot after cleaning the area off right away.



Cleaning done! Now to just get the speaker tray back in and bolt things up. I took the Heath speaker out and put a Federal S-100 in its spot (not pictured). My first idea was to set the rotators to alternate like the Twin Beacon Ray just for some break in the norm, but then after watching it a few times while on, I reset them back to sync-flash. Gotta stick with tradition sometimes, ya know?





Lense polishing. The left was done, right was in progress.


After buttoning everything up and adding different mounting feet (I'm keeping the original gutter-mount ones), this 12X is done. Don't know what the plans are for this dude yet, but I figure I'll hang onto it for a bit.

Thanks for checking out the thread, all

 

[Skulldigger]

Great projects. Love both those lights. I hope to add a Jr to my collection one day. All i need is money and I'm there. Lol

 

[jph2]

Good for you! My 12X was also $100 and a 2.5 hour trek, so I definitely agree it's worth it. Nice you only had to dust it off, essentially. Bonus on the terminal label! And nice job on the lenses.

 

[Maxim2Eng]

Very nicely done! I too picked up a 15 with from an officer on my brother's department for a good price...a red glass dome on the 15 and a blue glass dome in the box. Your video shows the TwinSonic "handclap" lighting effect beautifully! Love those lights!!

 

[CrownVic97]

Thank you, gentlemen! Jph2, the pictures don't show all the scratches and stuff in the lenses wetsanding could not get out. If I was a hardcore sander/polisher of lenses, then they'd be all gone, but I haven't patience or time for it. Clarity is what's important to me . Another thing I wish Federal would have done is to not have the one bracket supporting the X-mirrors be just so that it horribly mars up the inside of the dome in that one spot. Putting a simple 1/8" notch in that piece with tin snips at the factory would have solved the problem

 

[Skulldigger]

Can somebody give the dimensions of a Jr. Dome? I think I have seen one recently at a shop but was not sure if that was what if fit. Glass. Are there identifiers that help?

 

[CrownVic97]

Can somebody give the dimensions of a Jr. Dome? I think I have seen one recently at a shop but was not sure if that was what if fit. Glass. Are there identifiers that help?

I will get the size of the amber one tonight. Haven't got down to Bismarck yet to sell the beacon so I'll get that info for ya