Twist-Lock Light Jack Provides New Options
If you’ve ever tried to wire a ceiling lighting fixture while balancing on a step ladder, or wondered why doesn’t someone come up with a quick and easy way to remove a chandelier for cleaning or replacement, you’re in luck.
Lightech Industries Inc., Stamford, Conn., has introduced the relatively inexpensive Safety Twist jack that makes hanging a chandelier almost as easy as removing a lid from an olive jar (probably easier, since I’ve run across some obstinate olive jar lids!).
The Safety Twist system is an example of a consumer-oriented product--with Underwriters Laboratories listing--that was developed specifically to simplify a problem so pesky that many people often put up with inadequate lighting because they don’t want to go to the expense of calling an electrician.
I took a look at the new product at Valley Lighting & Lamps, 12205 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, one of the dealers the Lightech people told me about. Other Southland dealers--more are being signed up each day--include Brentwood Lighting Co., 11961 San Vicente Blvd.; Zaven Electric Supply Inc., 410 W. Colorado Blvd., Glendale, and Ridgely Lighting, 2263 Michael Drive, Newbury Park.
According to Bruce Dennis at Valley Lighting, the Safety Twist system retails for $12 and consists of two pieces: The receptacle jack is first installed on any standard four-inch junction box. You’ll have to use a ladder for this, or you could have this part done by an electrician.
The light fixture jack is wired to the fixture on the floor or on a table. It is then connected with a push and twist to the junction-box jack.
Dennis likes the system, if only because it opens up new vistas to users of lighting fixtures. Looking around my own house, I can see several places where a Safety Twist jack can be installed. American manufacturing technology lives!
While I was at Valley Lighting, Bruce Dennis showed me several versatile products that the firm has developed in conjunction with Our Own Lighting Corp., 14707 Oxnard St., Van Nuys. Among these are seven- and 14-inch cordless picture lights; a seven-inch cordless stick-up light using Velcro fasteners and bulb covers that attach with a spring hoop to bare bulbs in closets or elsewhere.
The picture lights and the stick-up light use fluorescent bulbs and two penlight batteries, eliminating the need for cords.
Screen repairman Chuck Fromberg (Dale Baldwin, April 28, 1985) has opened a permanent shop in Newhall (24619 Arch St.) but his Action Screen & Door business is still largely a mobile operation. Fromberg has two VW vans equipped with materials and tools for repairing screens and doors.
Now is a good time to take a look at your screen and have them repaired, he suggests. If the frames are in good condition, the screens can be rewired.
“Bugs can enter through the smallest of holes, so a bent frame will probably have to be replaced,” Fromberg said. “If you’re in the market for a new screen door, install a good quality one. It will last 10 times longer than a bargain one while costing only a few dollars more.”
