Old Touch-Plate System Horror

[kenjsil]

Recently ran across a posting in alt.home.repair that might be of interest to someone reading this forum.
Apparently the poster inherited a building with a disastrous Touch-Plate lighting control installation.
The pictures are worth a look...if you like horror films

 

[jeff43222]

Re: Old Touch-Plate System Horror

Looks like another job for Sawzall!

 

[luke warmwater]

Re: Old Touch-Plate System Horror

I recently saw one in Elkton, MD that is amost this bad. It is being changed.

 

[CHEKSHORTS]

Touch-plate Systems

Touch-plate Systems

Nice Picture. Have Been Dealing With These Since 1980 In The San Fernando Valley. My Second Employer Installed A Lot Of These Systems Back In The Day.
Have Serviced Quite A Number Of Them Over The Years And, Believe It Or Not, I Have Actually Seen Two Or Three Of The Cans With Covers On. Hard To Find Pristine Touch-plate Systems That Have Survived 40 Or 50 Years.
Most Of Them Look At Least As Bad As The One In The Picture. I Just Looked At One Saturday That Looked Like A Christmas Tree, If You Think Of All The Relays As Ornaments! 20 Or More Hanging By The Wires And Originals Still In Place In The Box. Will Take A Picture Before I Make It All Pretty Again.

Hey, If It Was Easy, A Plumber Could Do It!

Michael
Michael T Roberts Electric
Van Nuys, Ca​

[/CENTER]

 

[mdshunk]

I hardly ever run across those systems anymore. Most have been abandoned. I still keep an RR7 relay on the truck for the odd service call. I have only seen two "touch plate" installs. Most I've serviced use the momentary switches.

 

[infinity]

I ran into one of them a few years ago. I told the owner to get someone else to fix it.

 

[ptonsparky]

Worked on one of these this summer. Worked great after 50 years. Covers on, relays good, vibration dampeners were gone or brittle but I've replaced residential grade devices that didn't last 3 years.

 

[sandsnow]

I have a couple of these laying around. My dad installed these systems. I'm not even that old. Touchplate called itself the "Path of Light". The book was written when electricians were paid $4.00/hour.

 

[e57]

I've had to work on these before too, but I'll tell you, the picture made my eyes hurt....

 

[allenwayne]

I just want to know what type of hack did this ????? And was able to sleep at night !!!!!

 

[Oakey]

That is awful

 

[allenwayne]

The pic or the hack or both ???

 

[Bob NH]

It looks like a terminal case of cancer. It probably was neat when it started, but then someone had to replace something and over time (successive replacements) it just grew to the terminal condition.

 

[resistance]

I agree with the above!

 

[yanici]

I have a couple of these laying around. My dad installed these systems. I'm not even that old. Touchplate called itself the "Path of Light". The book was written when electricians were paid $4.00/hour.

Funny, that's exactly my hourly rate I got when I first got my license. And, I thought it was pretty good pay.

 

[Oakey]

I ran into one of them a few years ago. I told the owner to get someone else to fix it.

Same here. The one I looked at was in the attic and looked like the pic above....Horrible but this is an old thread