I came across an old Mole Richardson fresnel light at a antique street fair. I passed on it when I saw what looked like asbestos on the ring holding the glass lens in place and on the wire leads. Does anyone have experience reconditioning these? Is it too much of a risk messing with the asbestos? Are they worth picking up for cheap? I frequent these street fairs and thought this may be a way to add to my kit.

It shouldn't be too much of a deal, but I'm no asbestos expert. I've used 3M asbestos tape to cover the wires in the lamp housing when I rewired my 1K's and even the Inkies. It's white, so it'll reflect the heat and the asbestos does it's thing. I have used asbestos tape around the fresnel to keep it from jiggling around and to act as a sort of shock absorber for the fresnel. It dries out after a while, but it seems to work well. I only had to do that with one luminaire.

You may want to wear a breathing mask and safety glasses to keep the asbestos dust out of your lungs and eyes.

Mole sells cans of Mole crimson and reflective white spray paint. I think they have black too. Rustoleum may also do the trick. A little steel wool and/or sandpaper and you're ready to paint.

I've built up my kit through judicious bidding on ebay

Happy rewiring!

Asbestos? Yikes. I've got an old Mole 1K I need to get reconditioned as well, and this has me a little worried. It keeps popping lamps for some reason (an expensive quirk). Hope more people can contribute info about all this. I don't think a breathing mask is going to do much to block asbestos fibers by the way.

I think the asbestos hazard is very minimal with the old wires.

I made a mistake, the tape I used isn't asbestos it's 3M #27 Glass Cloth Electrical Tape. It's a woven fiberglass tape, sticky on one side. According to the box it provides heat stable insulation for furnace and oven controls, etc.