Stumbled on a 1970s fire alarm panel in a basement in Portland

I was swapping out an old DSC system for a guy off Division Street and found an old Fire-Lite panel from the 70s still hanging on the wall in his basement. It wasn't even disconnected, just sitting there with wires cut and the cover half off. I asked him about it and he said it came with the house and he never bothered to remove it. Has anyone else run into stuff that old on a normal residential job?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarh161mo ago

Oh come on, is it really that big of a deal though? I've seen way older stuff still hanging around in basements and nobody acts like it's some huge find. That panel probably weighs like 40 pounds and has been dead for decades. I mean what are you gonna do, frame it and put it on your wall? Just yank it down and toss it in the scrap pile. Half the houses in my neighborhood still have old telephone junction boxes from the 60s bolted to the side of them, nobody writes home about that.

tylerlane1mo ago

Wait, you're actually asking what someone would DO with a 40 lb antique electrical panel? You could sell it for a couple hundred bucks to the right person, that's what. People collect this stuff for man caves and retro themed bars, not to actually use it. Old telephone boxes on the side of a house are not the same as a vintage Cutler-Hammer panel with all the original guts and that cool art deco style faceplate.