Going to revolutionize the way we hang wood hoods

[Deano]

Screw cables to hang your hood.

 

I am going to revolutionize the way we mount hoods over our tanks. This method will utilize off the shelf stuff and if you are a thrifty ebay shopper, $17.00 for the parts.

 

You will be able to swivel, twist, tilt or raise you hood up or down.

 

You will be amazed you didn't think of this yourself.

 

Here it is!

 

This one is rated at 30lbs but you can get them for heavier TV's.

 

If you have already done this please share.

 

Tune into my 20 Long build tread for details.

[Stephensx04]

Hate to burst your bubble but cant raise or lower it.

[kayl]

Hate to burst your bubble but cant raise or lower it.

 

If he buys a more expensive one he can though

[Maddevil1]

Hate to burst your bubble but cant raise or lower it.

 

If you hang the fixture directly above your tank you can.....

[Stephensx04]

If you hang the fixture directly above your tank you can.....

 

 

I hope he figures something out and makes it work. Could be and interesting idea. But if he hangs from ceiling I dont think they can hold it up. Will just extend arm completly. Then you will have no front to back or side to side movent.

[Maddevil1]

I hope he figures something out and makes it work. Could be and interesting idea. But if he hangs from ceiling I dont think they can hold it up. Will just extend arm completly. Then you will have no front to back or side to side movent.

 

Yea, I wasnt sure if they had some kind of tension built in to the arm. Otherwise, you are right, it will just hang straight down.

[Stephensx04]

Its a neat idea. And if thought out could probably work. The only think I dont like about it is I think it could look out of place. Having it hung on cables or even high tension fishing line make it look so much more streamline. Like the fixture is hovering in mid air. If only we could do away with the power cable.

 

Its thoughts like this that keep this hobby going. Taking stuff that wasnt designed for a reef tank and making it work. OP if you do decide to do this please keep us updated. It may work out good for someone with a in wall build and can use it to swing light fixture out of the way to service tank.

[senoufo]

interesting idea. just hope your tank center is alligned with a ceiling stud so you can manipulate safely.

[Deano]

It will not hang from the ceiling. It will be mounted to the wall behind the tank. In my case I am going to make a arm attached to my stand sticking up to mount it to. If your mounting bracket has holes or sliders in it you can adjust it up and down, but no this mount has no up and down adjustment but my bracket I am going to mount it will be adjustable up and down.

 

This thing can swing in and out right and left to center it over your tank. It will tilt so you can level it.

 

I have the bracket ordered but let me try and Skectch up my plan.

[evilc66]

Make sure it's level in all directions, or the arm will drift in the direction it's leaning.

 

If I were you, I would position your hood over the tank with the arm completely collapsed. This way you have a defined home position that you can hit every time you put the hood back. Then you can move it out of the way to get into the tank.

[Deano]

I have a LCD TV mounted with one of these and all pivot points have screws you can tighten to ad more tention so it will not move by itself.

 

Just what I had planned on doing.

 

The cool part is I will be able to move the hood out of the way by just swinging to the side.

[Deano]

OK this little project is completed.

 

Less then $30.00 to mount this hood over the my tank. Since this is all contained on the stand I don't have to worry about moving the tank and have to reset hanging cables. Keep in mind you can mount this to a wall stud behind your tank as well. Because the TV bracket swing arms (where they pivot on each other) are not the same length you can not center the bracket mount to the tank, but since the arm swings it is not to critical where your stud is unless you are going to have the bracket completely collapsed as I did then the bracket location is much more critical. Another critical mounting issue to the tank stand is the stand arm should be tee at the bottom and bolted on both sides of the tee. This give the mount arm rigidity and keeps it from sagging or tilting in. You can't tell that this bottom bracket is tee since it is setting over the back wall of my tank stand. But this should give some idea. Sorry couldn't find 2 of the same bolts here.

 

 

Since I can swing the hood out of the way getting into the tank is very easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

YES! I know that I need to paint them aluminum stand arm, but I figured it was easier to see while it was still unpainted.

 

On a scale from 1- 10 I give this about a 8, only because I drilled and tapped everything. If you used nuts and bolts this project is a easy 5. Even less if you mount the bracket to a wall stud.

[blibo]

Not cool enough yet...you should mount the tank as well

[Deano]

Not cool enough yet...you should mount the tank as well

 

 

Man a tough crowd to please. Who needs a tank? Just the light and stand is cool enough. :

[Deleted User 6]

pics are kinda dark as well.

[Deano]

pics are kinda dark as well.

 

Look at them again there about 20lbs lighter now. I no I weighed them.

[redfishsc]

This is a pretty cool idea that I may very well use on my upcoming cube build.

 

Here's what I'm planning on building.

 

I've hemmed and hawed over how I was going to do the canopy since I wanted to be able to move it out of the way easily. Cha-ching, then I see this.

 

Nice work and ingenuity.

 

 

interesting idea. just hope your tank center is alligned with a ceiling stud so you can manipulate safely.

 

 

Not necessary to have a stud in the perfect spot. All you need to do is cut, sand, and stain (or paint) a 2X4 or a 2X6 that is long enough to span across the ceiling (or wall) joists. Usually 20-24" is long enough depending on the spacing/location of the joists/studs.

 

Mount (with 3" wood screws) this stained or painted board directly over your tank, and shoot the screws into the ceiling (or wall).

 

That way, your board is screwed directly to the wall/ceiling, and you are free to mount the brace ANYWHERE you want to, and the stained/painted board can look quite nice as a mounting plaque.

 

 

I've done this sort of thing with many, many heavy objects (up to about 100lbs) and it works fine. Never hung anything 100lbs from a ceiling but I've hung some HUGE bronze plaques this way from a wall.

[Deano]

This is a pretty cool idea that I may very well use on my upcoming cube build.

 

Here's what I'm planning on building.

 

I've hemmed and hawed over how I was going to do the canopy since I wanted to be able to move it out of the way easily. Cha-ching, then I see this.

 

Nice work and ingenuity.

 

 

 

 

 

Not necessary to have a stud in the perfect spot. All you need to do is cut, sand, and stain (or paint) a 2X4 or a 2X6 that is long enough to span across the ceiling (or wall) joists. Usually 20-24" is long enough depending on the spacing/location of the joists/studs.

 

Mount (with 3" wood screws) this stained or painted board directly over your tank, and shoot the screws into the ceiling (or wall).

 

That way, your board is screwed directly to the wall/ceiling, and you are free to mount the brace ANYWHERE you want to, and the stained/painted board can look quite nice as a mounting plaque.

 

 

I've done this sort of thing with many, many heavy objects (up to about 100lbs) and it works fine. Never hung anything 100lbs from a ceiling but I've hung some HUGE bronze plaques this way from a wall.

 

 

I appreciate the complements.

 

My intention for this thread was to throw out just another way to do something done 100 differant ways already. The main thing about this method is being able to swing the hood out of the way and get rid of cables hanging from the ceiling.

 

If a guy had a CNC Machine (cough, cough EVIL) you might even be able to make some brackets for some of the popular aluminum light housings being used to work with these TV brackets.

 

As the others stated hanging this system from the ceiling will most likely not work since the weight of the hood will straighten out the TV bracket although you can tighten up the pivot points.

 

As intended extending from the wall is a perfect setup.

[redfishsc]

I got to thinking about this, this evening.

 

I have a pile of door hinges laying around and I could probably build this kind of thing (more or less) using some good quality plywood offcuts from the shop, and door hinges.

 

The one caveat.... I need to figure a way to "lock" it in place so that it doesn't drift like Evilc66 mentioned. I already have a few ideas in mind, but they require having everything installed and done so that I can see the "problem" with my own eyes.

 

 

I had posted a drawing I did of this, but it had so many flaws with the drawing that I took it down. I'll try to repost it tomorrow when I'm not losing my freaking mind lol.

[Deano]

I got to thinking about this, this evening.

 

I have a pile of door hinges laying around and I could probably build this kind of thing (more or less) using some good quality plywood offcuts from the shop, and door hinges.

 

The one caveat.... I need to figure a way to "lock" it in place so that it doesn't drift like Evilc66 mentioned. I already have a few ideas in mind, but they require having everything installed and done so that I can see the "problem" with my own eyes.

 

 

I had posted a drawing I did of this, but it had so many flaws with the drawing that I took it down. I'll try to repost it tomorrow when I'm not losing my freaking mind lol.

 

Because the pivot joints on these TV Brackets have bolts you can tighten, putting friction on the those joints you do not have to worry about the bracket creeping if it is slightly out of balance.

 

Now if you put bolts through the door hinge joints that you can tighten down they might work.

[HecticDialectics]

I got to thinking about this, this evening.

 

I have a pile of door hinges laying around and I could probably build this kind of thing (more or less) using some good quality plywood offcuts from the shop, and door hinges.

 

The one caveat.... I need to figure a way to "lock" it in place so that it doesn't drift like Evilc66 mentioned. I already have a few ideas in mind, but they require having everything installed and done so that I can see the "problem" with my own eyes.

 

 

I had posted a drawing I did of this, but it had so many flaws with the drawing that I took it down. I'll try to repost it tomorrow when I'm not losing my freaking mind lol.

 

 

Why try to recreate the wheel? There are tons of LCD mounts pre-assembled that would work fine.

[Deano]

Why try to recreate the wheel? There are tons of LCD mounts pre-assembled that would work fine.

 

I agree, but hey! If he wants to play with using hinges thats fine with me. This is why I started this tread just to throw out ideas how to change the way we mount hoods. Some will use this idea others will prefer to hang them with cables. There is no wrong way to do it if the hood is hanging above the tank safely.

[redfishsc]

Why try to recreate the wheel? There are tons of LCD mounts pre-assembled that would work fine.

 

 

Because the original wheel may be:

 

1) Insufficient in range of motion.

 

2) Insufficient in strength.

 

3) Not customizable.

 

4) More expensive.

 

5) Not a DIY job.

 

 

I'm fairly confident that, if I had the hinges laying around (which I believe I do) then I can build something with the same, or more, capabilities for nearly nothing. I already have piles of plywood.

 

Plus, if cost is no object, you can get some beefy institutional door hinges that can handle enormous amounts of weight. Much more than our canopies. And you could make a swing-arm canopy that moves out of YOUR way when you need to mess around in the tank.

 

The only obstacle I'm mulling over, really, is making it stay put. And I've already got an idea or two for that, but I'm trying to streamline it.

 

By the way, if my widget works, it's distinctly possible to recreate this thing so that we can move HUGE hoods forward a good 4 feet or more so that we can access the inside of the tank easier.

 

The two things that limit us there is the length of the cords for the lights (which aren't needed anyhow and can be unplugged when the canopy is moved) and the width of the tank. If it's really wide (front to back) we'd really need to make something with long arms.

[redfishsc]

OK.

 

How about this.

 

The size hinge (meaning, thickness and durability) would vary depending on your hood weight, and you'd HAVE to use a good solid grade 3/4" plywood or rugged hardwood (like maple or oak).

 

But, I think this is very doable for square-shaped hoods up to about 24" square. Again, the hard part being "keeping it centered" on the tank. And figuring out what to do with the light wiring if you can't unplug it.

 

 

Image on the Right--- showing only 3 arms. You can use as many arms as you want to get extra length, limited only by the amount of space between the wall and your canopy.

 

Image on the Left--- showing 4 boards and the basic motion. If each board is a foot long, then you have over 4 feet of extension here. You could easily turn your aquarium light into a TANNING SALON lol.

[Deano]

Because the original wheel may be:

 

1) Insufficient in range of motion.

 

2) Insufficient in strength.

 

3) Not customizable.

 

4) More expensive.

 

5) Not a DIY job.

 

 

Yes to all of the above.

 

Keep the ideas coming. You are welcome to post your results here if you want.

 

OK! You asked for it, TANK IS now mounted as well the sump. Enjoy!

 

I cut a couple pieces of hose to put on the out side edge of hood. Since the bracket I bought just does not have the range of motion to adjust all the drop from back to front close but just about a 1/4" short. The TV bracket I have attached to my TV is a better bracket with a much better pivot to adjust the tilt then this one and I am thinging of stealing that one one and use it for this applicaion and use this bracket on the TV.

 

4 24" T5 in individual reflectors.

 

 

Since this tank will be moved to my office the final wiring cleanup details on the sump are still pending.