latazyo Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 I needed a way to suspend my lights and I dont like hanging cables from teh ceiling and I wanted to try this tank topless, so with the help of my brother, I came up with the idea of a compressed gas strut light suspension system this was very simple to assemble, however the first configuration I tested did not work due to the fact that the strut was very difficult to compress by hand, I thought I needed to design the system with the least amount of torque, so I made the strut nearly vertical...while I accomplished the goal of providing nearly the least amount of torque, this resulted in the strut being too weak to hold my lights up so I had to improvise and adjust the angle that the strut was positioned this picture shows the assembly of the top portion of the light stand, the red line indicates the position of the mount after I moved it, the strut in the picture is in its original non-functioning position this picture shows the bottom part of the assembly...again the red indicates the current position of the strut this picture shows the assembly from the front...the blue line indicates where I"ll be jigsawing material away to make for a cleaner look...I also might just put some plywood over the gaping holes...IM obviously going to paint the wood black to match the stand...the strut in this picture is shown in its final, and working, position and this picture shows the side view of the unit, the yellow line indicates the FORMER and NONWORKING position of the strut...you can see that I basically went from minimum to maximum torque...I guess I underestimated the weight of my light fixture tomorrow I will be getting the cables all connected into the eyebolts on my light fixture and will post pics of the final product the basic point of making this unit is so that I can lower the lights (with the strut under pressure) and latch them into place...then when I wish to do tank maintenance or raise the lights for any other reason I simply have to unlatch whatever latching mechanism I choose and the lights automatically raise and stay raised up out of my way a few potential problems I can see 1. rust on the hardware 2. oil from the strut making its way into the tank somehow 3. failure of the strut (highly unlikely since this is intended for use on a car's trunk or hood, which most of the time are closed with the strut under compression) thanks for looking I'll post more pics of the finished product tomorrow comments and questions are welcome Link to comment
halfpint Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Cool Idea. It would be cool to use an actuator instead, so all you'd have to do is hit a button and it would raise and lower its self. Something that would be cheaper and look nicer than plywood as a covering is fermichah. It's the stuff used to cover countertops. I think some black fermichah would look a lot nicer than painted plywood. IMHO I don't see too much potential for oil from the strut getting into the water. You could find something for a "boot" for the strut, just to keep the oil in and salt out. As for preventing rust, you might want to clean everything with a de-greaser (carburator cleaner works well), just to prevent rust even further and then spray it with rust-oleum (it's probably spelled wrong). I wouldn't spray the strut though. Link to comment
skilter Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 that is by far one of the most interresting and orriginal ideas i have seen in awhile. an actuator would be sick! but, most actuators i have seen and worked with have a jerking mechanism which may harm your setup when raising and lowering, however hydraulics or... airbags! ok now im getting of on a tangent... looks good though. one question, when you jigsaw that part, are you worried you might loose structural stability? (the blue line from picture 3) Link to comment
kevxross Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Very nice; I can't wait to see the finished product, but I must ask... Is your dog humping a stuffed Alf doll? Link to comment
latazyo Posted August 22, 2006 Author Share Posted August 22, 2006 shes just playing and chewing him up skilter, the 2 pixel line on the drawing looks really wide, but it wont hurt anything at all...it will still leave each side of the hole with about 1" of 2x4, which should be plenty thanks for the input guys, I briefly looked into some actuators, but they were like 100 bucks, not tomention wiring, switches, etc Link to comment
Daemonfly Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Finish out that strut slot, sand it all down, and paint it black. Should look good. Link to comment
psidriven Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Struts definately will fail over time, but it usually is gradual. I've had to change the struts on my hatchback. The just start sagging. Something to at least be aware off. Link to comment
latazyo Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 yeah, the struts on my car's hatch have been going strong since it was new in 2004...so even if I had to replace this thing once every two years it was only 20 bucks...no big deal at all I will have final assempbly pics tonight! Link to comment
latazyo Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 and the project is finished here is a side view of the assembly, you can see my latching mechanism this if the final front view with the lights in the down position, this is where they will be when in use (apparently my dog needed to be in every picture) and here are the lights up and out of my way thanks again everyone for looking and please leave any questions or comments Link to comment
ProFlatlander15 Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 That is a great idea! Glad to see you worked through the problems...that's alot of engineering in that! I wanna try... Link to comment
brent-konieczny Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 Dang! I'm a motor head and that looks like an awesome idea to me. Thanks for sharing the idea! Link to comment
latazyo Posted August 29, 2006 Author Share Posted August 29, 2006 thanks for the feedback guys I am still trying to address the leaky lube problem...Im thinking about using one of those expandable toy swords as a protective covering or something like that Link to comment
StanD Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 thanks for the feedback guys I am still trying to address the leaky lube problem...Im thinking about using one of those expandable toy swords as a protective covering or something like that That's looks SICK I only looked at this thread because the rear hatch struts on my 03 PT Cruiser are failing. Just ordered the replacements....haha. Anyways, that looks clean. I plan on mounting my prop lights onto drawer rails when I set it up in 3 months....the idea is to pull the lights towards you so they are over the tank, and slide them away from you so they're out of the way (over the plumbing in the rear). Stan Link to comment
latazyo Posted February 11, 2007 Author Share Posted February 11, 2007 thanks for the resurrection of this thread guys so far the system has been running for about 3 months and it is PERFECT no problems whatsoever total cost < $20 Link to comment
Carinya Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 great job and i think it's pretty funny your dog is in all the pics. Link to comment
formerly icyuodd/icyoud2 Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 as much as i like the the idea, it would have been sweet if ya could have built it out of metal of somesort (aluminum etc) with the added strength you could really slim down the unit. great work none the less. Link to comment
latazyo Posted February 11, 2007 Author Share Posted February 11, 2007 thanks everyone I barely had enough tools to do it out of wood....aluminum would have been impossible, plus I would have to weld it Link to comment
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