DIY 8020 aluminium light stand - suggestions please

[abhishek@1985]

Hi ,

Am planning to use 80/20 to build a strong enough light stand to hold 2 ATI 48 inch bulb fixtures - one 4 bulb and one 6 bulb fixture.

My plan is to simple light stands - 2 of them attached at either end of my wood stand that are 96 inches in height. At the top, attach horizontal bars to each one of them to make a right angle that extend all the way to the front of the tank which will be around 40 inches .

What parts are necessary to build such a light fixture and where can I buy them ? No idea about 80/20 and hence looking for ideas and suggestions.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[slief]

Take a look at 8020.net

They have all sorts of T slot extrusion options as well as fasteners. Weight will be a big factor especially with your height as you don't want the verticals to flex.

At the very least, I would use 50x50mm extrusions for the verticals and horizontals.
https://8020.net/shop/25-5050-black-fb.html


My suggestion would be to draw up what you are looking to build and call 8020 and they will provide a parts list for the extrusions to connect the horizontals with the verticals as well as the nuts and fasteners you will need to attach it to the back of your stand.

You will want to know in advance of calling them, the thread size of the mounting points on the ATI fixture which are likely to be 4mm or 5mm but you need to know that as well so you can figure out how to mount the fixture to the extrusion. If it were me, I'd likely use carriage bolts for that but I'd bet 8020 will have options for that as well.

 

[PyroSteve]

This video might help with what you need for materials.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?ebc=ANy...X4dZevPJKexWyFg&time_continue=3&v=9WNSdcHRdqc

You'll need to get brackets to attach it to your stand instead of the glass clamps

 

[sfsuphysics]

There's a lot of factors involved in how well it will hold up. One of the big one though is the fasteners used. Take a look at
https://8020.net/university-fastening-options
then scroll down and click on "Fastener application test" to get an idea of what type of fasteners are best suited for your needs, from the sounds of what you want to do (inverted L shape to hold up your lights?) anchor fasteners are going to be your best bet. Also don't take the numbers on that page too literally as the size of the pieces used to get those results for the 1515 (1.5") is only 6" long, although you probably can extrapolate over 40" since it's literally just a torque which you're fighting which changes linearly as the force applied gets farther away from the point of connection i.e. you try to cantilever out 12" instead, then divide the force by 2 (since it's twice as long as the 6" they used). Also those numbers are failure values so want to give yourself some wiggle room.