DIY compressed gas light suspension rig PICS

[latazyo]

I also posted this in DIY in case you've already seen it there

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 SLASHers, I'll post more pics of the finished product tomorrow

comments and questions are welcome

 

[marino420td]

Where did you get the gas strut?

 

[Letmegrow]

Autozone has them usually.

I got one there for the rear hatch of a station wagon one time.

 

[latazyo]

yep, its from autozone intended to be used on hatches, trunks, hoods, etc

they have them in the back where you need to provide make, model, etc, but I told him it wasnt for a car and that I needed it to hold 20 pounds and I wanted it cheap

they're still pretty cheap, the most expensive one was like 25 bucks, mine ended up being 22 bucks after tax

 

[maxxII]

My only concern would be seal allowing fluid to leak out into the tank. Otherwise, this rocks.

Looks good!

Nick

 

[latazyo]

thanks Nick, this is just one step on my way to making a ridiculous tank

IM still trying to figure out how to make a mini overhead door for the bottom part of the stand

 

[hagfish]

Assuming it will fail sometime when you aren't home (it's bound to happen eventually), would failure cause the lights to fall into the water? That's would be my main concern.

 

[latazyo]

hagfish, failure in the strut, causing it to lose pressure and lower the lights would only lower them to about the top of the tank

failure of the latching mechanism would cause the strut to raise them, so that wouldnt be a big deal

if the strut failed it would either be slow pressure loss or else explosion

 

[Chelsey]

Layton that's an awesome setup! Are you sure you should be a chiropractor instead of an engineer? Very cool setup!

 

[latazyo]

I dropped out of mechanical engineering after a year because it was so boring

I had 5 official undergrad majors...landscape architecture, architecture, mechanical engineering, mathematics, biology

 

[Chelsey]

Wow! At least you have the ability for when Julie gives you a nice long honey-do list :lol:

 

[latazyo]

well the assembly is finally complete and working great

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