lastlight's 225 reef build
- Thread starter lastlight
- Start date
leslie hempel
Member
absolutley stunning one of the classiest builds i have ever seen..
lastlight
Premium Member
Whoa someone dug this up. Poor me with no updates!
The light is a Sfiligoi Stealth btw. I currently have 6 ATI Blue plus, 3 ATI Aquablues, 2 ATI procolor, 1 GE 6500k. Next on my list is installing a powered lift for the light. It will involve a linear actuator mounted to the ceiling and a few grooved bearings. Already I find it impossible to access the tank so it needs addressing now.
Having a second child and a few financial hiccups have made the build a long-term thing but I'm ok with that now. I hope to have the light lift parts in a month or so.
Thanks for the compliments!
Small change I guess. I plumbed the fresh water tank and mix tank into the cabinet:
The light is a Sfiligoi Stealth btw. I currently have 6 ATI Blue plus, 3 ATI Aquablues, 2 ATI procolor, 1 GE 6500k. Next on my list is installing a powered lift for the light. It will involve a linear actuator mounted to the ceiling and a few grooved bearings. Already I find it impossible to access the tank so it needs addressing now.
Having a second child and a few financial hiccups have made the build a long-term thing but I'm ok with that now. I hope to have the light lift parts in a month or so.
Thanks for the compliments!
Small change I guess. I plumbed the fresh water tank and mix tank into the cabinet:
Last edited:
lastlight
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15251006#post15251006 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RParker
Your pulling ahead of me in the slowest build contest! But you definanly have me beat in the classy / clean / amazing build contest!
The only sort of race you can move FORWARD in by standing still! We both know we're not finishing dead last though. Take comfort in that lol!
lastlight
Premium Member
I've already built and tested a very rough prototype. I used it to lift a length of pvc pipe to the joists in my basement. I wanted to ensure that my bearing layout would lift the object evenly on both ends and work out any kinks. That first demo had one major problem and that was the pivoting end of the actuator shaft. The shaft itself rotates and the rotating bracket on its end can simply slide and counter the shaft's rotation. The issue was that the bracket was turning a lot too...especially when retracting the actuator. If this happened with my light on wires it could be disastrous!
My final build has a 3-sided channel for the bracket to slide within. This has corrected the issue entirely.
Parts:
- 3/4" maple, screws and glue
- actuator
- 3 grooved bearings
- various brackets, nuts and bolts.
Here is the unit. All that need to be done to it is drill a hole to feed my 12VDC power into it from the ceiling. When I'm done testing it on the ceiling I'll mount my floating cover. It will be a 60 x 18 maple panel...large enough that the ends can be open but from the floor you cannot see the guts above it.
This shows where the two wires will connect. The blue wire runs on 2 bearings and the red on one. Two were needed for the blue wire to turn a pushing movement into a pull. So basically when the actuator extends 24" the light goes up 24". When it retracts the light will rest where it currently does...a few inches from the water's surface.
View of the actuator shaft and bracket.
Close-up of one bearing/bracket.
Just a neat shot down it's length.
You can see the 3-position toggle switch on the back of the stand. It's all wired and ready to go. Thanks for lookin'!
My final build has a 3-sided channel for the bracket to slide within. This has corrected the issue entirely.
Parts:
- 3/4" maple, screws and glue
- actuator
- 3 grooved bearings
- various brackets, nuts and bolts.
Here is the unit. All that need to be done to it is drill a hole to feed my 12VDC power into it from the ceiling. When I'm done testing it on the ceiling I'll mount my floating cover. It will be a 60 x 18 maple panel...large enough that the ends can be open but from the floor you cannot see the guts above it.
This shows where the two wires will connect. The blue wire runs on 2 bearings and the red on one. Two were needed for the blue wire to turn a pushing movement into a pull. So basically when the actuator extends 24" the light goes up 24". When it retracts the light will rest where it currently does...a few inches from the water's surface.
View of the actuator shaft and bracket.
Close-up of one bearing/bracket.
Just a neat shot down it's length.
You can see the 3-position toggle switch on the back of the stand. It's all wired and ready to go. Thanks for lookin'!
lastlight
Premium Member
So tonight was a bit frustrating. The good news is I got the lift mounted on my ceiling. I don't trust the 5/8" enough to stand on it so this was a really tough task leaning out over the tank. In the end a step-stool, box of pampers and a bunch of children's books came to the rescue to hold the assembly in place! Props to Sfiligoi for making one hell of a sturdy light. I'm sure I could stand on the thing. It has ZERO flex.
Now for the bad news. The bracket on the end of the screw/shaft still seems to do what it wants especially under load where the forces are quite high. The fixture I'm guessing is 60lbs or so with the glass shields so I'll have to adjust my guide for the bracket to allow it to orient like it does under weight and that's it. I need to ensure the bracket always does exactly the same thing in both directions. If it doesn't and something catches after my cover is installed it will rip the entire thing to shreds. 150 lbs of force it's capable of.
The bigger letdown was the fact that the angle brackets I have the bearings mounted to bent under load. The bearing on the far left is mounted closer to the wood and it bent far less. One of the bearings for the other wire bent a lot. I was foolishly thinking these brackets were ok because the forces are downward only and they felt solid in that respect. Of course the forces on them are horizontal as well! So I need to swap these with wide brackets that allow zero movement in the horizontal axis.
Slightly bent:
Really bent.
On a positive note these issues can be easily fixed. The side with the slightly bent bracket lifted up about 4 inches before I chickened out. It was an incredibly smooth motion! The other end didn't lift at all though.
I'll update with a video tomorrow night when I have new brackets installed...
Now for the bad news. The bracket on the end of the screw/shaft still seems to do what it wants especially under load where the forces are quite high. The fixture I'm guessing is 60lbs or so with the glass shields so I'll have to adjust my guide for the bracket to allow it to orient like it does under weight and that's it. I need to ensure the bracket always does exactly the same thing in both directions. If it doesn't and something catches after my cover is installed it will rip the entire thing to shreds. 150 lbs of force it's capable of.
The bigger letdown was the fact that the angle brackets I have the bearings mounted to bent under load. The bearing on the far left is mounted closer to the wood and it bent far less. One of the bearings for the other wire bent a lot. I was foolishly thinking these brackets were ok because the forces are downward only and they felt solid in that respect. Of course the forces on them are horizontal as well! So I need to swap these with wide brackets that allow zero movement in the horizontal axis.
Slightly bent:
Really bent.
On a positive note these issues can be easily fixed. The side with the slightly bent bracket lifted up about 4 inches before I chickened out. It was an incredibly smooth motion! The other end didn't lift at all though.
I'll update with a video tomorrow night when I have new brackets installed...
lastlight
Premium Member
Success!
Movie 1:
http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift_up.html
Movie 2:
http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift_down.html
Here is a shot of the piece of aluminum i bent with great difficulty. It keeps the bracket on the actuator from spining and is also nice and rounded so it doesn't tear into my wood. There is a long piece of aluminum on top of the wooden guide base to allow even smoother sliding. I need to tweak the bends in the 'shoe' however because it's a touch too bulky and the actuator is maybe a few millimeters from fully retracting. This means the built-in limit switch currently doesn't work and the thing grinds to a halt. The limit switch on the fully extended side won't ever be used. Turns out my ceiling clearance is JUST shy of 24" so i'll have to stop the lift myself when it's high enough.
Here are the beefier mounts for the bearings. ZERO sag/bend after I drilled additional screw holes right where the bracket bends 90 degrees. Wasn't fun since all i had was a nail to pound and a standard wood drill bit lol.
I'm letting the lift hang suspended 1 inch above the 2x4s to ensure nothing sags over the next day. Will also run it plenty with the guts exposed. When I'm satisifed I'll attach the decorative bottom.
Movie 1:
http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift_up.html
Movie 2:
http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift_down.html
Here is a shot of the piece of aluminum i bent with great difficulty. It keeps the bracket on the actuator from spining and is also nice and rounded so it doesn't tear into my wood. There is a long piece of aluminum on top of the wooden guide base to allow even smoother sliding. I need to tweak the bends in the 'shoe' however because it's a touch too bulky and the actuator is maybe a few millimeters from fully retracting. This means the built-in limit switch currently doesn't work and the thing grinds to a halt. The limit switch on the fully extended side won't ever be used. Turns out my ceiling clearance is JUST shy of 24" so i'll have to stop the lift myself when it's high enough.
Here are the beefier mounts for the bearings. ZERO sag/bend after I drilled additional screw holes right where the bracket bends 90 degrees. Wasn't fun since all i had was a nail to pound and a standard wood drill bit lol.
I'm letting the lift hang suspended 1 inch above the 2x4s to ensure nothing sags over the next day. Will also run it plenty with the guts exposed. When I'm satisifed I'll attach the decorative bottom.
