Sliding rails for large canopy?

mhurley

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I might be building a big canopy/hood for my 375 (very similar to Weathersons post). I don't have the clearance to put it on pulleys so I'm wanting to mount it on rails somehow to slide it along back and forth.

My fish room has a dropped ceiling, so I have access to all the studs up there. I'm envisioning cables mounted to the studs coming through the dropped ceiling. Some sort of rail hooked to those cables. The on the hood a set of little wheels that would slide onto the bar. The best analogy I can come up with is a roller coaster and how it grabs the rails.

Does anybody have any idea where I can find something like this?

Thanks,
Mike
 
Here is what I think would be a simple solution. Put the fixed part to the outside and the moving part to the inside. Mirror it for the other side.
 

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Wazzel,

Neat idea...Problem is my dropped ceiling. I was hoping to not completely remove all the tiles for this. If I mount a bunch of 2x4's the the ceiling joists, wouldn't I have to do that? I like the idea of a wire mounted rail so I only have to punch small holes in the tiles..

Mike
 
Mike

I'm sure you could sub the 2x4 for wire. If you do you will need some way to keep the rails from spreading. Building a box instead of two rails would probably take care of the spreading issue.

Mark
 
Re: Sliding rails for large canopy?

mhurley said:
I might be building a big canopy/hood for my 375 (very similar to Weathersons post). I don't have the clearance to put it on pulleys so I'm wanting to mount it on rails somehow to slide it along back and forth.

My fish room has a dropped ceiling, so I have access to all the studs up there. I'm envisioning cables mounted to the studs coming through the dropped ceiling. Some sort of rail hooked to those cables. The on the hood a set of little wheels that would slide onto the bar. The best analogy I can come up with is a roller coaster and how it grabs the rails.

Does anybody have any idea where I can find something like this?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

Wondering if you thought of this?
http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/produc...offerings_id=2324&catid=81&objectgroup_id=518

2 of the weight bearing slides of coures.

or a pair of these:

http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product_details.cfm?&DID=6&sku=1491
 
makoshark,

you totally read my mind (or I read yours). The desk I'm sitting at has a sliding desk with a couple, and the last desk I put together had them for the drawers (lighter duty, of course.) I'm pretty sure they have them at HD.

Mike,

I bet you could put a couple of those (or more) on the studs, attacked to a piece of wood (or something fabricated from metal) and have a post from each of those pieces of wood come down to the canopy. Then, the post would slide back and fourth in a slot cut in the cealing tile. It's actually something I've been thinking of doing some day. I think cables might not be the way to go because the canopy could swing, so it might move with a jerk (the motion, not you lol), and if you're going to set up a retractable canopy over your 330 gal, it might as well slide nice :).

But, seriously, it's a great Idea because you can really have access to the tank, and still have it look polished when it's put away.

BTW, will your canopy go all the way to the cealing? If not, you could put some trim around the posts taht covers the groves in the cealing, and moves with the posts so the grooves are always covered.
 
Can I connect them together? I keep reading about their reach being 18 inches, like a drawer pulling out of a desk. I need to pull 6 feet.

I'm not concerned about looks, this is in a fish room.

Mike
 
If you are moving the canopy horizontally and don't care how it looks, I would say use aluminum U channel and in-line roller skate wheels. Gravity will keep the wheels in the U channel. HTH
 
mhurley said:
Can I connect them together? I keep reading about their reach being 18 inches, like a drawer pulling out of a desk. I need to pull 6 feet.

I'm not concerned about looks, this is in a fish room.

Mike
Not the ones made for a desk, but maby something else. I didn't realise you wanted 6 feet. I guess you must be moving it to the side of the tank. I was imagening the tank in the middle of the room, and the canopy would slide to the back (the shorter distance).
 
Shoestring Reefer said:
How about tracks and wheels from a garage door?

Or, an electric garage door opener: POWERED SLIDING CANOPY!

That would be cool.

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!! That is awesome!!!!

I'll have to look into that more.
Here's my fish room....The hood would slide about 6 feet towards the camera.


Installed-Back-Small.jpg
 
If I could get my friggin router working again, you could read all about it on my website...But for the time being, my site is dead.

It's a 375 gallon Tenecor, 4x400 watt PFO HQI using both Radiums and XM bulbs (slowly switching to the XM's completely).
Circulation is via 2 Ampmaster 3000's. One of them is attached to two 1" Sea Swirls. The other is on a closed loop. I'm ditching the SS's soon and switching to Tunze Streams.

Mike
 
I went to sams club and they had a garage door opener that just attached to the door rod, if you did it that way you could proly call a garage door supplier and get some used track for real cheap
 
Shoestring Reefer,
Got my router fixed...web site is up and running if you want to see updated pics.

Mike
 
Why not go to a place that installs garage doors and see if you can get a damaged door and hardware. You could just fasten your lights to a door pannel and use the straight tract fastened to the wall and 2x4 and it would move out of the way and the hardware is somewhat weather proof. Sometimes they will have a damaged door that they replace and will hang on to it or if you talked to them maybe one might turn up.
 
Marm,

I'm looking to build a polished aluminum box for the lights. Basically seal the lights in the hood and vent the hood out of the house. Just tacking the lights on the door as you suggest wont relieve the current heat problem I have, it will just make it easier to move the lights out of the way. I'm looking to kill 2 birds with one stone.
But I might still check out a garage door place to get the rails and wheels....
Thanks.
Mike
 
Aluminum box...It would be rugged. I was thinking that an electric garage door opener may not be a great idea because they jerk when they start moving, and when they stop. You might vibrate the filaments until they break.

Of course, that shouldn't stop you from using the tracks.
 
My light hood is on a rail system that is used for barn doors. The hardware can be found at Home Depot...at least in my neck of the woods. The hardware can be found on the Stanleyhardware.com website. Just go to "consumer hardware",then "barn track hardware",and then to "box track"
 
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