hoppycalif

One quarter inch MDF is actually pretty light weight, but it is ugly. The best material would be sheet aluminum, and I will probably always wish I had tried that. (Then my wife would have been much less insistent on the oak veneer!)

hoppycalif

The basic system is all assembled now. And, it works!




I left all of the screws that act as pivots fairly loose, so it wobbles a bit and the clearances let it sag a bit when it is down, but when I tighten everything, I think it will be fine. I do need to load it with something heavier than the light fixture just to be sure it is sturdy enough in the down position. Onward!!

treefish

Ingenious design!

No doubt the finished product will be awesome.

hoppycalif

This would work commercially, with adjustable length links, and friction locks on the back pivots. Then it would do everything except prune the plants!

DMHdispute

I was thinking of a hood design similar to that and thought of using little hood struts that they use for cars to hold it up. The only probelem that i can think of is that the struts could be too strong and make it go up too fast but then youd just have to hold on to it real good.

It looks real good.

niko

Ok Hoppy,

Nice! Just why MDF? It seems heavy to me, but I really like the mecanism to move the fixture.

I see that after this cantilevered contraption you will be up for another challenge when you see my new creation

It seems that I will be building a T5HO light containing five 60" long Giesmann Midday bulbs (80 Watt each). The light has to cover the tank because the light spill from a hanging fixture will be too much in the living room. The tank is 6' long X 21" deep X 18" wide. My current plans are:

- Super slim profile
- All metal housing
- Perforated metal top plate (ventilation, reduce light spill, looks)
- 2 hinges on the back of the tank
- Small locking mechanism located on the back rim of the tank to keep the light un raised position
- Individual reflector for each bulb
- Remote ballasts (very light fixture above the tank)
- No visible wires
- 5 levels of illumination (80, 160, 240, 320, or 400 watt)
- Moonlights
- The light from each bulb can be directed by rotating each reflector around the lamp
- Very low heat (can put and hold your hand on the fixture)
- Price: about $400 for all materials

--Nikolay

hoppycalif

Niko, I am basically a woodworker, so I see solutions to problems as woodworking jobs. But, in this case I planned all along to make this from aluminum sheet, but as I got more excited about the linkage idea I got less excited about struggling with sheet metal and acquiring the hand tools needed to use it. Then I remembered that I could get 2' x 4' panels of 1/4" "hardboard", which is MDF at Home Depot, for $2 each. Being a cheapskate that appealed to me, so I used MDF. I admit that I kind of regret not going ahead with the sheet aluminum.

If that big tank you are making a fixture for sits near a wall the parallelogram linkage would work very well for it. Then maintenance in the tank would get much more pleasant, with the light up and still lighting the tank.

Be sure to take lots of photos and show them here as you go along. Maybe it will inspire me again and I can drive my wife nuts by starting an even better fixture then!

DMH, telescoping struts, similar to what is used for a microphone stand, for example, could be adopted for a linkage too. Once you adopt the linkage idea there are several ways to do this that offer lots of flexibility on height of the light above the tank, distance from the wall, height of the raised fixture, etc., but those ideas are all more complicated too.

I'm still fascinated by the idea of using drawer slides to provide the ability to move a light fixture back, but I can't yet see a good way to raise it and use drawer slides, too.

niko

Hoppy,

The fixture is for TexGal and she just told me today that she has 4 inches between the back glass of the tank and the wall. I don't want to make her drill her wall but I can certainly mount the cantilevered beams to 2 vertical posts affixed to the tank stand. Basically what you show here but not attached to the wall.

I really like the idea to combine what you show here with what I will make. This is geting really exciting!

--Nikolay

hoppycalif

Put a pair of kitchen drawer slides on it and I will be happy as a clam!

hoppycalif

I finished veneering the fixture and gluing in some aluminized mylar to make "wing" reflectors and redirect some of the light spillover into the tank. Hopefully I can get this all installed tomorrow!

I found that veneering can be much harder than it looks when you work with bigger pieces. I messed up the top piece of veneer, but managed to make it look reasonably good, considering that it will not be a focal point of the aquarium. Contact cement really is a bear when you accidentally let the two surfaces contact before you are quite ready.