Hi, I’m building 4 lighting fixtures to use with my rock n roll band. They are aluminium extrusions 2m (6’) long by 75mm (3") by 35mm (1.25") high. I have filled them with LED strips which are individually controllable.
They are originally designed to be hung from the ceiling via the t-slot on the back. I want to mount them vertically on their end. I need to be able to transport them easily in a car, so lightweight is a must. They will be at the back of the stage facing forwards, so not anywhere the audience could knock them over.
I had 3 ideas, inspired by the extrusion fastening articles on here recently.
Here are 3 very bad sketches of what I had in mind.
Box base. I prefer this type as I can hide some electrical items in the box. I have 2" x 3" stud framing timber, and also OSB or plywood available. I am not sure how best to make a "shoe" to support the end. I think I need 150mm (6") of the fixture to be inside the box for support. I could use combination of 1 and 2 to give me a small base with fold out support. I could make this frame out of extrusion possibly.
Considering using 80 x 20 extrusion to build legs that slot into the T-Slot in the back of the fixture. This doesn’t give me a box though to hide the electricals in.
Interested in thoughts on how to keep these lights stable on end!
for portability I’d likeing option 1. mount some ring or bar connector on the ight.
Then instead of 2020 AL extrusion - unless you want that look - I would use say maybe 1/2 ply cut to be 3 inches or so wide - and some length. Then notch the end of the ply - so it would lock over a squared 2x4 for the rear foot. Thus the 2 wood pieces would knock down and could lay together maybe tied together for transport and not be any bigger than your light.
And it would be cheap. If you need a box to hold electricals - make a dedicated box. Probably more useful that way.
Thank you. What do you mean by a ring or bar connector?
That’s actually given me some other ideas
Use a monopod and a ball head. Attach the ball head to the light with a t-nut so that it can slide down the back of the t slot then just need to make a cross piece foot that the monopod could fit in.
If it were me, I would figure out how to mount them on your regular PA speaker stands. Why? Because that would add flexibility; you already have speaker stands you can use. Also, speaker stands are sturdy, standardized (kind of), collapsible, easy to mount things on, and not expensive. Using them would also reduce the work you need to do.
To make something mountable on PA stands, you just need a closed-end hole with either 1-3/8" (35mm) or 1-1/2" (38mm) inner diameter, and perhaps six inches deep. You would just drop it over the stand tube (as you know.)
Since your light fixtures are so lightweight, I might use PVC pipe, which is cheap and easy to work with. Nominal 1-1/2" PVC pipe will have an inner diameter of 1.6", which should work fine. Close it off with cap. Pad the inside of the cap so it doesn’t eventually break from being dropped onto the stand pole.
You can mount that 6" length somewhere on the back of your lights, maybe about midway. That might be a little tricky, because you need to leave most of the space inside clear of obstructions.
Or you could use two U-bolts mounted to a short piece of 1"x4" board, and add a sturdy stop to actually take the weight of the lights (the U-bolts would not grip the stand tube tightly; they would just keep tube aligned with the stop.) You probably want U-bolts with a “saddle.” They are commonly used for car exhaust pipes.
You can pad the U-bolts with vinyl tubing and grommet material to keep them from marring your stands, if you want.
That might work to attach them to the existing PA speakers. I’d probably look to use a half coupler to hold an arm on the tripod. THe other end terminates into the T-Slot.
A couple of pics of the prototype stand in the next post.
The aluminium box section came as part of my easyfix order. The original idea of using the plastic Easyfix fittings with spider legs failed, as the end result is only strong when all joined together in a rectangle. Just having a leg sticking out is not good enough.
The vertical piece in the photo is 100mm long, and the fitting slots onto the 2 visible bolts. This arrangement works, but I want to try and simplifly it for the next one.
Perhaps I dispense with the 100mm vertical piece and the short length upper cross piece and just have 2 cross pieces the same size on top of each other. Then longer end bolts and wing nuts. The slot bolts could then go directly into the 2 cross pieces.
Or I get some double height box section so it is all one piece.
I do intend to use some box section with a t bolt and a clamp on the end for where I am tying the fixture to the PA speakers on an existing tripod.
Anyway, thought you might want to see where I’d got to.
