How to raise/lower light rack inside canopy?

[enderg60]

I'm in the process of building my new stand and canopy(finally!), and had an idea Id like to do.

I have 3 metal halides and will have two rows of LED's that I would like to mount onto an internal rack inside my canopy. Id like to figure out a way to raise and lower this light rack within the canopy.

Basically Id like to be able to open the doors to the canopy and raise the lights completely out of the way. The canopy would be open top and I have room to raise the lights a full 10" above the top of the canopy.

I was thinking of using 6 drawer slides, but cant figure out an easy way to raise the rack and cant find something that wont rust.

So I need some ideas and a little help to get this to work.

 

[bcavalli]

You could use a pulley system attached to the hood door with T track. I've seen it installed on a 300+ gallon tank. It worked really well.

 

[dapperjman]

Following this, I might do something similar

 

[jbdreefs]

I have been planning my build for some time now and am planning to explore a pivot arm from the canopy to the light rack. When lifted, the lights would move up and backwards. This is a little hard to explain....imagine a clock hand at 9:00 and 12:00 with the lights at the tip of the hand. The idea is to use two arms per side to provide stability and not have to worry about balancing the rack.

Anyways, I am very far from designing this element, but thought I would share.

I don't think you could get 10" of lift though. Maybe 8".

 

[enderg60]

Since the tank is a peninsula I have lights down both long sides so pivoting the lights any direction but straight up wont work.

As of now my two ideas for moving the lights are linear actuators, or a cable/pulley/winch system mounted to the ceiling(GF will probably have a hissy fit over that though). But as I said Im still hunting for some kind of drawer guide, or track system to keep things straight that wont rust.

 

[bcavalli]

T Track works great. You can find it in a woodworking supply store.

 

[joseayes]

I know there's a good old thread on RC about a really serviceable automated elevator for the lights, I'll search for it and provide the vid if possible

 

[joseayes]

Hey Danny still can find it but I've found a good site where I might be getting some supplies too. You might need to build a full frame for all your lights of willing to use some of this systems adding some extra pulleys to hide components from sight
Check mylifter.

 

[enderg60]

Most of the threads on RC are huge linear actuators that raise the whole hood up. Which would be nice except I have a big header right next to the tank that will make that impossible. But oddly has just enough clearance for an internal rack to miss it.

Im also looking into using some small gas struts to raise the hood, but again rusting is an issue.

 

[skriz]

Don't worry about the gas struts rusting. They barely rust and they're so cheap to replace anyway.

 

[enderg60]

Thats what Im finding out. I did some quick math to figure out how much the whole light rack would weight and it came in under 40 lbs. So 4 12 lb struts or 6 8 lb struts would easily do the trick.

Best part of this is if I balance can get the right size struts I can use a cheap electric winch to pull it down to where it needs to be.

Im researching struts now to see if I can get the strength and stroke I want.

 

[skriz]

Or maybe use weaker struts that'll allow you to lift manually with almost zero effort, and have a manual latch/stop that prevents it from lowering while you work? That'll minimize a lot of possible complications.

 

[camellia]

That all sounds great but an aweful lot of work!

Here's mine, nothing fancy but allows you to raise, lower, adjust MH as desired....

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[enderg60]

Not a bad idea, the problem Im finding with that is I can only seem to get struts that are 15lbs and up. So Ill have a minimum of 60lbs pushing up. If I want to balance it Ill have to add 20 lbs of ballast to the rack.

It will take some testing to see if Ill actually need the winch or not.

Camella...Im an engineer. My life is designing complicated things to do simple stuff so I can be more lazy.

 

[skriz]

How about 2 struts? The guides will keep it true and square when raising and lowering.

 

[myreefclub0070]

Frame built of aluminum, one liner actuator on each side, push button control, safe 12volts, t- track guide or rollers, false canopy top that rises with the lights to contain light bleed and all mounted in the canopy.

 

[enderg60]

Ive ordered the new LED's, heat sinks and the AL T-slot stuff.

Im going to assemble the rack and fixture and weight it before I purchase the struts. Id prefer to not use tracks since the wheel bearings tend to rust/jam, so Im planning to use 4 struts, one at each corner. But as I said this will depend on the final weight of the rack and what force the struts are available in.

If I can balance the struts force with the weight (possibly adding some ballast weight) Id love to be able to move the rig up and down by hand with minimal effort, and use an eye hook to keep it down low.

If I cant do that I plan to get a small winch, or find a linear actuator. Either would depend on overall cost and if I can fit it in the hood.

Simply using 2 linear actuators would not work in this case since I would have to use two massive ones from one short side of the tank(its a peninsula) and they are expensive.

Im still trying to find a plastic track that wont bind or rust just in case.

Worst case Ill hang the rack from the ceiling on some pulleys and use a winch to raise and lower it. I just need to get the rack assembled to proceed.

 

[enderg60]

Decided to go with using 4 custom struts at each corner. Im going to see how it works without a track once the canopy is finished. But for now I rebuilt my lights, swapped the T5's for LED, made an Aluminum rack for everything and got it all wired up.

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[outdrsyguy1]

sorry to resurrect this one but after looking through your other threads since this one I couldn't find pics of what you ended up doing. Got any final results on this light lift? I've got to do something other than my current pulley system and looking for ideas!
thanks

 

[Adam]

I used a bike lift pulley system.
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