Piece of reef
Active Member
Hey guys so a little project i worked on, i might be a little late to the party but I tried find an alternative bracket to attach my Ai blade to my radion lights. There are a few options out there but I just found them to be ridiculously expensive, a pair of mounts was half the cost of my Ai blade which I found crazy.
So I decided to custom make my own
and wanted to share it so others who dont want to pay so much for a simple mount.
so I went to my local hardware store, this is what you will need.
1x one metre long alluminium Flat bar 3mm thick and mines 32mm wide, do not buy one less than 32mm wide, I learnt the hard way
and aluminium doesnt rust
A metal file.
Some masking tape.
A marker
A grinder with a metal cutting disk.
A G clamp and a flat timber or 2
And last but not least, a little bit of handy man skills.
I cut the 1 metre length of flat bar into two 30cm pieces
Then I removed my radion xr15 from the rms mount.
I put masking tape over the flat bar to mark the holes etc
As you can see on the pictures above, one is different to the other, thats because on one side of the radion there is the buttons which u also need to mark out so it fits correctly.
After marking the 2 holes and the buttons
Carefully grind out where you marked, and make sure to file all cuts you have done
also dont be to stressed about the cuts looking pretty, they will be completely hidden
After you've cut and checked the mount will work, mark out the holes on the ends of the flat bar to attach the blade to
After that you are pretty much there,
I marked 100mm from the mount side to create the bend on both brackets, I placed the bracket on the edge of a table I put a timber on top and g clamped it so It doesnt move, I bent the bracket downwards and repeated the same step for the other bracket, at this point it should look like this
Next step, try it out and see how it fits and make any adjustments, I added a small amount of masking tape to thicken it slightly so it wedges between the radion gap like this
If it fits nicely and snug , you are ready to put your Ai blade brackets on the ends of your flat bar
Almost done, I had to remove the ai brackets to make some modifications to my xr15 shades, but this is optional and depends on your shade but just so u get an idea, I cut a slit out of my shades and they now rest on top of the xr15 like this
But thats dependant on how your shades work,
Turned out quite neat
Attach your Ai blade, neaten up the cable, and congratulations u just saved $160 Aud or $100 usd, either way it cost me a total of $15 for the flatbar, I had all the tools already,
Hope this helps someone, its been like this now for 2 months and im loving it
Happy reefing
So I decided to custom make my own
and wanted to share it so others who dont want to pay so much for a simple mount.so I went to my local hardware store, this is what you will need.
1x one metre long alluminium Flat bar 3mm thick and mines 32mm wide, do not buy one less than 32mm wide, I learnt the hard way
and aluminium doesnt rustA metal file.
Some masking tape.
A marker
A grinder with a metal cutting disk.
A G clamp and a flat timber or 2
And last but not least, a little bit of handy man skills.
I cut the 1 metre length of flat bar into two 30cm pieces
Then I removed my radion xr15 from the rms mount.
I put masking tape over the flat bar to mark the holes etc
As you can see on the pictures above, one is different to the other, thats because on one side of the radion there is the buttons which u also need to mark out so it fits correctly.
After marking the 2 holes and the buttons
Carefully grind out where you marked, and make sure to file all cuts you have done
also dont be to stressed about the cuts looking pretty, they will be completely hiddenAfter you've cut and checked the mount will work, mark out the holes on the ends of the flat bar to attach the blade to
After that you are pretty much there,
I marked 100mm from the mount side to create the bend on both brackets, I placed the bracket on the edge of a table I put a timber on top and g clamped it so It doesnt move, I bent the bracket downwards and repeated the same step for the other bracket, at this point it should look like this
Next step, try it out and see how it fits and make any adjustments, I added a small amount of masking tape to thicken it slightly so it wedges between the radion gap like this
If it fits nicely and snug , you are ready to put your Ai blade brackets on the ends of your flat bar
Almost done, I had to remove the ai brackets to make some modifications to my xr15 shades, but this is optional and depends on your shade but just so u get an idea, I cut a slit out of my shades and they now rest on top of the xr15 like this
But thats dependant on how your shades work,
Turned out quite neat
Attach your Ai blade, neaten up the cable, and congratulations u just saved $160 Aud or $100 usd, either way it cost me a total of $15 for the flatbar, I had all the tools already,
Hope this helps someone, its been like this now for 2 months and im loving it
Happy reefing
