The completely silly remote light switch linkage project!!
 

Like the title says, a silly little linkage. My wife and I have been bothered by poor light switch placement in our house, our living room light switch is stuck in a corner and is difficult to reach because it is over the back of the couch. It is nearly impossible to reach when you come in in the dark with hands full of stuff like groceries or luggage. The construction of our house makes moving the switch very difficult so with a little imagination and a dash of steampunk I came up with a remote linkage that allows us to operate the light switch right at the front door.

So without further ado...

The various linkages.

The hand lever.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8661/...d82ec8462b.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7371/...c33622fb3e.jpg

The first 90 degree bellcrank.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7398/...ffdd732d25.jpg

The second 90 degree bellcrank.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7417/...9cb08fdc13.jpg

The reversing lever. This also changes the ratio.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7291/...b12f358a46.jpg

The switch gear.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7348/...a36874c304.jpg

The whole linkage in the OFF position.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7334/...b8be359b9f.jpg

And the ON position.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7371/...d66fa65a77.jpg

What a hell of a lot of trouble and monkey motion to switch a light on and off but hey it's the only one on the block.

The bellcranks are cut from 14g cold rolled sheet with 1/2" OD tube sleeves tig'd in and they pivot on stands that I turned from 3/4" aluminum bar. Every connecting rod uses 3/16" brass rod that I threaded with 10-32 thread for the heim joints. The knob for the hand lever is some brass rod that I turned and grooved and the whole thing is screwed together with brass machine and wood screws. I clear coated the steel bits to keep rust away and will need to clear coat the brass rods to keep them shiny as well.

Silly? Most definitely. Functional? You bet. And the best thing is that it will keep me from tripping on the cat when I come home in the dark.

I hope this serves as inspiration the next time one of you needs to do something out of the ordinary.

Thanx for looking,
Jaysin

Fantastic Jaysin,I don't think it's silly at all,aside from practicalities it looks very very fine and compliments your wood interior😊👍

Very nicely done!

They make wireless remote switches for solving this type of problem.

Great work! My wife loves it too.

DIGGING it!! I'm a bit of a steampunk fan, so it tickles my fancy. It adds so much character to the room.

I love the belt driven ceiling fans that are found in some old buildings (and newer buildings with repro fans). Real tin plate ceilings. All good stuff.

Thanks for letting us share in a bit of your whimsey.

Joanne

Love it! Beats having to wire a three way switch any day.

Just plane cool! Love the rough sawn lumber too. Not what I expected from a space man.

Thank you, everybody. I really didn't expect to get this kind of response. I had just wanted to show what could be done with a little thought and imagination. And maybe inspire others to think outside the box the next time a problem arises.


My Father-in-law said exactly the same thing and while it would likely have been cheaper and taken less time to build/install it wouldn't have been nearly as cool.

I too really dig a lot of the steampunk stuff (not big of the fancy dress bit but to each their own) and mechanical movements have become a thing of the past in modern society and I for one would like to revive human powered movements. Hell you can't even buy a car without power windows and my arm works just fine. I think that too many things are electric powered when they don't even remotely need to be.

When I was younger those flat belt driven fans used to be all over the California Bay Area and through the years as they broke down they just got removed because people didn't know haw to repair them or the cost was too great (because people don't know how to repair them). I have a few pictures of old machine shops and mills that are entirely powered by jackshaft and flat belt. I love that stuff.


The lumber that my house is built from was milled on site from the trees they removed to clear the building site to build the house.

The Spaceman is less of an astronaut and more of a day dreamer. I got the nickname in the fourth grade because I was a little space cadet in class and one of my best friends called me spacemen one day when I failed to notice that the entire class had left for lunch except for me, I was off in never never land.

Thanx guys,
Jaysin

Simply awesome!

Haaaaaa!!! FLIPPIN awesome! <----- pun intended. I love it!

Thanx, glad you like it. I'm always up for a good pun.

After a week and a half or so my wife is very happy with it (this is very important) and everybody I have showed it to thinks I am a bit crazy but they dig it anyway.

Thanx guys,
Jaysin

Happy wife happy life... I know all about that. More of a trial by fire kinda thing though.

This is so cool!

So did you us an early Harley hand shifter for inspiration by chance? Does look good by the way, thanks for sharing.

In case you guys aren't aware of the important news recently about Jaysin, please read this post: http://www.offroadfabnet.com/forums/...&postcount=457

Damn it Jaysin I never got back to you to tell you how clever and interesting your mechanism is, how much I appreciate mechanical works of art, and that I meant nothing negative by my pragmatic comment about remote switches.

[quote=TheBandit;140365]In case you guys aren't aware of the important news recently about Jaysin, please read this post: http://www.offroadfabnet.com/forums/...&postcount=457

Yup, that's why I dug up this thread. It's the first thing I think of when I see his name. Just love his mechanical art.

Haaa! It looks like the beginning of a Wallace and Grommet Cartoon! I love it!

Jaysin,

This is my first post here. I was directed to this thread from another forum (Erich on Home Shop Machinist). I had posted about controlling an AC ceiling register in my office (link below). I was looking for a high tech. solution like a motor controlled register with wireless remote control or some such. My biggest problem seems to be how to get power for it since it is on the ceiling. I've even dreamed about using a solar cell with storage batteries but that may not be practical. I got several responses there and I may use one of them. But this was the most interesting, dare I say intriguing suggestion.

If I do it your mechanical way, I think I might use your lever control, with perhaps chains for the linkage going around some old fashioned pulleys. Brass chains would look nice. But then, the problem becomes where to put that lever control. My desk is in the middle of the room and wall space is at a premium.

Anyway, thanks for posting a great idea.

https://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/fo...ce#post1878161