Question - Mounting LED strip on a round pillar

chrisparton1991

New elf
Joined
Oct 14, 2016
Messages
7
Location
Wollongong
For the last few years I've been struggling to find an elegant way to mount my LEDs to a round steel pillar. Here are the lights (video on YouTube):
2019-10-05 16_49_38.png
In this image, I've got some webbing on the rear of each pillar. The webbing is cabled tied to the pillar, and each loop of the strip is cable tied to the webbing.

This approach works, but:
  • Lots of work to cable tie everything
  • Wind causes the webbing to move about
  • When the webbing moves about, the strips slip and slide
Has anyone else tackled this issue? I'd like to avoid tape/adhesives on the pillars so I don't damage the paint.

I think the ideal solution would be some kind of thin plastic strip up the back of the pillar, with diagonal slots for the strip to sit in.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! In the meanwhile, I'll be wandering around Bunnings for inspiration :)
 

franky_888

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 31, 2013
Messages
160
Location
Medowie
I've seen people use tomato trellis / chicken wire to fashion a 'wrap around' element that only need to be tied together, obviously you would need to cut/join strip on the trellis so that when it's wrapped around it will appear to be contiguous.

I've tried to explain what I'm saying in the image below. Red would be the pixels and green the connections between the different sections.

Like all things there' s probably another way to do this, and that way is probably better than mine :)
 

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chrisparton1991

New elf
Joined
Oct 14, 2016
Messages
7
Location
Wollongong
Interesting idea @franky_888. My pillars are each using a single LED strip that winds around, which gives a nice backdrop lighting effect against the front of the house.

Some kind of trellis/mesh could end up working. If I wrapped the entire pillar with mesh I could get it super secure, though it might be a bit costly and time consuming. I have a couple of other ideas to try as well, if I find a satisfactory solution I'll post back here.

Thanks again!
 

chrisparton1991

New elf
Joined
Oct 14, 2016
Messages
7
Location
Wollongong
I've just mounted one strip using some 16x25mm trunking (a.k.a cable conduit) from Bunnings (link).

I cut diagonal grooves in with a Dremel, and added some holes for cable ties. It's looking very promising so far:
01.jpg 02.jpg
 

MD389

New elf
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
42
Nice solution. Also gives you the benefit of using the conduit in the future to tidy the wiring on future props
 
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