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Adapting PA Speaker Stands to Light Stands/Flag Stands- ideas?
  • silvertonesx24silvertonesx24

    So I bought some LED lights off ebay, which came with stands so cheap it'd hard to believe how much worse they could be. They are essentially these stands.

    http://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-Photography-Light-Stands-Cases/dp/B001WB02Z4/

    After having my lights fall on concrete, fall in front of clients, fall on my head, I decided that I'd had enough and bought these:

    http://www.amazon.com/PYLE-PRO-PSTND2-Tripod-Speaker-Stand/dp/B000E0PPG0/

    The problem is that they are 35mm speaker tubes standard for speakers, and my lights take the 5/8in light stand adapter.

    Does anyone have any ideas on how to convert the 35mm tubes to 5/8 in via some clamp or something of sort? I plan on trying a few things myself but if anyone has any ideas as well before I start hacking and drilling that'd be great. If so, that would be amazing as these stands are ROCK solid and I only paid $44 for the two of them.

  • 9 Replies sorted by
  • mvirtuemvirtue

    How about: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007SL856 combined with a baby pin plate: http://www.amazon.com/Avenger-F800-3-Inch-Baby-Plate/dp/B000ASPQVK

    There probably is a cheaper solution out there though.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Nice solution. I was looking to.upgrade my stands as well and I user the heavier duty spring loaded versions of the cowboy studio ones. I never liked how loose the top pin is.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Be very careful about using cheap stands--many of them have plastic clasps for the height adjustment that will fail under load. Some of the are well made, but check out the fittings, the tube thickness and really put some weight on them before using them.

    OTOH, some of the cheap backdrop stands are heavier gauge steel. When in doubt buy a decent lighting stand--I use manfrotto, but some of the Chinese lighting stands are fine. You can adapt the On Stage stuff as well, whether it is lighting or mic stands.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    It is quite simple to find normal cheap stand.

    Search for air cushioned, big tube diameter and good weight ones. As @DrDave said, metal claps are preferable.
    As far as I remember Weifeng makes quite good stands (of you exclude all very cheap stuff).

  • muntusmuntus

    Sandbags make good stands better.

  • kavadnikavadni

    Mic stands with booms make great C-Stands for cutters and poly boards

  • silvertonesx24silvertonesx24

    @mvirtue great idea! I will try that out for sure.

    I also ordered a few of these. Since I can punch the plastic caps out from the stands, I figured I can drill em and install these. Will take pics once they arrive from HK

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/260986195617?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

  • silvertonesx24silvertonesx24

    @muntus true lol, but getting strong stands I think is better than hauling around some sandbags

  • dancerchrisdancerchris

    If you are worried about stand failure why screw around modding speaker stands? (BTW I own both speaker stands similar to what you have and also regular light stands). As Vitaliy said find normal cheap stand. Your mod is likely to end up costing you more than buying proper equip 1st time around. I have found the Ravelli stands to be less than the price of your PA version and I have an 8" fresnel mounted on top using the 5/8" stud. No problems, sturdy, big tubes. Only downside is they are about 4 feet long collapsed.

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