Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I've been an Alien Bee (3) owner and today bought a White Lightning X1600 and a large foldable octabox with grid. I noticed the mount for the X1600 is in the center and the B800's that I have the mount is towards the front. With the large octabox and grid mounted on the X1600 it is front heavy and I can't get it to stay put. The light will droop down and point at the floor. I tighten the handle as hard as I can and it still ends up drooping down and pointing at the ground. Is the fastener defective or do I need some kind of counter balance?

Thanks,
Mike

I guess I've solved it. More oomph. I also took it apart and there is a rubber washer and I think possibly it had to be broken in a bit too. But anyway, after monkeying with it and doing it tighter and tighter it seems to be staying put now.

You can just rough up the plastic surfaces that the rubber washer bears upon with some 100 grit sandpaper a bit until those surfaces look uniformly dull, and you won't have to tighten it like a vise to keep everything pointed where you set it.

I have heard of some instances where people have replaced the compliant rubber washer with a rough surfaced metal washer, but I think the way rubber yields as pressure is applied is very important in distributing the clamping force over the entire area. Making a solid interface between the two halves of the mount invites the possibility of concentrating too much of the load in a much smaller area as things start to flex when you crank on the center bolt handle to tighten the mount, and you might end up needing someone to hold your light and softbox while you work......

Voyager

Yes, breaking in the rubber washer will help. There will still need to be a good bit of force applied as the torque from larger softboxes is fairly high.

Voyager,
the rubber washers are new. The old versions used a leather washer. There is a lot more grip with the new washers.

Holding the washer from my X1600 in my hand as I type, it is leather. I thought it was rubber all along. It's disguised with flat black dye...:). Still, leather serves a similar purpose in conforming to the mating surfaces, and helping spread the clamping force evenly as does rubber. Using friction as an edge by scuffing up the plastic mating faces should be equally beneficial for either vintage of center washer.

I was most concerned with presenting an argument against the idea of eliminating the compliant center washer altogether, but I am tickled that I held the washer in my hand a year ago, thought that it was rubber, sanded the the plastic faces until they were dull, had it all work out fine, wrote about it here..... only to learn that it wasn't made of rubber at all. Here is a link to a mug shot of the rubber washer that really wasn't rubber...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/440 ... 02f9_b.jpg

This is a perfect example of how important an open forum is for quickly getting plenty of good information out, and then getting it set straight in real time. Thanks, Tech Support!

Voyager