Pull Chain Swing Arm - Seen One?

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al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
I had some of these in my bag of lighting tricks and installed my last one a short while ago.

I now have a client's paddlefan that needs to have a simple pull chain hung several inches to the side of the light kit.

I'm finding this swinging lever gizmo hard to locate. At the side of the paddlefan, a bracket on the lever slips over the threaded neck of the pullchain switch before the threaded ferrule is tightened down, securing the pullchain switch in the body of the paddlefan.

The lever sticks straight out horizontally from the pullchain switch and a light weight chain is tied on to its end. This allows the vertical pullchain to clear a larger glass globe.

Anyone seen a source of these lately?
 

al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
They kind of look like this sketch.

Note: The pull chain switch is a simple threaded-neck switch that is held to the canopy by a threaded ferrule (the chain passes inside the throat of the ferrule).

PullChainOffsetSwingarm.jpg
 

al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
Put a remote wall switch on the fan/light.:grin:
That is a fix. However . . . .

The client is a low tech and artistic person. The switch goes on an old paddlefan motor control pullchain where the replacement light kit, that she found, is in the way.

The offset is ideal. I'm simply surprised that it seems to have dissappeared from supplier's memories.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
That is a fix. However . . . .

The client is a low tech and artistic person. The switch goes on an old paddlefan motor control pullchain where the replacement light kit, that she found, is in the way.

The offset is ideal. I'm simply surprised that it seems to have dissappeared from supplier's memories.

I have never seen one. I have always seen the chain hanging around the light.
 

al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
I have always seen the chain hanging around the light.
Yup.

This is a genteel device that gives a "feel" to the operation of the switch that is worthy of the antique pull chain luminaires in the mansions of the Cathedral Hill of historic St. Paul, MN.
 

al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
Quoting from the link:
These levers are custom designed for each unique situation where pull chain sockets are requested. No two are exactly alike.
I have been so fixated in finding the mass produced item I've installed over the years, that the idea of making one didn't occur to me. Thanks for the nudge.

If I can't find it, maybe I'll have to fab one.
 

charlie b

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Lockport, IL
Occupation
Retired Electrical Engineer
If "elegant" is not a design criterion but "cheap" is, then screw a hook into the ceiling a foot or so to the side of the fan, and run the chain through the hook.
 

al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
:cool:
If "elegant" is not a design criterion but "cheap" is, then screw a hook into the ceiling a foot or so to the side of the fan, and run the chain through the hook.
I'd need a "sky hook". The switch is above the light kit, below the fan blades. ;)
 

mivey

Senior Member
They kind of look like this sketch.
Thanks for the sketch. I have never seen one that I can recall.

The only similar thing I've seen is a lever switch but the lever is maybe a 1/2" at best but not quite the same function as it was for odd angle pulls, not clearance.
 
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