Fix for Bollard Light

[jmellc]

We have a lot of these bollard lights. Had to open them to swap to LED. Mounting screws in the base nearly always rust tight. Have to pry up the tube with pry bars & it damages the base.

I found a decent fix.

Cut, grind or chisel the rusted pieces from the tube.

Use a wire brush & threading due to clean rusty threads.

Get our metal shop to make hoop brackets. They drill & tap holes to match mounting holes on tube. Drill holes on top to match bolts on concrete base.

Clean & fix top parts as needed, leave long wires to bottom & reassemble top.

Mount brackets on bolts, crisscross as shown. I spaced brackets that both come down to concrete. Connect wires & place tube over brackets. Line up & secure with new bolts.

My first one was near perfect. 2nd slightly off & I could only match 3 bolts but it is still solid. I will keep using this method but tweak details as I go. It’s great to have a metal shop at hand.

This bollard is an excellent design IMHO but Lithonia should have at least used stainless bolts to lessen rusting & corrosion.

 

[Buck Parrish]

Nice to have a metal "shop" in the building.
Leon Woods and I put a bunch of lights in all around the Student Union.

 

[jmellc]

Nice to have a metal "shop" in the building.
Leon Woods and I put a bunch of lights in all around the Student Union.

Leon Woods, I know that name. From BDE. I never worked with him but I knew him. I worked 4 years with BDE.

 

[kwired]

Lithonia I remember working on was aluminum tube, and I thought did use stainless fasteners.

I didn't have too much trouble getting it apart and is maybe 15-20 years old.

Heat can be your friend, but need to be more careful if aluminum housings or you will do more than just loosen the fastener in the housing and might need to fabricate something to get it back together anyway.

 

[jmellc]

Lithonia I remember working on was aluminum tube, and I thought did use stainless fasteners.

I didn't have too much trouble getting it apart and is maybe 15-20 years old.

Heat can be your friend, but need to be more careful if aluminum housings or you will do more than just loosen the fastener in the housing and might need to fabricate something to get it back together anyway.

Cast aluminum tubes & aluminum blocks but standard steel screws. I gave gotten a few screws out by backing them out 1/4 inch, spraying with Kroil, then working back & forth. Many screws snap the heads from the first go. The threads go through nearly 2 inches of threading before getting through & locking to the main base.

Some versions may be made with stainless but I haven’t seen them.

 

[MTW]

We repaired several of them a few years back. Ours had the ballast attached to the base. The landscapers equipment and customers had beaten most of them loose or down, and destroyed the aluminum bases.

With a plasma cutter and mig welder and some 1/4" plate, we shop fabricated some new steel bases. Mounted the ballasts to the new base and tested the assembly's before returning to bolt them back onto the j bolts bolts in the concrete base. A year later they changed operations and removed them.

 

[kwired]

Cast aluminum tubes & aluminum blocks but standard steel screws. I gave gotten a few screws out by backing them out 1/4 inch, spraying with Kroil, then working back & forth. Many screws snap the heads from the first go. The threads go through nearly 2 inches of threading before getting through & locking to the main base.

Some versions may be made with stainless but I haven’t seen them.

I had to replace one that got destroyed by snow removal equipment. As much as it cost for no more than it is, I think they can afford to use stainless hardware on it. Can't recall for certain if it was stainless hardware but I thought it was.

 

[Todd0x1]

When buying at manufacturing volume, stainless hardware doesn't have much of a cost difference so I don't think thats it.

I am not familiar with these bollards. Are the original pieces the tube bolts into made from aluminum? If so that's why no stainless fasteners due to the corrosion potential.

 

[jmellc]

When buying at manufacturing volume, stainless hardware doesn't have much of a cost difference so I don't think thats it.

I am not familiar with these bollards. Are the original pieces the tube bolts into made from aluminum? If so that's why no stainless fasteners due to the corrosion potential.

The threaded blocks are cast aluminum. On well over half, the bolts rust in place & the heads snap off when you try to loosen them. Ideally, block & bolt should both be stainless.

 

[jmellc]

I had to replace one that got destroyed by snow removal equipment. As much as it cost for no more than it is, I think they can afford to use stainless hardware on it. Can't recall for certain if it was stainless hardware but I thought it was.

There may well be some models with stainless. I’ve seen a wide variety out there, worked with 4 or 5.

 

[kwired]

When buying at manufacturing volume, stainless hardware doesn't have much of a cost difference so I don't think thats it.

I am not familiar with these bollards. Are the original pieces the tube bolts into made from aluminum? If so that's why no stainless fasteners due to the corrosion potential.

Look at first picture in post #6. That "donut" attached to the studs in the concrete is tapered on the bottom side. The tube that is the main body of the bollard is aluminum, with some set screws that typically are allen screws that are recessed into the finished surface, they have some added thickness at the screw location, more aluminum welded to the tube, and it is drilled and tapped for the set screw. The set screws just wedges as you tighten them under the four sides of mentioned "donut" to secure the entire bollard.

 

[jmellc]

Look at first picture in post #6. That "donut" attached to the studs in the concrete is tapered on the bottom side. The tube that is the main body of the bollard is aluminum, with some set screws that typically are allen screws that are recessed into the finished surface, they have some added thickness at the screw location, more aluminum welded to the tube, and it is drilled and tapped for the set screw. The set screws just wedges as you tighten them under the four sides of mentioned "donut" to secure the entire bollard.

 

[jmellc]

Look at first picture in post #6. That "donut" attached to the studs in the concrete is tapered on the bottom side. The tube that is the main body of the bollard is aluminum, with some set screws that typically are allen screws that are recessed into the finished surface, they have some added thickness at the screw location, more aluminum welded to the tube, and it is drilled and tapped for the set screw. The set screws just wedges as you tighten them under the four sides of mentioned "donut" to secure the entire bollard.

The design itself is excellent. The mounting blocks in the tube line up well with the doughnut and let the tube seat firmly from the start. Then the long set screw goes through about 2 inches of thread before latching into the doughnut. Best design I’ve seen on bollards. I’ve seen some with long rods that twist or break over time. Shades & hardware shoddy.

The major weakness in these is that the set screws rust badly from wet environments. A minor issue is that the ballast is near the bottom. If it were near the top, it could be replaced or converted without removing the tube. All could be done from the top.