super cheap 15mm rods from Ikea

[Matt Greenfield]

I found these metal rods the other day when I was buying some Chinese lanterns for the lighting kit at the local Ikea. They're made out of a very sturdy hollow steel and my caliper shows them to be exactly 15mm in diameter. Since their intended use is as drawer handles, they're rock solid, but also surprisingly light weight, and come in 5 different lengths ranging from 6 5/16" to 29". (The ones shown are 13 7/8", aka 352 mm.)

It LOOKS to me like they should be perfectly compatible with either a Cavison or Indie rails system, but a search of the posts doesn't show any mention of them before, and since I don't have access to either one of those commercial rod systems at the moment, I'm tossing it out here to see if anyone else can find a use for them. I'll also point out that I bought the black ones simply because they were slightly cheaper than the stainless steel ones... $6.99 a pair... and while there's an old-school baked on enamel finish I like on the black ones, the stainless rods are perfectly smooth.

The one thing that I found really interesting about these is that each rod has a pair of threaded holes in it (only on one side of the tube,) one on each end about an inch and a half from the endcaps. The rods come with little matching pieces of tubing that mount flush to the surface... normally how they're fitted to a drawer, but also ready made method of either securing the rods together or mounting something on them (albeit in a fixed point.)

The brand name is Lansa and while they're a "purchase in the store only" item, they ARE listed on Ikea's web page here:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60138759

[thequads]

cool, i've eyed those things many a time and always wondered..hehe

most excellent discovery thanks!

[Matt Greenfield]

The black models are just a bit thicker due to the enamel coating... I suspect they'd have trouble with a fixture that was exactly 15mm. The steel ones, though, ought to be dead on.

[billbruford]

now if ikea could just make a follow focus with those rods
bb

[encity5]

Gotta say, just like thequads, i also eyed these things many time and wondered, and was going to buy. but always trying to save money. its good to know that im not the only one checking these out and going "diy rail system for cheap??"

[previdman]

The coolest rails I've seen were clear acrylic. Very solid and almost invisible from a short distance providing a "floating" lens look. Any plastics supply house should have acrylic rodstock. Ask for cutoffs or off-fall scrap from custom cut rodstock to save money.

[David]

I found these metal rods the other day when I was buying some Chinese lanterns for the lighting kit at the local Ikea. They're made out of a very sturdy hollow steel and my caliper shows them to be exactly 15mm in diameter.

No workie. I happen to own these handles in stainless and they're too big. My cheap plastic caliper shows them to be definitely bigger than 15mm. Maybe 15.5mm or so.

To get rails to work properly they really have to be precise and, in the grand scheme of things, these are way too big. They don't even come close to fitting into my rail blocks or mattebox. Too bad. I'd love to find a cheap source for rails. Keep searching my friends, keep searching.