It's Curtains

Four hole curtain rod end

Full curtain setup

Right hand side

Right hand side

5 hole versions as string handles

Left hand side

Hi

For a while, I have been thinking of a modest piece of home automation, that is, making a curtain pulley so I don't have to get out of bed in the morning to let in the daylight.  What tipped me into doing it was an article in New Scientist about Vitamin D and the benefits of living by the sun's clock. Linda Geddes recommends "Use blackout blinds to block the light from streetlights" and also "wake up at a regular time and open the curtains as soon as you get up" amongst other things.  If I open the curtains before I get up.... whoa, I would be way ahead of things.

So anyway, it didn't take me long to make the custom curtain rod ends using Solidworks, some measuring calipers and a 3d printer.  They can be used to make curtain string handles, pulleys and end stops, and the rod diameter is 19mm.  First off, I just had 3 holes in the parts, but added a couple of extra ones later, one very small one for a screw, and another one to let extra bits of string through.  There's absolutely no need to have the 3 string holes / 5 holes altogether in the parts unless you want 4 strings on the curtain, 1 to open on each side and 1 to close on each side. And the 4 hole version looks more like a face!

My wife Christine has mobility issues and she is very happy to use the pulleys.

Anyway, I will load these curtain rod end things to Thingiverse soon, and will put up both the 4 hole and 5 hole versions. have loaded the parts on Thingiverse now, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3710558/files

And I plan to make a "demo unit" featuring these parts and put it in Fringe Furniture which is coming up soon.  (The story follows on here )

Regards

Steve Nurse