Need advice on making my lamp! Turn dial into string pulled mechanism?

[bigdoghustler]

TL;DR Summary

Idiot lamp maker seeks smart people for advice.

Excuse my lack of knowledge and please correct me on anything! I'm making a lamp right now and the vision is to have a dimmable lamp in which there are two strings controlling to the potentiometer. To increase the brightness, one string is pulled down and the other will go up. I have a lamp with a rotary dimmer on it right now and I figure the best way to do this is to attach the string to the knob.

The problems I'm attempting to solve are: 1: the range of motion on the knob translates to about 1 inch on the string. Ideally I'd like to pull the string about 5 inches or so to cover the whole range of the dimmer.

and 2: the knob takes a bit of force to turn, and I would like to make it a little bit easier so I don't knock over my lamp when im adjusting the brightness.

Looking for input as to solutions for these problems as well as if anybody has a a completely different idea as to how I should approach this.

Thanks!

~lamp guy

 

[DaveC426913]

The problems I'm attempting to solve are: 1: the range of motion on the knob translates to about 1 inch on the string. Ideally I'd like to pull the string about 5 inches or so to cover the whole range of the dimmer.

and 2: the knob takes a bit of force to turn, and I would like to make it a little bit easier so I don't knock over my lamp when im adjusting the brightness.

Both of these would be solved with a block and tackle system, say, 4:1.

You'll have a challenge making it small enough, but the principle is sound.

The diagram makes it look more complicated than it is. It's really just two axles with a line run twice between them.

 

[berkeman]

I'm making a lamp right now and the vision is to have a dimmable lamp in which there are two strings controlling to the potentiometer.

Welcome to PF.

Can you upload some pictures of the parts you have that you are wanting to use for this? Use the "Attach files" link below the Edit window to do the uploads. It sounds like you already have a potentiometer in mind*, but what are the other pieces you have so far? (support structure, lampshade, bulb(s), etc.)

*Note that you don't control the brightness of an incandescent lamp with a potentiometer. You would traditionally use a rheostat instead (which uses Pulse Width Modulation of the AC Mains voltage to control the brightness setting). Are you wanting to use 120Vac incandescent bulbs for this? Those generally are not available anymore for lamps, so maybe you are going to use LED replacements? Those are controlled in yet a different way...