7mm umbrella hack?

Hey peeps! My company's order of 2 Elinchrom Ranger Quadra S kits came in yesterday and today I'm in between corporate head shots so I have time to mess around with them. They are amazing... In comparison to my old AB400's & AB800's the light quality is a nice jump so far. Even light distribution with very little hot spots. Hellz yea! You can't adjust each head's power output individually since they're stuck at a 2:1 ratio which kinda stinks but that'll be something to work around...

Sorry, I'm still excited... Anyways, I have a bunch of umbrellas lying around but their shafts are around 8mm in diameter and the Quadras only accept 6-7mm, right? Is there a way I can hack my current shafts to fit the Quadras? I'd hate to buy additional umbrellas since I have about 4 or 5...

I'm tempted to whip out the hammer but I'm sure there are better ways to do this.

Much appreciated!

Umbrellas are cheap enough, it's not worth your time to mess with them. Besides, reducing the diameter of a hollow tube is pretty much impossible.

Sell the ones you have on E-Bay and buy new ones with the 7mm shaft.

[editorial comment]
Elinchrom's stubborn use of a 7mm umbrella hole is a blatant and indefensible tactic to get you to buy their modifiers. I won't buy their lights unless/until they change the design to be more universal.
[/editorial comment]

I simply cut off the hollow shaft and inserted a steel rod of the smaller diameter then crimped the two at a point together, my DYI was motivated by the fact that all eli modifiers are ridiculously overpriced here, so i was unable to purchase anything reasonable. This has changed with B&H purolator, so i would not go through the trouble again.

Easy hack, but i agree with Curtis. The 7mm thing is annoying as f. To the point where after a few beers i seriously considered taking a drill to the slot, but reason soon returned and i left it.

The deflectors are really nice though, if only for them, i'll ignore the flaw.

46" and above Calumet umbrellas with 2 piece shafts are 7mm to the join.

Excellent quality and reasonably priced too.

Curtis N wrote in post #14441170
Umbrellas are cheap enough, it's not worth your time to mess with them. Besides, reducing the diameter of a hollow tube is pretty much impossible.

Sell the ones you have on E-Bay and buy new ones with the 7mm shaft.

[editorial comment]
Elinchrom's stubborn use of a 7mm umbrella hole is a blatant and indefensible tactic to get you to buy their modifiers. I won't buy their lights unless/until they change the design to be more universal.
[/editorial comment]

I see. Thanks for your input! I have a wedding coming up this Friday so I might as well butcher one umbrella (got it for free) to get the job done. I, too am a bit peeved that Elinchrom decided to capitalize heavily off their proprietary system... With the amount of 3rd party accessories out there, they'd make a lot of sales from selling their core items opposed to turning people off completely to them. With that said, the Quadras are super nice.

Csae wrote in post #14441204
I simply cut off the hollow shaft and inserted a steel rod of the smaller diameter then crimped the two at a point together, my DYI was motivated by the fact that all eli modifiers are ridiculously overpriced here, so i was unable to purchase anything reasonable. This has changed with B&H purolator, so i would not go through the trouble again.

Easy hack, but i agree with Curtis. The 7mm thing is annoying as f. To the point where after a few beers i seriously considered taking a drill to the slot, but reason soon returned and i left it.

The deflectors are really nice though, if only for them, i'll ignore the flaw.

I think I'm going to take a hammer to one of my cheaper umbrellas...

Trailboy wrote in post #14441455
46" and above Calumet umbrellas with 2 piece shafts are 7mm to the join.

Excellent quality and reasonably priced too.

I've ordered from Calumet but haven't used their products. Thanks a lot for the tip! I'll make sure to give them a look. I ordered a speedring adapter so I'll be in the market for an octabox/softbox soon.

Thanks for the help everyone.