Help with hanging lights

[Laurie Brown]

I've recently starting clearing out a space in my basement for an office. The basement has drop ceilings, and not much light. I have an old hanging florescent light that hangs from two small chains. I was sure that I saw somewhere hooks that you can get that hook into the tracks of the drop ceiling to hang the light from. Does anybody know what these hooks are called and where I can get them? I don't want to have to remove any tiles or cut any holes in any tiles. I want to hang the light from the track itself.

[glenn bradley]

Several offered here: http://www.hangups.com/TBarEyeHooks.html

[Jim O'Dell]

Or if you can afford to, get some troffers that drop into the frame instead of the tiles for a flush finished look. Jim.

[Rollie Meyers]

Caddy makes hangers for that purpose, you still need to add hanger wires off the fixtures for support.

[Neil Bosdet]

I'm with Jim. You can get panels that are transparent and have your fixtures above the drop ceiling. Much nicer look and doesn't cause ceiling height issues too.

[Laurie Brown]

I don't really care about appearance issues. I just need more light the simplest way possible, which to me means not having to remove brittle panels that may break, or having to screw or nail things into beams. I have the fixture already, just a simple hanging shop light on two pieces of chain. I just need to hook it to something and plug it in and I have light. I ordered some of those hooks from hangups.com, hopefully they won't take long to get here.

Thanks for all replies!

[Donny Lawson]

You can make your own very easily. All you need is some wire cutters and a coat hanger.First cut the coathanger at each end at the bottom where it is straight. Then cut a piece that is about 2" long. Use some plires and fold it in the middle to make a "U" shape. Then bend out each end of the "U" shape to where it looks like a "U" with wings. The "U" part goes through the light fixture and the wing part catches on the light fixture. Hook your chain to the "U" part and hang your light. These work very nicely and are very sturdy. I can post pics if you need them.
Donny

[Laurie Brown]

I'd like to see some pics, yes, so I can visualize.

[Mac McQuinn]

I bought mine from Menards, can't remember the brand although they were $2.00 for (4).

Good luck,
Mac