DIY Barn Doors

[MrMagLit]

Hello fellow technicians!

We're currently working on "The Tempest" at my high school. I'm the Technical Director here, so I usually get that role for most plays, including this one (like it or not)! Anyway, we're just beginning to build a proper theatre program, and an adequate inventory. Most of our luminaries are 7.5" Emerson fresnels that were donated to us from a local theatre. They're fantastic... Except we don't have a single barn door for any of them.

Seeing that it is Shakespeare, we set up the auditorium to look like a thrust stage, and it is causing all of the lights to hit the audience. What I'm looking for is a suggestion on how to build barn doors on a SUPER low budget, and without any major lighting retailers near us. I really want to just buy some black foil from LEE, but even that is creating havoc with my teachers.

Thank you very much!

Cheers,
MrMagLit

 

[artable]

Barn doors can get hot. Really hot. Any kind of cheap material that can be worked into a working barn door ain't gonna do a very good job of handling the heat.
My suggestion would be to ask other local highschools, colleges, and theater companies if they have any you could borrow or rent for cheap. Theater is a tight knit community. We're pretty willing to help each other out.

Edit: what constitutes a decent inventory? Do you have any PAR s or ERS s? If you don't know what those things are, they should have an orange dotted underline which you can click. It'll link you to CBs in house wiki.

Edit 2: what kind of lighting are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to use them for FOH lighting?

 

[z2oo]

DIY barndoors can be made of BlackWrap ($20 for a 24"x25' roll) and gaff tape. These are temporary and will only look pretty if you measure carefully, but quite effective.

 

[artable]

I'm not convinced that DIY bar doors are the solution to the OPs problem. If he needs FOH, a better, probably just as cheap solution is to make Parcans out of coffee tins, and yokes for them out of flat metal shafts. You can even build gel frame holders if you're accurate enough.
@azylka, I think gaff tape that close to a conventional halogen is going to do unhappy adhesive melt-y things. I had a tech who gaff taped gel frames closed for some reason. Now we don't use those gel frames unless we have to.

 

[Les]

If he needs FOH, a better, probably just as cheap solution is to make Parcans out of coffee tins, and yokes for them out of flat metal shafts.

Absolutely not.

@azylka, I think gaff tape that close to a conventional halogen is going to do unhappy adhesive melt-y things. I had a tech who gaff taped gel frames closed for some reason. Now we don't use those gel frames unless we have to.

Gaff tape may not be the answer, but they do make foil-based HVAC tape or even "muffler tape" which can deal with the heat. That, along with BlackWrap, is the route I would take.

Consider also: top hats, half hats, etc.

 

[z2oo]

I totally forgot to say it, but

Gaff tape may not be the answer, but they do make foil-based HVAC tape or even "muffler tape" which can deal with the heat. That, along with BlackWrap, is the route I would take.

I was going to mention BlackTak, but it slipped my mind. BlackWrap + BlackTak will be a good short term solution with limited budget.

 

[artable]

Absolutely not.

Why not? Building a parcan seems to be basically the same as re wiring an existing one. It's not even very hard to build smaller ones. Is there some huge safety issue that's going right over my head?

Edit: Of course, is there is something terribly unsafe about it, even if it's built well, It's definitely a bad idea.

 

[Les]

Why not? Building a parcan seems to be basically the same as re wiring an existing one. It's not even very hard to build smaller ones. Is there some huge safety issue that's going right over my head?

Edit: Of course, is there is something terribly unsafe about it, even if it's built well, It's definitely a bad idea.

The main issue is a lack of UL Rating on even the best homemade fixture. In terms of cost, considering the amount of labor, it would probably be just as affordable to buy an Altman Par38 - UL Listed for up to 300 watts. You can buy Chinese par cans (up to par 64) for about $20 each, but NRTL labels on those fixtures are either hard to come by or non-existent. Basically, it's just a huge liability to build something like this from scratch.

 

[artable]

The main issue is a lack of UL Rating on even the best homemade fixture. In terms of cost, considering the amount of labor, it would probably be just as affordable to buy an Altman Par38 - UL Listed for up to 300 watts. You can buy Chinese par cans (up to par 64) for about $20 each, but NRTL labels on those fixtures are either hard to come by or non-existent. Basically, it's just a huge liability to build something like this from scratch.

Yeah, that makes sense. I still think it's a valuable and novel project, but I guess it has no place in a regulated environment.

 

[soundofsparks]

+1 to the BlackWrap/BlackTak Barn Door. An old tried and true.

 

[dramatech]

Cheaper than the Blacktack is the metal duct tape painted with a high temp black paint.

 

[derekleffew]

If he needs FOH, a better, probably just as cheap solution is to make Parcans out of coffee tins, and yokes for them out of flat metal shafts. You can even build gel frame holders if you're accurate enough.

If the OP has perfectly good "7.5" Emerson fresnels" (Is that a Canadian brand of which I've never heard?), why on earth would one recommend building his own PARcan s? He'll have much the same issue re: spill with PAR s as with Fresnel s.

@MrMagLit are your luminaires truly 7.5" Fresnels (the lens diameter is 7.5" or are they six inch Fresnels that take a 7.5" colorframe / barndoor ? If the latter, probably any six inch, four leaf barndoor will work. Failing that, BlackTak and BlackWrap is the way to go. If seriously budget-challenged, foil tape and aluminum foil doubled or tripled and spray-painted flat black may be less expensive, but certainly more time consuming and not nearly as durable.

 

[JChenault]

One other approach that has not been discussed.

If the desire is to shape the beam ( as opposed to reducing glare ) you can do some shaping by putting sheet aluminum ( think disposable aluminum pie tins ) in the gel frame holder in the shape you want the beam to be. Kind of like shutters on an ERS.

This is not as sharp as a bar door, but it can help. I have seen this used very effectively in spaces where either the ceiling is so low the barn door is objectionable, or spaces doing rep where refocusing barn does is problematic.

 

[soundofsparks]

Cheaper than the Blacktack is the metal duct tape painted with a high temp black paint.

Black Tak is about $30 a roll.

Metal Duct Tape is about $12 + High Heat Spray Paint $12 + Your Time, Priceless.

(that was cheeky, I know.)

 

[soundofsparks]

If the desire is to shape the beam ( as opposed to reducing glare ) you can do some shaping by putting sheet aluminum ( think disposable aluminum pie tins ) in the gel frame holder in the shape you want the beam to be. Kind of like shutters on an ERS.

This is obvious, but since we're moving away from the barn door idea, have you considered spotting the fixtures some and then having more areas across? Or hanging them at a steeper angle?

 

[MrMagLit]

I know it's about 500 years after the fact, but I got busy! Sorry!
All of your messages were very helpful. Ended up running out to Christie Lites for the BlackWrap, and used John's suggestion. Worked well, I just can't wait to buy some real doors so I don't have to do it again!

Derek, I have no idea where things things came from...

Thanks for all the input!