cyc wrinkles

midgetgreen11

Active Member
we have yet to have a show where our cyc does not look like a wrinkly sky... does anyone have a solution for this? we hang it from our curtain channel, and we put conduit weights in the bottom, and we tie off the bottom to a weight of some sort, but it still comes out wrinkly.

Any suggestions?
 
I generally put a pipe and base roughly the same height of the cyc on each end of it. Then using spring clips and tie line pull it tight to the pipes starting from the bottom and every few feet or so. I also stretch each night before a show by having two people tug on it at each end gently and then re-tying the tie line. This helps keep it taught, but don't tie and/or tug too hard, you can ripe the cyc. Also, make sure the clips have rubber on them, otherwise they can tear the cyc with just metal.
 
Putting strechers on the side is a very good way to reduce wrinkles. Besides SeeraAvas springclip idea you can also use 2 pieces of 1x4 < i like to use CVG for this application> set them up like clamps, let me explain that. set the pieces on top of each other. looking at the face of the board divide it into thirds lengthsways, in your mind. There is an onstage third an offstage third and a middle third. Get some 1/4" by 2" machine screw eyes and some 1/4" T-nuts. Drill all the way through the boards on the "off stage" third of the board. place the t-nuts into the backside of the bottom boardrun a 1/4" nut up the shaft of the screw-eye about 1 1/2", put a flat washer on then push thescrew eye through the top board and screw it into the t-nut. do this once about every foot of the board ( 6' is about the most I will go for 1 strectcher, if you have a very tall cyc you made need more) Now, making sure you board is nice and sanded, has no splinters or burrs sticking out, heck you can even shellac it if you want, place the onstage 2/3' on the edge of your cyc. Tighten down the screw eyes once you bottom out on the washer use a box wrench to tighten a little more so the boards are really squished together on the cyc material. Now you can set up a Pipe and 50 pound base or some other offstage vertical boom device. Get some 1/4" or larger Bungee material < you can usually buy it in bulk at a hardware store.> Tie one end onto the eye of the screw eye on each end of the board. tie the other end of the bungee around the offstage boom pipe. Pull the bungee a bit, tie it off, go to the other side and repeat, When you wrinkles are gone, you're done pulling.
Using Bungee helps eliminate the need for nightly re-strechtings.
Another good trick is to simple fill a Clean hudson sprayer with hot clean distilled water and lightly mist the cyc. this will essentially act like size on a flat and cause it to draw up. It's important to use distilled water so you don't wind up getting mineral stains on the cyc when the water dries up.

Hope that helps.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back