Ok, so here is the situation.
I am doing the set design for a community theater production of Les Mis. Due to wing storage constraints the barricade will be in 2 pieces (1 stage left, 1 stage right) and when joined will be a 4'x16' single piece. Due to the way the venue schedules its shows we have from Sunday night until Friday afternoon for the entire load-in, construction, tech process. As such we are doing with out the turn table, not because of building it, but building the rest of the stage level up to the turn table height for set changes/etc. There is just not enough time to build in place, and not enough space off site to pre-build the pieces (let alone budget to do so).
The 2 barricade pieces will be assembled on stage (but hidden) and then moved down stage a few feet to it's regular spot once revealed. I plan on using 12 triple swivels (6 on each half) to aid in the movement of the piece. Using the ones rated for high loads, so the addition of barricade materials and actors is not a problem.
So the issue comes in that the director still wants to turn the barricade from front to back view (for Gavroche's death) and then back. I have no doubt the unit will spin (with some initial effort for inertia), but the problem is keeping it rotating in it's spot. The triple swivels are great, but don't restrict any plane of movement, which means the whole thing could migrate as it spins, and may not be easily (i.e. in-conspicuously) corrected. The rotational speed won't be great, but that is a lot of mass in motion to try to correct. Maybe 2 weeks of practice might help, but that isn't a possibility here.
My idea is to have the pieces be a 4x7 and a 4x9. Centered in the last foot of the 9' piece where it meets the 7' piece will be a piston that will have a turntable swivel mounted to it. Once the unit is in it's location the piston would be activated and the turntable swivel would act as a rotating pivot brake to keep the unit from migrating. Some travel might happen, but I'm not worried about a few inches. It only needs to be activated once and with a large bore piston (possibly 3 inches) I could get a couple hundred pounds of pressure in that one spot. Yes it will be dissipated over the surface of the swivel, but it should be a decent amout still.
Question would be if this idea would work. All I want to do is provide the friction to keep the unit fairly set, but am worried the torque of spinning the unit (even by hand) might tear apart the piston. Either that or the friction simply won't be enough to keep the unit from wandering.
Any other thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I am doing the set design for a community theater production of Les Mis. Due to wing storage constraints the barricade will be in 2 pieces (1 stage left, 1 stage right) and when joined will be a 4'x16' single piece. Due to the way the venue schedules its shows we have from Sunday night until Friday afternoon for the entire load-in, construction, tech process. As such we are doing with out the turn table, not because of building it, but building the rest of the stage level up to the turn table height for set changes/etc. There is just not enough time to build in place, and not enough space off site to pre-build the pieces (let alone budget to do so).
The 2 barricade pieces will be assembled on stage (but hidden) and then moved down stage a few feet to it's regular spot once revealed. I plan on using 12 triple swivels (6 on each half) to aid in the movement of the piece. Using the ones rated for high loads, so the addition of barricade materials and actors is not a problem.
So the issue comes in that the director still wants to turn the barricade from front to back view (for Gavroche's death) and then back. I have no doubt the unit will spin (with some initial effort for inertia), but the problem is keeping it rotating in it's spot. The triple swivels are great, but don't restrict any plane of movement, which means the whole thing could migrate as it spins, and may not be easily (i.e. in-conspicuously) corrected. The rotational speed won't be great, but that is a lot of mass in motion to try to correct. Maybe 2 weeks of practice might help, but that isn't a possibility here.
My idea is to have the pieces be a 4x7 and a 4x9. Centered in the last foot of the 9' piece where it meets the 7' piece will be a piston that will have a turntable swivel mounted to it. Once the unit is in it's location the piston would be activated and the turntable swivel would act as a rotating pivot brake to keep the unit from migrating. Some travel might happen, but I'm not worried about a few inches. It only needs to be activated once and with a large bore piston (possibly 3 inches) I could get a couple hundred pounds of pressure in that one spot. Yes it will be dissipated over the surface of the swivel, but it should be a decent amout still.
Question would be if this idea would work. All I want to do is provide the friction to keep the unit fairly set, but am worried the torque of spinning the unit (even by hand) might tear apart the piston. Either that or the friction simply won't be enough to keep the unit from wandering.
Any other thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
