Making scenic elements for "tour"

[curtis73]

Notice I put "tour" in quotes because it isn't really for touring. I have a zillion years experience with theater, but 90% of it is "build with wood to last for 8 performances" kind of stuff. The only tour we actually do is 5 miles away for three weekends. I did used to work for a very large summerstock theater where we built things beefy because there were 50 performances and we had state funding.

We do an annual awards ceremony/fundraiser and every year I have to try and come up with something that doesn't cost much, is easy to set up, and uses existing materials. It usually ends up looking half-assed. This year we are trying to make a congealed "look" that can be altered a bit every year but uses the same basic elements. I'm trying to make an awards "kit" that I can drag out and dust off once a year, hang elements on different pipes, and walk away.

The main element will be a large, flown replica of the actual award which is Swarovski crystal. The main body of this element will be an 8' diameter sunburst (sorta like the picture below) with a 4' diameter plexi/acrylic/polycarb replica of the award (pictured below also)

I would love to have the money to do it with aluminum, but I'm restricted to less costly materials. I can weasel some money out of the funds to do it right, but without a TIG welder I'm stuck to more old-school methods. The needs for this element:

- possibly three pieces, or at least hinged for pickup truck transporting. Possibly hinge the sunburst and have some way of attaching the plastic award replica in the middle
- ultimately durable to last a decade or more
- used one day a year, then stored, so the lighter the better. I'll be likely hanging it from my shop ceiling to prevent damage. The "award" can be detached and stored in a large bag.

One thing I do have is a couple vacuum pumps and I wouldn't mind investing in vacuum bags for laminating things. What if I were to cut a bunch of "rays" from some kind of foam, lay them up with some glass and resin and shove them in a vacuum bag? Then attach them with fasteners and epoxy to an MDF or plywood center. Then something like these to hold the award to it? What type of plastic should I use for the award? Teach me a good way to build something that lasts for more than a month but doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

[bobgaggle]

- possibly three pieces, or at least hinged for pickup truck transporting. Possibly hinge the sunburst and have some way of attaching the plastic award replica in the middle
- ultimately durable to last a decade or more
- used one day a year, then stored, so the lighter the better. I'll be likely hanging it from my shop ceiling to prevent damage. The "award" can be detached and stored in a large bag.

I think you got it right with the hinging, easy to hide the seam on a design like that. Durable and light don't always go together easily. Since you've got to lug it out only once a year for many years, I'd go with heavier and more durable. Plywood hinged substrate and wood rays. You could go a bit lighter and make the rays out of foam but put some sort of hard coat on them, either the fiberglass you seem to want to use, or one of the many urethane type brush on shells that they sell. Also, we're only talking 120 pounds MAX here, so its not an ungodly heavy thing you're building...

I'd go with acrylic/Plexiglas for the center, rather than a polycarbonate/Lexan. resists scratching far better...

 

[curtis73]

I tend to agree with the heavier/durable approach. My concern with wood for the rays is that they will be pretty fragile at the thicknesses I plan. Getting it transported/stored will be the easy part. It's getting it in the air that I want to be careful of. I suppose I could rig it from just below the hinge so that it flies flat and then tilt it up and put the aircraft cable through a something to hold it vertical.

Which brings up another question I've been meaning to ask. I plan on doing something like shown below to both lock the hinge and give me pick points. Is there a name for this type of shenanigans?

The gray pieces are 1" thin wall square steel tube. A goes on the top hinged piece, B goes on the bottom hinged piece. C is a 7/8" steel square tube that fits inside A and B to hold it rigid when hinged open. Then D is a flat plate on the bottom (which I have also done with a grade 8 bolt before) and E is a 3/8" shackle through the steel for a pick point. Add additional holes and 3/8" bolts in the middle based on weight. Name for it?

 

[RonaldBeal]

I have found that a road case or set-cart can make all of the difference in longevity of stuff. I have toured with some extremely fragile pieces, and the ones that have proper storage and travel containers always out last the ones where containers were an afterthought.

 

[bobgaggle]

My question for that method would be, how do you attach A and B to the unit? You can't through bolt (the right way to do it for rigging) because you have your 7/8" going through the whole tube. I guess you weld flanges/tabs onto the side of the tube and bolt thru them. Consider some kind of on board storage for your 7/8" 'pins' when the thing is folded up. Seems like they could get lost pretty easy over the course of a year...

 

[curtis73]

I agree with the road case solution, but two things prevent me from diving in: 1) That eats up a lot of time/material to build or a lot of money to buy, and 2) as it is I have no room. I'm working on a solution (i.e. selling redundant tools, throwing away crap we haven't used in 93 years, etc). Adding a road case that needs to fit an 8' x 4' x 2' scenic element is not really a possibility. As it is, my black box is lined with pallet shelves covered in drapes, and I have multiple pieces of stuff in the lobby covered with black fabric to hide them.

One thing I do have is 24' of vertical space and a buttload of pulleys and rope. I'm also toying with the idea of deploying the sunburst part and hanging it above the lobby for the sake of being pretty.

 

[curtis73]

How I normally mount A and B to the panel is to get some square 1" steel brackets (like a conduit hanging clamp, but a square U-shape... usually sold as brackets for traveler track.) Then I weld four of those onto the tubing. That way I have both the weld and the compression from the bracket holding it on the panels.

The other thing that I likely plan to do (not shown in the photo) is to make two rectangular frames from that 1" tube welded together. Like this:

In this photo, the black rectangles are the 1" square tubing welded into a frame. The red line represents the "pin." In this case (since I'm a confident weldor) I could bolt through the rails leaving the vertical tubes unobstructed.

 

[curtis73]

Hmmm.... idea brewing.

I could skip the frame and slip tubing and just do a through-bolted single piece of tubing. The original impetus for not doing that was assembly time and the integrity of the face of the sunburst. I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world to have ugly bolt holes. Hmmm... I'll think on that. I'm more concerned about how to build it durably. Rigging is my jam, so I'm sure I'll figure it out. I posted that more for the sake of finding out if that type of assembly/rigging had a name.