Revolve with no pivot

[hsadramaclub]

First of all, this is my first post so hello to everyone. Second, I am not mechanically minded at all and have no real experience in set construction so please forgive me if I am asking obvious questions or using the wrong terminology for something; I am trying to give myself a crash course in set design and construction but I don't know what I don't know.

I head up a homeschool drama club and our set pieces are typically very simple and straightforward since we don't have a dedicated performance space (last few shows have been in a church sanctuary) let alone any sort of workshop or storage space. However, we are doing The Wizard of Oz this spring and have the opportunity to perform in the very nice theater space of a local school, and we also have two parents who have stepped up to help with set construction. I would love to have a house set piece that can manually revolve during the tornado scene through four teens/adults turning it, but it also needs to come apart into two sections because there is limited wing space. I've attached a drawing of what I'm looking for, and I just want to see if I'm on the right track.

There are a few reasons why this piece cannot have a pivot point:
1.) We are in a rented space and cannot drill anything into the floor
2.) The piece does need to be in different areas of the stage prior to the tornado scene

It seems like zero-throw casters are going to be our best bet, but they are very pricey. We have a local theater group who is willing to lend us their six sets, but I'm not sure how many more we will realistically need. Weight-wise, there will be two high schoolers on the piece while it is being rotated.

I'm also assuming that coffin locks are going to be the best way to attach the two pieces together, but I have never worked with them before. How quickly can they be locked/unlocked?

Thank you in advance for your assistance and kindness.

 

[Crisp image]

Hi and welcome to the booth.
I would build this on 2 trucks (wagons) with normal heavy duty casters and then to join the 2 parts together use over center catches. Like these.
They are quick and easy to attach and join the 2 parts together and if you used some locator blocks it will be an easy line up and connect. I have used them on sets that have stair cases that need to detach and reattach after rotation.
Regards
Geoff

 

[Van]

The only thing that comes to mind to meet all your requirements would be building the revolve inside a wagon with a bottom. you'd them have to have a way to lock it in place for the different areas to which you want it to move.
How big a revolve are we talking about?
I have a design for a revolve, it's portable, but it is not movable.

 

[hsadramaclub]

The only thing that comes to mind to meet all your requirements would be building the revolve inside a wagon with a bottom. you'd them have to have a way to lock it in place for the different areas to which you want it to move.
How big a revolve are we talking about?
I have a design for a revolve, it's portable, but it is not movable.

I included the drawing in my original post; it will be approx. 8'x8'.

 

[kicknargel]

Just semantics, but I wouldn't call this a "revolve," which implies a circular deck that spins on a pivot. I'd call it a 2-sided wagon. Your spin does not need to be precise, so I think you'd be fine with swivel casters, and zero-throw more so. Swivel casters give some resistance to changing directions, but once they've swiveled, the rest of the spin should be easy.

A rule-of-thumb for a typical 4x8 platform (framed with 2x4s) is to support every 4', so you'd need 6 casters per 4x8.

 

[hsadramaclub]

Thank you for the clarification in my terminology. And regarding the casters, would I be able to combine swivel and zero-throw? We have access to six zero-throws, but I can't afford to buy six more.

 

[Nathan.D]

would I be able to combine swivel and zero-throw?

Should be no problem combining zero-throw and swivel as long as they're the same height, or you can use plywood to shim to the same height.

 

[hsadramaclub]

So given my drawing above, where would you place the six zero-throws? And then would I just need six more regular swivels, or more?

 

[Nathan.D]

So given my drawing above, where would you place the six zero-throws? And then would I just need six more regular swivels, or more?

6 casters per platform, one in each corner and two in the middle (all evenly spaced). Through-bolt with carriage bolts
EDIT: Here's a reasonably good picture from google:

 

[hsadramaclub]

Sorry, I didn't explain myself properly. We have access to six of the zero-throw casters, so I'm just trying to figure out how I would evenly place them, given that I have two 4x8 platforms.

 

[Nathan.D]

They should be placed in the same locations as normal swivel casters unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "zero-throw", I've added a picture to my last reply for reference.

 

[hsadramaclub]

Ah, gotcha. These are the ones I have.