Sonotube replacement?

[RiffRaff54]

I'm designing In the Blood and have a lot of large columns as highway bridge supports that don't carry a load. I was going to use Sonotube but I was informed that a rough estimate of what my design would use would be about $3000 worth of 24" dia Sonotube. My question is does any body know of a good way to get the look I'm going for but for much cheaper?

Many thanks!

 

[SHARYNF]

This MIGHT NOT work, but take a look at

SPANDEX COLUMN~WEDDING/PARTY DECORATION~PILLAR~10-12FT - eBay (item 280439557376 end time Jan-15-10 06:53:10 PST)

Sharyn

 

[BrianWolfe]

You can redsign and make them square or octagonal columns.
You can make them flats and paint them to look round.
Wood rings top and bottom wrapped with fabric.

How many do you need and how tall?

 

[MarshallPope]

Call your local newspaper and ask about their paper tubes. We have a few that we use that are approx. 10' tall and maybe 18" dia. Not quite as wide as you want, but free if you can get enough of them.

 

[Van]

Wood Armature, with a cardboard covering.

 

[MarshallPope]

Wood Armature, with a cardboard covering.

This reminded me of something we bought once. We needed silver columns, and found some kits from Shindigz.com. All they were were cardboard circles for the shape, which were wrapped in corrugated paper. They overcharged horribly for them, but something like that could be done very cheaply assuming you found the corrugated paper. You would just have to make sure that no one leaned against them, as there is not much keeping them from denting.

 

[Tmeche]

I would use van's idea but with chicken wire and muslin. that technique served us well when we did the forests for the Scottish play.



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[last125eagle]

I agree. Router out some circles from ply. Put something to hold them apart, wire then glue and paper, muslin cover, or card board cover.

The issue may be though what ever is saved on the tubes is spent on labor to build the tubes. how many columns are needed?