Using Boom Stands to hang a curtain

gafftaper

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When I setup an orchestra on stage for a musical there's this ugly sight line of a backstage exit created, that I need to mask off. I have some boom stands with ten foot loong 1 1/2" schedule 40 uprights and the old school round cast iron bases 22" in diameter and probably 25-30lbs. So I'm thinking about buying a nice velour drape 10x10 and using two Cheeseboroughs to strap a third pipe across the top and I have home made pipe and drape for the cost of just the curtain.

My question is has anyone done this and what do you think about stability? Is 10'x10' going to be top heavy? Should I only make it 8'x8'? I would like Velour for the premium look but would it be better to get a slightly lighter fabric like Commando? I don't have a curtain to test on it, so before I go buying one I want to make sure I get the dimensions right and don't end up with something big and unstable. Thoughts?
 
and the old school round cast iron bases 22" in diameter and probably 25-30lbs.
Altman? No name? The phrase "fifty pound boom base" comes to mind.

No problem with what you are doing. Might I suggest Kee Klamp rather than cheeseburger s for a cleaner look? You mentioned backstage exit...only time I might worry is if the contraption is subjected to a gust of wind, as might come from opening an exterior door. I once saw a 100'+ straight run of standard pipe and base with banjo cloth topple like dominoes when a roll-up door was opened. One counterweight on each base likely would have prevented the disaster.
 
I do this often, if you can tie off to the grid to the top of the pipe(get a couple of those tie offs that screw on the pipe), that would help, or I add a third base and create an angle to make it much harder to pull or push it over.

We have some of our old 10' high borders that I cut up into useful widths...

hope this helps...and makes sense...


Sean...
 
Altman? No name? The phrase "fifty pound boom base" comes to mind.
No name on them. They've been in deep storage for a while and I haven't picked one up lately. I just picked one up and yeah it's probably 40-50 pounds. 22 1/2" diameter, it tapers up to about 5" tall in the center. And I like the idea of Kee Klamps.

or I add a third base and create an angle to make it much harder to pull or push it over.
That's a great idea. One more pipe and two more Cheeseburgers and I can add an outrigger that solves any issues.
 
We did exactly this when we turned out stage into a blackbox last year. We also ended up bringing down a spare, tying it off and hanging a border along it, all at about 10' trim. By the time the different angles of pipe were assembled it had cross-braced itself pretty well against deflection, but we did add a sandbag to each base as extra insurance. We checked the "tippiness" at each stage of assembly so we didn't get to the end and find that it wouldn't jive.
 
If it’s a 50lbs base you're fine. As long as your not setting it up next to the rollup door of the loading dock and getting 30mph wind gusts.
 
Thanks everyone! I think this will work perfectly Sending out requests for quotes on curtains now. Gonna get two 10'x6' so I can have a nice overlapped split in the middle.
 
Thanks everyone! I think this will work perfectly Sending out requests for quotes on curtains now. Gonna get two 10'x6' so I can have a nice overlapped split in the middle.
@gafftaper Consider having a six or eight inch fold-back on the ends you're planning on overlapping in the centre so you rarely see the rear of your curtains when performers burst through the centre flinging the curtains aside as they enter. Fold-backs on the off-stage ends are up to you; edges folded back normally hang nicer and are less likely to present their backs to patrons.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
I wouldn’t worry at all. Real Pipe and drape is much more light weight / light duty than that set up.
 
One thing to be aware of is that probably everything you are setting up is black and creating darkness in probably an already dark space. I did a very similar thing to create some masking backstage with some lighting trees and repurposed legs and a number of people tripped on the base of the tree.
Glowtape and warnings were in order.
 
One thing to be aware of is that probably everything you are setting up is black and creating darkness in probably an already dark space. I did a very similar thing to create some masking backstage with some lighting trees and repurposed legs and a number of people tripped on the base of the tree.
Glowtape and warnings were in order.
Great point and normally that would be a concern. But in this case I'm trying to mask the light from backstage from being seen on stage. So no problem there. But for others reading this in the future, yes. Be aware of creating trip hazards!
 

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