need advice on backgrounds + rollers

GerryDavidGerryDavid Registered Users Posts: 439 Major grins
edited October 25, 2014 in Mind Your Own Business
I have something like this for my studio:
http://www.cowboystudio.com/product_p/3wallmount.htm

Its great for my seamless paper, and I would really like to put my denny mfg backdrops onto it so I can simply unroll it when I want to use them, but I have no idea what to attach them to - to do this, any advice?

I know cardboard will bend and warp, lowes has a metal tube 10' long 2" thick but being metal I believe that will be way to heavy. Ive seen youtube videos wehre they use wooden dowels but their not hollow so my background/gear/pully system wont attach to it. :)

What do you all use?

And do any of you have more than one backdrop attached to the same tube? I seen a Kirk Voclain video where he had one tube with 3 or 4 drops attached, that wold be perfect for me. :)

Comments

  • SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2014
    GerryDavid wrote: »
    I have something like this for my studio:
    http://www.cowboystudio.com/product_p/3wallmount.htm

    Its great for my seamless paper, and I would really like to put my denny mfg backdrops onto it so I can simply unroll it when I want to use them, but I have no idea what to attach them to - to do this, any advice?

    I know cardboard will bend and warp, lowes has a metal tube 10' long 2" thick but being metal I believe that will be way to heavy. Ive seen youtube videos wehre they use wooden dowels but their not hollow so my background/gear/pully system wont attach to it. :)

    What do you all use?

    And do any of you have more than one backdrop attached to the same tube? I seen a Kirk Voclain video where he had one tube with 3 or 4 drops attached, that wold be perfect for me. :)

    The website you included recommends using PVC pipe. Why not simply go with that??

    Sam
    www.samlinvillephotography.com
  • puzzledpaulpuzzledpaul Registered Users Posts: 1,621 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2014
    Zero experience with this, but I'd have thought 2in dia pvc pipe ... for a 10ft length - could also distort / bend, depending on the weight of the material it's supporting. (I consider using smaller dia pvc pipe for some jobs, for exactly this reason ... I can bend it and get a smooth arc)

    A thin wall aluminium tube / pipe would be considerably lighter than steel, and tubular end pieces attached to a wooden pole would offer the type of support you need?

    pp

    Edit
    I'd have thought larger dia pipe ... eg 3 or 4in drain pipe (pvc?) would be worth considering - stiffer / more rigid + fewer turns to operate the rig to reveal / take up material ?
    If supports are based on smaller dia tube than this, use reducer couplings?
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  • GerryDavidGerryDavid Registered Users Posts: 439 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2014
    I thought of PVC *actually missed that they recommend that* but my stand is made with 2.25" pvc and the longer pieces sag with out support in the middle. I would like to leave the bar/drops on full time and not change them out so im not sure that woudl be an ideal solution. I cant go much beyhond 2" because of the pulley system I have is designed to go inside a tube and expand to grab it and its max expand is 2.25".

    Right now im just considering forgetting my current pully system and buying some wooden dowels from lowes, drilling holes in the ends, screwing in some bolts and attach a string on the one end to pull it back up. Im just not confident I can drill holes in the 10' dowel straight enough for it to not wobble. This was inspired by a video on youtube I found last night after posting this.
  • puzzledpaulpuzzledpaul Registered Users Posts: 1,621 Major grins
    edited October 23, 2014
    Could the 'wooden dowel be placed inside the pvc tube and thus offer both additional stiffness - and (the bore of the tube) still provide the facility for the expansion based end fixings?

    If you intend to go the wooden dowel only route, drilling holes in the ends that are both co axial and central to the dowel, really requires some sort of (simple) jig to facilitate such - trying to do it freehand is unlikely to be successful (imo, anyway :) )

    One way of making such a jig would be to find a piece of tube / pipe that's a snug fit on the dowel, and then use its bore as the start of a reference diameter, into which other (close fitting) tubes could be slid until you end up with a bore similar to the drill being used.

    Other techniques come to mind, but let's see where this is going first :)

    pp
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  • TravelTravel Registered Users Posts: 276 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2014
    2 or 3 inch conduit.
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