Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hello everyone,

I'm very much into "DIY" projects - even though I have never done these types of things before. If I can do something, (sometimes, alot cheaper!) and learn something in the process, then I'm all up for it!

Therefore, this thread will document my foray into the building world

I am about to build my very own Background Stand. All. By. Myself.
With a little help from you guys of course hehe.

Step 1: Make a blueprint

Here's mine, which is very similar to what you would find if you googled "DIY background stand"



Here's what I'm worried about:
1) Are those legs going to support this thing and prevent wobbling? Would a different configuration be better?

2) When I insert the 1 1/2" into the 1 3/4" (or 2" if I go that route) and secure it with a hitchpin, wouldn't it wobble as well? Any solutions to this?

Hopefully this build will fall through, but I want to make sure my plans are good enough before I go out and get materials

Thanks TPMG

With this set up, I assume it is for your home studio. If you want to strengthen it, you can add another cross bar at the bottom and/or middle.

I would also suggest drawing in a couple sandbags, just in case you are worried about someone knocking it over accidentally.

wow, that drawing looks exactly like my brothers writing. If he wasnt upstairs right now, i'd swear he was the one who drew it.
He's an engineer, so he always is the one who makes the drawings and plans for our projects.

I would have to agree with the Sandbags and extra cross beams. Once you have that roll of paper up in the air it will make it very top heavy. It will have the tendency to topple over, so sandbag it and and a few extra support beams.

Looks good otherwise.

Yea, it's for a home studio, but I would also like to make it portable - hence no piece is larger than 5 feet.

I don't know how to add a cross bar in the middle - it might disrupt my "adjustable" height.

Cross bar on the bottom I could probably do, but im not sure if depot sells that type of attachment... hmm.. Also, if I do add the bottom bar - it would be about 8 feet across - something I won't be able to transport, but at home of course it's fine.



Thanks . Some people tell me I have 'arabic' looking handwriting...

Here's a more stable (although less portable) foot design:
http://zedomax.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/pcv-stand.jpg

Lots of PVC DIY photo stuff can also be found by searching for TINKER TUBES.

Thanks for that, mike!

I like that foot design, but yea, not very portable hehe.

I could always ADD to my build after I get it stable at my house - but for now I just need something to be able to bring to ajax

It's not the most inexpensive solution but what about grabbing a pair of lightstands and using your PVC tube design for the cross member that will hold the background material? At least the ligthstands can be used at other times.

You just said it. It's not the most inexpensive. But when I get to depot and calculate the cost and it comes up close to getting a couple of lightstands, then I'd consider it.

But how do I attach PVC securely onto the light stand

There's a part for that.

Make sure you get Schedule 40 PVC pipe. It has the walls thicker than others.
You might find the PVC pipe sold in the electrical isle to be cheaper than the one sold in the plumbing section. Get the fittings from the plumbing section as there is more selection.

your design definitely needs a cross member at the base and some sturdier feet.

With attaching to a light stand, you can just use a PVC elbow and an adapter that goes down to the sprocket size, drill a hole in the side of the piece that goes onto the light stand. The hole should be the size of the screw (not including the thread). Use a screw with a flat end to tighten the crossbar to the light stands.

That should work.

If you could find metal rods that are strong enough to use, I'd go with that. Check some places that sell drapes maybe, they tend to have adjustable rods, some are pretty heavy duty, and you can just drill a hole into it the size of the sprockets on the light stands.

Step 2: Canvas for materials

I went to home depot today and found that they don't have a good selection of PVC... But they did have a pipe used for drains called ABS which is apparently lighter and less brittle than PVC. It also has thicker walls (perhaps what radup was hinting to).

I decided to check out Lowe's that was nearby as well.

Lo and behold "Special 10% off all instock ABS pipe"

I also learned a few things:

1. they don't sell 1-3/4" pipes. Only 1-1/4, 1-1/2 and 2".
2. a 1-1/4" does not fit inside a 1-1/2"

Therefore my plans need a slight modification (along with some sturdier feet)

Luckily I saw a male and female adapter that adds a thread to an end of the pipe. Hopefully, the joint is strong enough to hold a 53" wide roll of paper

Here are the prices I saw:

12' 1-1/2" = $6.69
12' 2" = ~14.00 (I don't remember exactly..lol). I also don't know why it's almost double the price... but anyways...

Then there are the fittings which are almost negligible in price.

If I do this design for the feet, how wide should they be? I Need to get these peices in multiples of 3 since they only sell them in 3', 6' and 12' lengths. And of course, the larger you get it, the cheaper it is.

Since the 1-1/2" pipe is cheaper by a landslide, I was thinking of maybe getting a 2" to 1-1/2" Tee connector and use 1-1/2" pipes for the legs.

Finally, I looked around for cotterless (whatever that means) hitch pins and found that they were relatively expensive, about $3.97 for ONE. But then, in the same drawer I saw a wire lock hitch pin. Does anyone have any thoughts on these 2 lock mechanisms? The wire lock is about a dollar cheaper...

I need to get the final design done, and the numbers pumped out by tonight because my family friend is helping me get the materials tomorrow. I can't fit a 12' pipe in my car D:

Overall, I'm going to look at a $50-60 build (I can't tell exactly because I don't have a final draft of the plans)

Step 3: Purchase the materials!




Everything here is what I need, costing me around 50 bucks for it all.

For tools all I needed was a saw and an electric drill. All I'm missing in terms of tools is some ABS glue. I've decided to glue some of the fittings on on certain pieces and my family friend has run out of glue. I don't want to buy a new one because it's not worth it for the amount of glue I'll need. Anyone have any?

I got abit of stuff done today - I started cutting the main supports and the legs. I drilled the hole to see if my wire lock hitch pin fits and it fits snuggly. The hardest part for me would be to like it up properly LOL. But then it rained, so work stops for now.




Finally, I realized that I didn't have enough materials for the legs. So for now - at least for what I need for my shoot this friday, I'm going to make S shaped feet just to support it.

Step 4: Build!!

Alright, so it's been a few days and I've cut everything I need, drilled the holes for my pins and this had to be the hardest part. It was very hard to drill straight consistently.

Pics when I get the time hehe.

But unfortunately.... I DON'T HAVE ABS GLUE . I won't be able to glue key joints to improve my structure.

And for the life of me, I can't justify buying a new container since I won't be using alot. Does anyone have some that I can have?

Dude, you can't afford $5 for glue? Lame.

I saw them for around 20 =\

Actually, I only glanced at them because my family friend said he had some. I'm heading out today to check them out. Hooray if they're $5

When using the ABS glue make sure all your parts are aligned properly first...once you put the glue on and push the pieces together you won't have a lot of play when it comes to aligning your materials as this glue dries very quick and is very tough to fiddle with.

you can find ABS or PVC glue in small bottles for under $5.

As has been said, this stuff dries out almost instantly and you have no room for errors. Dry fit everything.

Also consider leaving some joints unglued so you can take the thing apart if needed to.

Haha, just picked up a small bottle for $3

Yea, i made sure to dry fit everything, but I only glued key joints to improve stability as well as keep my transportability

Cont.


Since my legs were 1-1/2" but my main support was 2", I had to use these thingies here to basically step down the T ti fit my feet



I went ahead and glued these together. Everything you see here is glued already. Doing so leaves the feet part in small portions to improve stability, and they're small



Here's a shot of my main supports and my hitch pin system:

And here it is 8 feet high(excuse the mess):


Here is my cross bar. It is 2 pieces of 4 foot poles joined together by a thread adapter. The threads go pretty deep so I believe they are sturdy. They are glued on to their respective poles. (my glue joints are so messy )


Here's the final product. I have to say I am proud of myself and it is pretty sturdy. If I ever doubt its sturdiness, then I'll hook up the fabric/paper on to this and leave the roll on the floor



Again, since it is just ABS, I can always improve on my foot design. but for a stand that cost me less than $50, it'll do until I earn enough money from photography (if i ever do!) to afford a background stand

that look badass, anyone use wallmount for their backdrop? i'm planning to install one in my basement since im not planning to using the backdrop outside my basement...

I have trie several of these do it yourself projects. But if you look at what you spent and your time you could have bought this

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PHOTO-BACKGROUND-BAC ... 2eae66bd05

and got a background with it. I have bought allot of stuff from studio 98 over the past year based on recomendations from 2-3 Barrie Professional photogrpahers and have never been disapointed. I just drive out to KW and pick up what I need.

As for an in wall system a good friend of mine uses this one and is happy

http://cgi.ebay.ca/4-SET-BACKGROUND-PAP ... 53e25df116

Heh, probably.

I guess i'll look into that in the near future.

PS. my photo shoot with my cousin worked out REALLY well. I got some amazing shots I would like to share with you guys. Once she gets the photos first, of course

Hey Steve, if you're going to wallmount it, you can consider using EMT tubes instead of PVC. They're metal so probably more sturdy. You could use the "C" type clamps (which are meant to attach the tubes to walls) bolted to "L" brackets so they're offset from the wall. It will basically look like a curtain rod, with the L brackets acting as curtain rod holders.. I saw a design somewhere where someone used it for DIY curtain rods and thought it would work for backdrops, but can't remember where right now.. Let me know if this doesn't make sense and I'll try to draw what I remember. Cheers!

damnit! i ordered the wallmount kit from studio98! and a crossbar to prevent the 9' roll paper bowing in the middle! arghhh.. thanks for the advice tho lol!

For future reference, here's the link:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-st ... tain-rods/

It looks pretty sturdy, I'm sure if you used stronger brackets/hardware it could support a decent load..

I've used conduit for backgrounds before. A bit heavier than my Manfrotto alum. rods, but about the same diameter and strong.

just got my backdrop installed in my basement...

wallmount kit from studio98 in waterloo [$60 shipped]
crossbar from alzodigital.com (did some research when people have bowing issues with 9 feet paper and they need a crossbar to support the backdrop papar) [$80 shipped to my door via USPS]
seamless paper from henrys.. [$69.99+tax]



a bit less than $300 for this setup, but I like this more than most lightstand backdrop kit and more convenient too