Thoughts on DIY 6x6 frame

Alan Certeza

Alan Certeza

Active member
I was just recently on a big production short film and I saw the Key Grip with a 6x6 and a 8x8 frame with a butt load of artificial silk and white and black tarp for bouncing.

Now my question is that is there a cheaper route than buying MSE 6x6 frames and artifical silk. Has anyone here created a decent looking 6x6 or 8x8 frame? And would you recommend buying artificial silk or could I use a white shear bed sheet? And what's the down fall of using the sheet than the silk?

I see on ebay that the silk is going for less than a hundred which is fairly cheap for what its use for. But considering I'm not buying equipment to be a grip but it would be nice to have it in my trunk of my car.

Thanks guys!
 
The frame is fairly simple. If you can weld make the corners out of 1 1/4 inch square tubing. The mounting bracket can be made the same way. Just weld a short (7 inch) solid rod to a section of tubing. Buy 1 inch alluminum tubing from any industrial metal shop. Don't go to a home improvement store! The price for 20' sticks is about the same as Home Depot charges for 6 feet.

As far as the textiles go, just buy them here: http://normsgrip.com/. Ask for Shawn. They give a 25% discount on the prices listed.

It is very difficult to buy the material and have it sewn for this price.

I got lucky, once, and was able to buy a massive stock of poly silk, very cheap. I had a few sewn but I have never found a deal like this again.
 
I've always found pvc pipe to be useful for frames. Its cheap, is easily to assemble and disassemble, and can be used for dolly track in a pinch.
 
Thanks guys for the info. But I think I'm going to go with phubsontx's idea. After working on a few big productions I don't feel comfortable walking into production with PVC pipes a for dolly tracks or 6x6 - 12x12 overhead frames. that's only me. Living in Seattle and being around key grips with professional equipment I really don't want to be look down on. it's already bad that it has been establish that I'm a student.

Thanks again guys
 
Just surfed into this old thread while searching for something else.

I built a 4x4 out of 1/2 rigid electrical conduit and used the 90deg connectors. I cut the conduit to length and drilled halfway down the sides and placed bolts through and used some small pipe I had that fit over some old light stands as the pivots. Looks just like the pro frames I've used. cost me about 20$. I could make a 6x6 for about 25$ and 30$ for 8x8, not counting the silk.
 
Chris Santucci said:
I've done this also with 1" conduit. Conduit and its hardware is cheap and you can get it at any Lowe's or Home Depot.

Also, for aluminum pipe or tubing - see if there's a Metals Supermarket in your area.
Click to expand...

Same here - but I also put shock (Bungee) cord inside so all the pieces stay together for transport / easy set-up. Picked up all the parts at home-depot.
 
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