I searched but did not find...
Are any of you building your own tent??
You can find all of the tent fittings on the web. EMT pipe is cheap and easy to find and cut.
Replacement canopies and frame fabrication are a fraction of a new system.
By in large you will save about 4-500 dollars making your own.
Why are not more people makeing their own custom tents???
For myself, I want a heavy tent. I want steel cross bars and 2 inch legs so I dont have to go fetch it out of the corn field after a hard storm.
I understand pop up technology and 61 lbs tents but I equate a light tent to a kite and 250 denier canopy to little more than a fly screen.
Respectfully, why are you not building your own tents???
Replies
Well, it has been nearly two years since this post originated... has anyone designed and built their own tent?
If Trimline ever comes up with a popup tent as good as their regular tent it would be a big seller...
I built my own tents back in the beginning, and kept throwing money at it trying to make it better. Bad mistake. By the time I fritzed around, I could have bought a KD. This was 88-91 as best as I can recall. The first version was 8 foot 4x4 corner posts with 10 foot 2x4's, treated and heavy as the devil, attached with door hinges.
Getting the first post upright and 2x4 attached was murder. The walls were cedar lattice panels tacked to the frame, and the top was a flat tarp. The second year, 3 shows later, I upgraded with a heavy white vinyl tarp I had made by a trailer cover outfit. It was a flat roof. Terrible.
The third year, I ditched the exoskeleton, and closed in the lattice panels with 2x3's that I routed out a groove the entire length, and had 18 panels 2'x8'. That was continuous walls on 3 sides, a panel front and middle, and 2 panels free standing away from the rear corners. Everything was hinged together, and the frame was ditched. I had to use 2x4s across the top to stiffen the whole thing plus give support for the ungodly heavy tarp that covered the top and the sides. That was one piece, and heavier than hell. I pulled back muscles a few times lifting and unrolling that beast.
Another photographer had a heart to heart talk with me at a Chicago show. He said you've got some nice work in there, but the booth looks like a craft gazebo that should have cheap bags and belts hanging down. Ditch the booth. I did and sales went up due to the customers improved perception of the booth and what was inside.
The money, effort, and time was wasted on that portable gazebo, and for the money that kept getting sunk into it, I could have had a KD Majestic and money to spare.
Oh, and the panels were repurposed and served out a useful life for another 12-15 years. I turned them sideways, and made a garden fence out of them. They made a fence 6 feet high (3 panels) and 48 running feet.
Display panels are one thing, the tents are standardized for a reason.
Robert that is quite the story... do you have any pictures of that beast? :)
Mark, I suppose there are many reasons why artists aren't making their own tents. I once heard it said if you want to save money, it will cost you your time. If you want to save time, it will cost you money. The people who aren't making their own tents probably don't want to invest the time required to do the needed research to make it themselves.
Good luck to you, though. Please post the finished project if you are able to build one yourself. We would all love to see it.
This is interesting. I am going to try to build a "halfway" inside setup. I currently use an ez-up indoors, but I think the cleaner look of something without a tent looks more professional. It hardly looks difficult to do :) Famous last words, right?
I also have been thinking about this. I have the canopy top and the two sides to a rounded top 10 x 10 foot EZ up. Was thinking of building my own frame. Has anyone done that? Any advice or plans out there?
I know Joachim -- no way is he using a forklift and a flatbed. He is resourceful and knows how to spend a dollar and that would not be his way. I am sure his display folds down to fit into a van.
Or becomes a trailer. I know two other artists whose display is on wheels and connects to the rear of their vehicles.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
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