Martin_S
Established Member
I am making some photo stands for my camera club and they need to fold up and fit in the back of a car. They have one set which I am copying - it consists of a hinged A frame at each end, 3 horizontal rails with attachments to lock onto the A frames and then some strings to stop the A frames opening too far and also to stop the photos falling through (the photos sit in a groove in the rails and lean against the string).
This design is fine in use, but can be tricky to stand-up/put together and the strings tend to get in a tangle so I am looking to improve.
Instead of having the horizontal rails clip and lock onto the A frames at each end, I was thinking of fixing the middle rail permanently such that a bolt at each end and a hinge in the middle allowed it to fold in half and bring the 2 end frames together for storage. In this way they would only need to clip on the 2 remaining rails to what would already be an erected and stable framework (and then I need a solution for the strings).
My issue is that I can picture the hinge I need in the centre of the middle rail but I don't know what it is called - my wife says I need an elbow joint, which is a fair description of how it needs to work.
a) Does this all make sense?
b) If it does, what am I looking for to joint that centre rail?
So in operation, I have 2 rails end on end, say 75x15, hinged such that the '15' face goes from end on end to folded over and touching each other. (Or 180 degrees to zero)
Thanks in advance.
This design is fine in use, but can be tricky to stand-up/put together and the strings tend to get in a tangle so I am looking to improve.
Instead of having the horizontal rails clip and lock onto the A frames at each end, I was thinking of fixing the middle rail permanently such that a bolt at each end and a hinge in the middle allowed it to fold in half and bring the 2 end frames together for storage. In this way they would only need to clip on the 2 remaining rails to what would already be an erected and stable framework (and then I need a solution for the strings).
My issue is that I can picture the hinge I need in the centre of the middle rail but I don't know what it is called - my wife says I need an elbow joint, which is a fair description of how it needs to work.
a) Does this all make sense?
b) If it does, what am I looking for to joint that centre rail?
So in operation, I have 2 rails end on end, say 75x15, hinged such that the '15' face goes from end on end to folded over and touching each other. (Or 180 degrees to zero)
Thanks in advance.
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