[SML] Break-away table

[taco at peak.org]

I think I'd try to sell the idea of a drop-leaf table with the mechanism disabled or removed, patched together with just enough balsa struts to hold it together until impact. You might still destroy a table, but it could be reset nightly, and would always break cleanly, without ragged cut edges, and look good when restored.. 



From: "Paul Anderson via Stagecraft" <stagecraft at theatrical.net> 
To: "dale" <dale at cybercom.net>, "shood td" <shood_td at yahoo.com> 
Cc: "Paul Anderson" <panderson at hope.edu>, "Stagecraft Mailing List" <stagecraft at theatrical.net> 
Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2018 6:10:08 AM 
Subject: Re: [SML] Break-away table 

Thanks for replies. 

I thought breaking the whole table was a bit over doing it as well. Not sure if he wants that sort of melodrama or what. This is in ongoing discussion at this point. Just looking for possible ideas for construction. 

I'm hoping that I don't have to build a whole bunch of tables. But just one with a couple replaceable parts that break. 

Paul 

On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 5:20 PM, dale < dale at cybercom.net > wrote: 



Never tried building one myself. You want to literally break the entire table in half or just break some of the boards of the tabletop? I will observe that in real fights with normal tables the things that normally break (other than the bones of the fighters) are the legs of the tables. 

The old West movie saloon fight scenes tended to use ordinary tables from the cheap furniture store with key structural parts mostly sawn through. The stuntmen would wear padding under their costumes and land exactly where the cuts had been placed. 

The chairs that got smashed over someone's head were made with balsa wood, also with precut weak points so that even with their low mass, they would still smash nicely. Also, the old West movies could do things in those preOSHA days that we cant do now. 

Dale 



Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone 


-------- Original message -------- 
From: Paul Anderson via Stagecraft < stagecraft at theatrical.net > 
Date: 2/7/18 15:01 (GMT-05:00) 
To: Stagecraft Mailing list < stagecraft at theatrical.net > 
Cc: Paul Anderson < panderson at hope.edu > 
Subject: [SML] Break-away table 

Think round and old west and saloon. 

What if I wanted a table that could break in two with a [fake] head slam? 

​More or less normal construction with a balsa board down the middle? 
Normal-ish construction with a saw cut (or crooked) break​ across the middle held by thin strips of something like pine ore lauan underneath? 

If it has side rails-as many/most tables do-they would have to be able to pull away from legs or also break. 

I haven't seen much in terms of how-to info online that didn't look just plain hokey. Has someone done this other than the movies or is there a URL for better information than what I have come across so far? 

Thanks, 

-- 
Paul Anderson 
Technical Director for Theater 
Hope College 








-- 
Paul Anderson 
Technical Director for Theater 
Hope College 
Holland, MI 
616-395-7104 

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