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Where to get the cheapest custom made gobo


daoops

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Posted
At school I had one made up for free by the technology department using their C and C miller. If you can find a friendly technology department or local company with a miller capable of cutting through thin aluminium and are prepared to put in the effort of designing it this may be a good idea
Posted
At school I had one made up for free by the technology department using their C and C miller. If you can find a friendly technology department or local company with a miller capable of cutting through thin aluminium and are prepared to put in the effort of designing it this may be a good idea

 

I think you mean a CNC milling machine (computer numerically controlled).

 

That sounds like quite a good idea actually. What thickness aluminium did you use, and what software did you use to produce the GOBO?

Posted
At school I had one made up for free by the technology department using their C and C miller. If you can find a friendly technology department or local company with a miller capable of cutting through thin aluminium and are prepared to put in the effort of designing it this may be a good idea

 

I think you mean a CNC milling machine (computer numerically controlled).

 

That sounds like quite a good idea actually. What thickness aluminium did you use, and what software did you use to produce the GOBO?

The Alli was also provided by the technology dept, It was about 1 or 2 mm thick. We desinged it in pro desktop wihch then was outputed to auto cad I belive. I did indeed mean CNC.

Posted

For cheap and cheer full gobo's, I have seen in the past.....

 

 

the sides of drinks cans with simple shapes cut out with a scapal and placed into a gobo holder, or as a last resort.....

 

...foil from food containers you get from the take away...

just make sure they don't get too hot or they melt!

 

They were only being used in 500-650Watt Profiles

Posted
Get some Selecon Pacifics with a GKV 600w lamp, set it very flat and then print out your own gobos on an Inkjet or laser printer onto normal OHP transparencies and put them straight into the gate - will last for hours! You can fit six on a A4 sheet!
Posted
Get some Selecon Pacifics with a GKV 600w lamp, set it very flat and then print out your own gobos on an Inkjet or laser printer onto normal OHP transparencies and put them straight into the gate - will last for hours! You can fit six on a A4 sheet!

 

I've heard about this but am a bit concerned about how black you can get black to be from an OHP sheet?

 

In other words do you end up with a hard focused circular slide projector?

 

 

James

Posted

I've use Pacifics to do this and had quite good results. We effectively used them instead of slide projectors. Not quite as crisp but acceptable. Had no problems making them black enough and they lasted the run (though we did find them starting to burn a bit if run at full too long). We were using a gobo holder with a built in heat shield if I remember correctly - I'm surprised Mr Seleconuk isn't plugging that as well.

 

I was going to suggest them on this thread but then I realised that, as the original poster was asking for a cheap solution (and probably already had the units he was going to put the gobo in), hiring extra kit was probably not an option.

Posted

By placing the plastic gobo in the front slot you can use the shutters to mask some of the black if necessary. This will also increase the life of the gobo.

 

They key to getting a good black is to use a good printer, saturate the colours and increase the contrast.

 

The holder with the UV heat shield glass does help to improve the life of the gobo but I have used the standard gobo holder many times on shows and the gobo has lasted the run. The key thing here is density of the image and careful lamp allignment.

 

Take your point about the fact that he'd have to hire the Pacific which would cost but the hire cost would be less than a standard custom metal gobo. Also Plastic gobo's can be in full colour.

 

Hope this helps

Posted
Take your point about the fact that he'd have to hire the Pacific which would cost but the hire cost would be less than a standard custom metal gobo

 

That would of course depend on the length of the run - but having done some quick maths the break point is probably around five or six weeks (£60 for the Gobo against £12/week for the Pacific) so you could well be right. Plus I'm sure you'd be happy to lend him a couple, which would get the cost down :blink:

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