Leaf Drop

[froggy_2810]

Hey there,

As simple as it sounds (I hope im in the right area) but a client of mine has asked me to make a leaf drop for their prodution, it's in a sports centre so there are no flying bars, but there are static ones. I'm not sure where to start with this so any help would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Craig

[paulears]

If you have fixed bars, then a mod of the traditional snow box works pretty well. Knock up a box out of 6mm mdf - about a metre long, 100mm wide and deep. with a router, cut slots across the width from top to bottom. Cut another panel of MDF that is about 100mm shorter than the cavity and loose enough to slide end-to end by the 100mm. Rout slats in this one too so that when the panel is at one end, the slats don't align - sealing the box. An elastic band and a couple of screws each side to pull the slide to the closed position. Attach cord (I used the Venetian blind sort) to the other end, exit through a hole drilled in the box. Fit the box to the hanging point, thread the cord to somewhere where you can pull/release/pull/release. Works for Snow paper and glitter strips - can't see a problem with leaves.

[boatman]

For leaves you may need something with a larger aperture than a glitter/snow drop box. There's a CAD file of a suitable dropbox on the Controlbooth forum here. It's in DWG format so you'll need a CAD viewer which you'll find here.

[themadhippy]

best leaf droper ive seen was a carbord tube (from the centrer of a roll of carpet) and a DMX mirror ball motor with a large rubber wheel on the end,the tube had various size holes along its lenght ,were the leaves came out and the motor to tube connection was friction,obviously there was a frame to hold it all together,but the whole lot was fairy easy to haul up in the air.vary the speed of rotation varied the amount of leaves falling

[jonathanhill]

How about a good old fashioned kabuki drop? Two lengths of 3x1 with a piece of fabric fastened between them on the long sides, and a piece of wood fashioned to hold the 3x1 together, connected to a piece of line that runs through a couple of pulleys to the operators position. On cue, a sharp tug releases the holding mechanism, one length of timber falls, and hey presto, leaves (or anything) falls to earth.