Machine Politics vs Beaver Boys, May 2011. Photo by Bruce Carver
Hi all, we are thinking of building a mobile (guerrilla) court.
When we spoke of building our indoor court we thought we could make the construction mobile by making it self standing. So the complete court could (and can) be set up on any other spot with enough floorspace. When the guy we bought the panels from came to deliver, it became clear that this would not be as mobile as we thought. 44 Boards that weigh just over 30 Kg each adds up... Not to mention the support 'beams' (they turned out to be a pain in the bud).
To reduce the weight we thought of using plastic sheet's (those that some of us use as wheel-covers) to build the necessary boards. One by itself will surely not be strong enough to handle the abuse of polo, but we reckon that 3 of them put together just might do.
Making it lighter also means that it'll be less solid, and now I wonder.. Would it matter if the court walls are allowed to move a bit when receiving impact from a bike or hard shot?
Some pictures of our adventure: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewoud.bras/Court2?authkey=Gv1sRgCKft7LOmjN6... It looks like the total weight of a complete court (42cm x 20 x 40 meter) will be less then 150 Kg.. :)
We've tested the first batch of 10 elements as a divider, that was a good idea! It seems solid and might also be a solution for making the mobile court more rigid. The bounce pass is indeed more difficult..
From Court 2
If you'd be interested in a prototype, drop us a line with the needed dimensions and we'll work something out.
this is a really neat approach. it will be interesting to see how they hold up after say 50+ games. keep us updated :)
instead of using the 4mm coroplast, ask if they can set you up with 10mm. that is the same stuff the kids use to twirl those arrows.
they are damn near indestructible, and wont bend or crack. and the weight is ideal.
coroplast comes in 4 x 8' sheets, you can get 3 16" x 96" lengths from one sheet, and they run about $30 each.
The entire field, when folded down, will probably be a package measuring about 45x140x150cm. That fit's any fan (or on a bike trolley). As a divider of courts would work as well, if you put one wall against the other, Velcro could make them one.
We think it'll be bouncy enough for nice passes, but could get into trouble when hit hard by metal or flesh and bones, not that it'll break, but it'll get out of position and some connectors (rubber bands for now) will have to break in order that the rest won't. Providing that the wall remains a wall (no openings) and will most often put itself back in position (more or less), would it matter to the game-play if the court walls can move a bit? I think not, but it's a bit of a discussion here.
We will test it soon as it's finished, so far we've build 12 meters board of which only one piece (1,2m) is actually finished. 99 To go; when my shitty phone works again (or I get my camera back) I'll post some more pictures.
We'd love to work with brand new materials, but for now budgeting (Chinese-) double-sided-, Velcro- and Duck tape is enough of a challenge already. All sheets are low budget re-use materials.
This is a cool idea, tell me more about the "position holders" on photo 15 of the picasa album, is that to stop them blowing around in the wind? Are you laying the sheets up with the "grain" going in alternate directions to give it more strength? This probably won't make for the most robust system but as a cheap and light solution it seems ideal + replacing any that get damaged should be fairly easy. I wonder how straight the court edge wil be over a 40m length... Keep the info coming.
Yes, we think that the court should be fixed to the surface under some conditions, the red dot depends on the surface and state it should be in after use. Do you mean by laying with the grain that the middle sheet stick's out 20 cm's? That's for making it fool proof when setting up the court, and to give it the possibility to move (crumple) and with the help of some elastics come back into position. This idea came from playing on Court 1 where we discovered that one of the reasons that it could take heavy abuse without giving a crack was that the position holder (wood, screw's and shallow plugs in the floor) came loose when the abuse took place, giving in like a crumple zone; the other boards put the beaten one back in position. Those are 18mm pieces of wood bolted on the floor, so I think the whole 40 meters in this setup will not be a strait line (at least not for long).
From Court 2
We'll be testing if using pieces of inner-tubes wrapped around the edge of the V-shape could give more grip. Also sand-, water- or normal bag's put on/in some of the V-shapes could prevent movement. We're not there yet but love your thoughts! And indeed when it breaks, it'll be easy to replace, and small enough to have some extra within reach.
Some more Nokia E75 (do not buy that phone) pictures are added to the album. We won't be building the next few day's but will post the results when we did.
Sorry, by "grain" I mean the orientation of the cells in the corruplast / corflute board - if the outside panels run horizontally the inner runs vertically - like how plywood is put together. I agree that some weight in the Vee's would work in keeping it from blowing around and may assist in keeping it a bit straighter over it's length. This is a great re-use of this product!
neat!
this is appealing since it looks like it would lay flat and the entire court perhaps transported in a one pickup truck or van. i would consider using something like this to divide 2 tennis courts into a more usable playing area. we can't put something up permanently so this seems like a nice solution to play polo without the chasing the ball down all day.
wouldn't be good for bounce passes and it would certainly move when crashed into. you could always use some wood reinforcement behind the goals/back wall, if you want the ball to ricochet from shots.
-my stomach is a pickle-