What is the plan re the shed and the gear?

Derek - can you come up with approx costs for these so we can bring it up at the committee meeting please

Okay here is some rough pricing from Mitre 10 Mega. If we decide to do this I will shop around for the plywood, as I’m sure we can get it for less.

The reason I’m looking at 6 chests is each chest uses 1/3 sheet 17mm ply and 1/2 sheet 12mm ply. 6 chests has no wastage. All ply is DD untreated ( interior ply )

17mm $78/sheet x 2
12mm $51/sheet x 3
screws $30 for 200
hinges $3.5 x 12
glue $10
stain $40

Total $431 ( check my math, I added it up in my head :smiley: )

Or, roughly $70 each

Mitre 10 will cut the ply into 400mm strips for free, which will ensure at least some of our lines are straight.

I’m happy to manage this if I can get a couple of helpers with cordless drills to help build / assemble them. They’re a reasonably straight forward project and I think we can build them reasonably quickly some afternoon.

Another option is just to build a bunch of 12mm ply cubes that are 400mm x 400mm x400mm (hold 64L)

We’d get three from a sheet of ply $51 / sheet + screws and hinges is about $30 each

One advantage of the 1.2 meter long chests is that weapons will fit in them.

[quote=“Derek”]17mm $78/sheet x 2
12mm $51/sheet x 3[/quote]

Ply may be as little as half this cost, if we shop around, trademe often has good deals, seconds etc

Theres a place in Hamilton called Demolition traders… they often have cheap plywood… so near new sheets used once in construction… not helpful for Orkland BUT you might have a place just like it…

Good idea Jared, if we can get clean timber from a second hand place then it will save us money, although purchasing new means we know that the wood is clean and won’t contain residues that could damage our gear.

Derek’s design results in a 192 litre box, which is almost the same size as 4 50l black boxes. These are around $12 / box (they used to be $10, I think, but the price has since gone up). So, a similar size, multi-purpose wooden box for only about $6 more plus labour. Assuming we can shop around, I’d expect the price to actually be lower.

Now, these boxes may not be practical for all situations. For example, a daygame where the crew zone is being set up away from the carpark. Most people can happily carry a full box, but the new boxes will weigh the same as 4 boxes plus the wood, and I assume will be carried by two people. IOW, much heavier (but not immovable) so not as suited for dragging off to hard-to-get-to crew zones. The solution is to ensure we have plenty of empty plastic boxes so we can temporarily use to transport the contents of the wooden chests in these situations.

BTW, I’m happy to help build these, assuming I can make the date. I have cordless drill, saw, portable workbench etc.

While they WILL be much heavier, they look like they have the added benefit of becoming a seat once in place… and 2 people dragging ONE box will also save on set up time by halfing the number of trips. Maybe. Still, its nice to have somewhere to sit when you are crewing.

When / where is the next meeting?

Tomorrow, 7:30pm, 2/2A Ewenson St, Penrose.

Not the best way to store the gear (I’m thinking the latex sticks to latex thing) but definitely a great way to carry it :smiley:

RE storing the soft kit ie robes and stuff, what is the feasibility of obtaining some clothes racks and hanging it all? It will be better for the costumes, and make things a lot easier for GMs to pick exactly what/how much they want, and load it into either plastic boxes, or if they have the space the wooden trunks. Unless we can find some old racks like you’d find in theatres that have wheels on them…

Can’t stack clothes racks like you can boxes.

No, but a single hanging rack would take up roughly the same amount of floorspace and you’d still be able to fit all the costumes there because they’re hanging and not folded away. Plus you usually end up with a space underneath said hanging costumes that you could still have boxes in, but filled with stuff like the makeup, or the leather armour bits that can’t be hung.

I’ve seen how much we can get into those plastic boxes, it’s a good amount - but not spectacularly huge. Think of this as more a query than a recommendation.

[quote=“Derek”]17mm $78/sheet x 2
12mm $51/sheet x 3 [/quote]

I just got a quote from plyman, which is slightly cheaper:

1200x2400 12mm ply (DD untreated) x 3 sheets=126.87incl.gst
1200x2400 17mm ply (DD untreated) x 2 sheets=119.86incl.gst

cutting is free

Which would bring the total down to $369 (divided by 6 is $62 each - $56 if we decide not to stain them)

And I’ve included the pretty picture again, because bits are free!

What are they like for carrying? Those rope handles look quite low, it seems like the lid would get in the way of carrying.

Wouldn’t people try to carry it by the lid? Does the lid open on hinges?

I put the handles low on the sketch because the lid sticks out 150mm at each end, and this will mean that they’re less likely to annoy your forearm. We could always shorten the lid if we wanted. But it may just be better to forgo the handles completely. I didn’t cost in rope, because I suspect we can find a piece somewhere :smiley:

The price I estimated allows for two hinges per chest at $3.50 each. They’re strap hinges with the long triangular tabs, not the little rectangular hinges, and will allow the lib to be opened and hang down the back of the chest parallel to the side.

How do you foresee people carrying them? A person at each end, holding them underneath?

if the handles are low, won’t that make the whole thing top-heavy and prone to tipping over?

Perhaps leave the rope handles in, it will make dragging them into place easier when we have them set up as seats.

For carrying, I expect people will lift from the base, holding where the base meets the feet. 150mm is not that long, and I don’t expect the top overhang to get in the way.

[quote=“TequilaDave”]No, but a single hanging rack would take up roughly the same amount of floorspace and you’d still be able to fit all the costumes there because they’re hanging and not folded away. Plus you usually end up with a space underneath said hanging costumes that you could still have boxes in, but filled with stuff like the makeup, or the leather armour bits that can’t be hung.

I’ve seen how much we can get into those plastic boxes, it’s a good amount - but not spectacularly huge. Think of this as more a query than a recommendation.[/quote]
It would be useful to be able to hang our gear up and for GMs to select the gear they want and cart these to games in boxes. However, there some considerations:

  1. The environment needs to be clean so the gear does not get dirty from dust in the air or a dirty floor if (when) the costumes are occasionally dropped.
  2. We’ll still need lots of boxes for carting the gear, especially at weekend games
  3. This will significantly increase the amount of time spent handling gear, especially at weekend games, so GMs will need to plan extra load out / load in times into their larp planning.
  4. It means we will be able to have a database of gear, including photos, and GMs can select the gear they are interested prior to load out. This will require some kind of categorisation / indexing system, but it would be useful.

To me, this concept would work best once we have a permanent place for our gear. I’m not sure if the shed is the correct location, as it is reasonably small. I’m thinking a larger space such as a room or similar.