I love trusses…they’re just so expensive. When we bought our circular truss that we hang in the middle of our building…holding our projector and stage lights…we found the cheapest place to get it. We spent $1600 for a 13 foot diameter triangular circle truss. Pretty amazing, huh? Where did we get this amazing deal? I’m so glad you asked.
We bought our a few years ago from 123DJ. Their prices have gone up but they’re still pretty affordable. Cheap Lights is also another great site to buy trussing and other lighting fixtures from. So that’s that for trusses.
However, there is another alternative if you need a truss but don’t have the money to invest in them: antenna towers. These run for close to $100 for a 10 foot segment. You can pick these up in your local electronics store or order them online from a place like Antenna Systems or Warren Electronics. The pieces that look most like triangular trusses are called the Rohn 20G.
It’s important to note that these aren’t as “pretty” as the trusses you’ll buy from a stage design store. Also, these antenna towers are meant to hold vertical weight, not horizontal weight. So these should only be used for holding light-weight fixtures or used vertically.
One more option, if you’re going for the look rather than the function, is building your own trusses out of PVC pipes. You can attach them together and spray paint them with metallic paint. This is only advisable if you will be attaching no weight to them.
I'm wanting to go with the 'truss look' with stretched fabric hanging from it. Do you think this would be strong enough to handle that? Surely it would…
The antennae would definitely be strong enough to support the stretch fabric. You just don't want to use it to support too much weight
I live in a small, very rural farming community. We have an abundance of abandoned antenna towers. They work great. And I painted them with metallic aluminum paint to enhance their appearance. I had base plates welded to the bottom for support, but I still have to be careful not to make them top heavy if freestanding. Otherwise I tie them off to something. I eventually want to make a rectangle frame from them above our stage mounted to a winch system.
Sounds great! It's sometimes hard for those in mid-sized cities to find those antennae. Glad you're able to make such good use of them. :)
Any experience with the new carbon fiber made ones? seems much lighter.