# Upgrade to a shooting table



## Don Kondra (Jul 26, 2013)

Greetings,

In an on going attempt to clean up the clutter around my shooting table I decided to purchase a wall mounted boom arm and eliminate my existing boom arm/rolling light stand.

Trouble is, I don't have any wall space to mount it 

No problem says I, I'll build a removeable folding "wall" that will attach to my shooting table (my work bench :mrgreen.

Then I thought, heck. Why not two arms and eliminate two light stands when not using a boom ?

I decided 4' wide would also allow me to position my lights from the sides, I still need to use an offset arm on the end of the boom to accomodate positioning softboxes. 

The "wall" is a torsion box made of a grid of maple screwed and glued to 1/2" baltic birch plywood on both sides. This results in a very rigid and relatively light panel. A smaller panel is clamped to my bench, hinged to the larger panel and chains support the upright. It can be removed and folded for storage. The booms themselves attach with bolts and wing nuts. 

This is the existing paper backdrop stand with the two new booms. 







The interior grid for the torsion box. 






Back view.






Side view.






Three quarter side view.






Front left view.






Front view.






Just need to attach my 36" wide seamless and I should be good to go...

BTW, from the wall to flash tube is 6'. 

Cheers, Don


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## Scatterbrained (Jul 26, 2013)

Nice woodwork there.  Do you have it permanently bolted to the workbench or does it clamp in place?   If t just clamps you've got an "on the go" still life set up, just add a table.


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## tirediron (Jul 26, 2013)

I wish the walls I built in my kitchen looked that good!    Fantastic work Don, as always!


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## Benco (Jul 26, 2013)

Lovely bit of joinery there. Good job.


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## Dao (Jul 26, 2013)

Scatterbrained said:


> Nice woodwork there.  Do you have it permanently bolted to the workbench or does it clamp in place?   If t just clamps you've got an "on the go" still life set up, just add a table.




From that 3rd photo, it seems to be clamped to the bench.


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## Derrel (Jul 26, 2013)

I thought i heard something go boom in the night! Musta' been you, making this post! Nifty idea, nice execution.


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## Don Kondra (Jul 29, 2013)

Thanks for the comments everyone and the laughs !

Paper is hung and ready to work.  Now the only tripping hazards are my dogs toys :mrgreen:






A very quick test shot with the lights in the above positions...






Cheers, Don


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