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where to buy speed-rail in the UK?


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Been trying to search this for a long while, perhaps its called something different in the UK?

 

I am trying to buy speed rail for a goal post rig in which I will hang a kino flo 4 bank. Preferably I am looking for a 10 foot long speed rail, however for transport I may have to connect two 5 foot ones, however not sure how to check how safe this would be and the max load it would be capable of.  I also cannot find a place to order them in the UK.

 

Any advise?

Thanks!

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17 hours ago, Patrick Baldwin said:

Try here. Googling speed rail tubing for other options .

http://www.doughty-engineering.co.uk/shop/26/

Looking at that website, it seems to be all elbows and different mounting options and not the rail itself. I'm trying to find 6061 schedule 40 pipe as this seems like the standard for building rigs for grips but finding it hard to find those specs for pipe in the UK. Not sure whether I am looking at USA stuff and there is a different name over here.

 

I should have posted this in the Grip section, however I am not sure how to delete this post so I can post there instead as I dont want to spam the forum.

Cheers

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OK, here we go.

Actual Speed-Rail is made by Hollaender in Cincinnati and sold mainly in the USA. It is expensive there, and by the time you've added up import costs, film industry markup and UK markup, buying actual Hollaender stuff in the UK is so comically expensive it's just stupid.

When people talk about speed rail they're generally talking about something smaller than scaffold tube, that is, smaller than the 48mm clamps Patrick links above. "Schedule 40" is an American specification for pipe that describes the ratio between the wall thickness and outer diameter, and it covers a number of diameters.

Most of the speed rail setups I've seen look to have been using the 1-1/4" clamps, meaning slightly less than 32mm tube. There is enough tolerance in the clamps that they will generally give you that much wiggle room, though if you're building overhead rigging or vehicle mounts, get it right, because the correct sizing and alloy types may be crucial to achieving proper strength. Absent these concerns just buy tube from a general metal stockist.

Kee Lite clamps are aluminium and available in a size advertised as 33.7mm which is probably the functional UK equivalent of Hollaender's Speed-Rail system. They're still not very cheap but they're a hell of a lot cheaper than importing Speed-Rail. On a budget, you can get galvanised iron clamps (normal Kee Klamps, Q Clamps and other brands) which are very serviceable. They are much, much heavier than the aluminium ones, but also massively cheaper. They're the sort of things you see on handrails in car parks. They're heavy and ugly but work fine and are available in a variety of sizes.

Personally, I like doing things with 48mm tube. It's bigger and heavier and clamps are slightly more expensive, but it affords compatibility with every piece of light-and-sound rigging used in live events and every piece of scaffolding ever made anywhere on the planet.

In the image below, the uppermost clamp is Kee Lite, the lower is a galvanised iron Kee Klamp. The tube is normal 48mm aluminium scaffold tube so it's compatible with the quick-release lighting clamp used to hold the wheel unit on (this is a dolly frame). Scaffold tube is very chunky and may be overkill for some applications; you can use thinner-walled 48-mm-ish tube for weight and cost savings if you are happy that it's strong enough.

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Oh, and I should add, "schedule 40" is one of those weird standards where the actual outside diameter of the tube is nothing to do with the specified size, so one-inch schedule 40 tube has an OD of just over 33mm. Make sure you get what you need. You generally won't find people selling schedule-anything in the UK so just go by OD.

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This is US-centric, although it may well be true in the UK as well, but you can buy 10ft lengths of 1 1/4” (32mm) steel electrical conduit for around $10 each at places like Home Depot. It’s heavier than aluminum, but a lot cheaper. I’ve used it in the past for Dana dolly track, but there’s no reason you couldn’t make goalposts out of it.

Usual safety disclaimers apply.

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On 1/31/2021 at 4:49 PM, Phil Rhodes said:
On 1/31/2021 at 5:11 PM, Phil Rhodes said:

Oh, and I should add, "schedule 40" is one of those weird standards where the actual outside diameter of the tube is nothing to do with the specified size, so one-inch schedule 40 tube has an OD of just over 33mm. Make sure you get what you need. You generally won't find people selling schedule-anything in the UK so just go by OD.

Thanks so much for your detailed explanation! very useful!

 

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