Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Recent owner of PLM's, everything assembles fine if I use the supplied 7mm rod. When I attempt to assemble speed ring and mount on the PLM, the shaft assembly goes to hell and the umbrella becomes stuck open permanently (try as i might the umbrella will not retract at all).

So either I find a way to work around this problem or I have to hire out to a machinist to custom CNC new shaft modules for these units that are much better made. I'd rather just get the supplied materials to work but so far aside from the umbrella itself i'm very displeased with the way the shaft assembly is designed.

Any ideas, ladies & gents?

F.W.I.W - As a new photographer Buff hardware has been great to work with so far and this issue is the only disappointment I have encountered to date, I count myself lucky in that.

Currently Owned: Einstein - Buff VLX - MC2 (Only keeping it to work with my Sekonic, TT5's have proven to be M.F.P.O.J!) - Buff Triggers

Ok. So you can open the umbrella, insert the 10mm rod and the 7mm rod, use the PLM, and remove all the aforementioned parts, right?

But when you open the umbrella, insert the 10mm rod and screw on the speedring, does the PLM work at all, and if not, where does it fail?

In either case, you say you cannot collapse the umbrella. Can you not loosen the hold-open screw? Or can you completely remove it and the 10mm rod won't come out?

Or will the 10mm rod come out, but the PLM will still not collapse (and the screw is still removed entirely)?

Interesting. I too had trouble collapsing my PLM. Will watch this thread. Maybe a mini-video product demo on the assembly of the PLM and the speedring is in order. It was a head scratcher just for assembly. Aligning the hold-up screw when open, what parts to use, and collapsing the umbrella with everything removed. Kind of felt like I was just making it all up as I went.

Nice umbrella though. Seems like it will not be safe to use outdoors on the speed ring though. I don't think the mounting screw would hold up to the slightest of breezes.

You will be surprised how much you have to screw the 'hold open' screw out, it will feel like its going to come out.

I agree with the above in that you almost have to take the locking knob/screw completely out of the middle section before it will close. That or "take it out all the way" since it goes through another hole in the middle tube before it hits the rod.

Then there is that setscrew on the tip or top of the umbrella too that can get stuck with the middle 7mm rod, but it should still fold. Only thing I could imagine stopping it from closing is if you kinked the slider with all the arms attached to it somehow.

Fwiw, I replaced the center 7mm aluminum rod with a 0.262" water-cooled steel drill rod out of W.W. Grainger for about $5 plus shipping. Much more rigid. About 36 inches long and I added a 5/16" circular collar to the end where it goes into the top of the umbrella. I let it stick out maybe 1/4" from being flush and locking it down with that setscrew at the tip so I can hook a thin rope to stakes to anchor it in the recess (I have the biggest 86" one.). So far no issues up to about 4 MPH winds.

It really does work well as a sun scrim too (The white sheer PLM.) for the fraction of a 4x6 foot California Sun Swatter (or whatever they call that $600 thing which is a mess to assemble and set up.).

Mack

So basically what happens is I use the larger rod that the bracket screws into (I guess it's the 10mm), and put that in place. I use the screw at the top (common sense to use the set screw at the top to hold the 10mm in place and keep it there right?), then I extend the umbrella. The top fastener that normally would be finding a proper foothold courtesy of the 7mm rod, falls out and the umbrella is stuck open with no way to retract it after that. All the rod pieces in the center fall out and are not fixable by me when that top screw goes away, so with the umbrella open there's no way to close it. >.> (There is some sort of additional screw in the center shaft inside the umbrella that it gets stuck on when all the tubes come lose)


So my theories are something along the lines of, either I make use of the existing material, chop off part of the 7mm rod or a similar chunk of material and put it in the top so that the top screw has something to bite into and thus keep the whole thing assembled in place. Alternatively, dump both pieces, hire my brother to machine a 10mm tube with the groove in it and a solid center at the top so that the top screw would bite into that and hold everything in place like you would normally with the 7mm piece in there. It works great with the rod in there but when its not there, everything goes to hell. I can snap a pic of the aftermath and post it here in a link or something.

If buff were to be inspired by my idea, it is much simpler for assembly to have the 10mm tube solid at the top rather than hollow with an indentation for the threaded screw to bite into all around. Less chance of murphy's law kicking in. :)

Great Idea Mack thanks! Sounds like our ideas are on a similar track I think.

I am a little confused but I think I get part of it, you are saying that the top set screw comes out and then everything is a mess right? This happened to me, the way I fixed it for good was to take the set screw out and replace it with a normal machine screw. That way it tightens against the outside and you dont have to worry about it anymore.
I am not sure how the 7mm shaft plays into this, as you dont use it at the same time as the threaded shaft.

That is why the entire damn assembly breaks, because the top screw when used (why the hell wouldn't you use it anyways.. lol) falls out when attempting to secure the tube for the speedring, after the umbrella is opened and and then all the peices fall out etc. I realize this will never make any sense you folks but it is what it is and the umbrellas are now un-useable. The first one was purely a fluke, I was assembling it at a hotel in jamaica, I walk away for a minute and some jerk from the hotel decides to take it upon himself to move it or something, it thus causing the condition to occur. I receive a new 51 inch umbrella from buff, while assembling it the same thing happens to me. I almost did not make it back to america due to problems with being unable to collapse it (the 64 inch) enough to fit in my luggage. I have one umbrella left that I originally assembled that is functional but only because I did it not the way some of you think it was supposed to be i'm gathering. heh..

I'll add a coupe of hardware bits to the 86" white PLM to allow it to function as a nice sun scrim. I use the following with my 86" white PLM:

Matthews MiniGrip Head (350584) $28
Lastolite Non-Rotating Extending Handle (LL LS2453) $90

Gets the thing up to maybe 15 feet in height holding it to block sunlight on whomever under it. Lot less than the CA Sunblocker thing too.

No problem so far in assembling it, but I did replace the 7mm aluminum with a solid water-cooled drill rod as mentioned above. I use the Buff shipping tube as the bag, just I found a plastic pipe end cap at hardware store and used some duct tape to build the end up on the tube for a snug fit of the cap onto the tube.

Fwiw, I get about the same f/stop (Within 1/2 stop) using the white PLM as a shoot through, or a bounce-back type of reflector with flash.

Mack