Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

This may be a dumb question but I have a hard time putting together this thing. Does the rod always have to come apart when you collapse the umbrella, and do you always have to position the rod perfectly to the hole before tightening using the wing nut?

The speedring needs to be removed before the PLM folds down. The position shaft can be fixed to the umbrella, leaving the speedring to be attached and detached.

Generally, I leave the speedring attached to the position shaft via the wing bolt. Then I only need to open the umbrella portion, insert the shaft, and tighten the thumb screw that holds it all together.

The position shaft does not need to align the hole with the thumb screw. It is possible to friction fit the thumb screw to the position shaft (this is how one would alter focus).

I hope I am understanding your questions correctly.

For the purposes of my explaination, the thumbscrew is along the shafts inside the umbrell portion, where as the wing bolt attaches the speedring to the position shaft.

I'd just add that I also leave the shaft/ring attached, remove them together to collapse the umbrella, but then for storage/transport I put the shaft back in place, slide it down so the ring is at the edge of the collapsed umbrella, and tighten the thumbscrew. This keeps it all together as unit when not in use.

This is also exactly as I do.

Thanks everyone. I thought this is a little bit more complicated than needed. Mine doesnt come with the speed ring and I was expecting this setup is as easy as the regular umbrella where the shaft is glued to it instead of having to reposition everything you need to open or collapse.

All PLM's with the removable shafts come with a speedring when purchased directly from us. If you purchased it second hand, then it may have been ommitted. We do sell the speedring seperately, if you need/want one.

If you purchased it from us in the past 60 days, you can exchange it for the 8mm shaft style. Or, it is possible to fix the 7mm shaft and position shaft to the umbrella with a seperate 8-32 screw (replaces the set screw at the top). If this is done, the PLM will open and close normally. This cannot be done with a speedring set up.

I did purchased second hand - it is brand new but I guess the seller didnt include that for me. I'll look into purchasing the ring.

I also mark the inner shaft with a Sharpie when the thumbscrew is in place so I don't have to search for it each time...

I like to store the speedring and shaft separately. Unfortunately that leaves the possibility of the wing nut and washers getting lost. Someone posted a video on YouTube where he actually epoxies/Gorilla-glues the wing nut and washers into place in the speeding (along with epoxying/Gorilla-gluing the nuts in place that hold the speedring rod ends so that the rods don't come loose over time. I think I'm going to give this a shot.

You might want to check this out. I think it would be an interesting design enhancement to the speedring to replace the wing nut with a stud embedded in the small end of the speedring. The last thing one needs on a location job is to lose that wing nut.