Anarcho-capitalist flag stand
News, Political ·Monday April 18, 2011 @ 01:51 EDT (link)
Inspired by this tea party visitor—perhaps a tad too confrontational, but it was disgusting the way they treated him—I ordered a black and gold anarcho-capitalist flag from the only place I could find it—and one of the most free markets out there, with, to a large degree its own effective security and dispute resolution—eBay. It arrived, as specified, about a week ago, as promised—a polymer flag (much thinner material than the thick cloth in the video) with two grommets along a white strip at the end for attachment.
I then set out to figure out how to support the flag; I wandered over to Home Depot and initially thought about using wood but settled on ¾" white PVC pipe (reminiscent of my target stand, which used black ABS pipe). There were two sub-plans: a straight length (joined in the middle by a coupler so it could break down for transport) with a cap on the top and two screw eyes to attach the flag, so it could be attached and waved; and the second, shown here since it's what I built (although the other could still be built as an alternate without interference) is a hanger, like those used to hang banners around town at holidays: it adds a cross-bar to the top of the straight post, and attaches the flag via screw eyes on each side. As shown it's attached to a 6' length of pipe, which was actually the remainder; two 5' lengths are meant to be used, but that's higher than our roof (and using one means the flag touches the floor; it's 3' x 5').
Parts list:
- 2 ¾" PVC pipe 10' lengths (cut to 5' + 5', 2' + 2' + 6')
- 3 ¾" PVC pipe endcaps (for the top in plan 1 or the cross-bar in 2)
- 1 ¾" PVC pipe tee (non-threaded) to attach 2' crossbars
- 4 #8 screw eyes (actually had to buy 2 packets of 3)
I brought a hacksaw and tape measure to the store but the actually had all that and a miter box too a few aisles over (for trim) so I cut it at the store: beat trying to cut it in the parking lot.
It's a little late for tax day rallies this year, but it was a cheap and fun project and it'll be ready for future events now.
