We did not build the tripod because we wanted a tripod. We were enacting the parable of the rich man who stole his poor neighbour's sheep to feed a visitor ( Samuel 12, 1-13 ) and wanted some representation of cooking the sheep. We already had the camp fire, which was an obvious heating device; to adapt it for cooking, the simplest way we could think of was to support a pot over the camp fire, and the easiest way to do that seemed to be a tripod.
The tripod was built from old metal pipes ( old gas pipes, in case that's of interest ), somewhat corroded, which pass for wooden poles from a distance but are stronger ( and were readily available ). They are held together at the apex by a nearly complete ring made of strong wire which passes through holes bored through each pipe; the ring is then bent shut to ensure that the pipes can't slip off.
The rough ends of the sawn-off pipes were smoothed by filing to avoid damage to people or carpet.
Further to minimise potential damage to the carpet, and to make sure that the desired dimensions were maintained, we provided a wooden "foot" for each leg, and connected the "feet" with string so that they could easily and quickly be laid out in the required positions. Each "foot" was a small squarish piece of wood with a hole bored most of the way through to accommodate the end of the leg.
There is nothing particularly critical about the dimensions, and they will obviously be determined by your requirements. Click either picture for a separate version.
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| Tripod with clay pot suspended. | Detail of "foot". |
We used this structure in one of our services :
2009 August