Technical Design Solutions for Theatre

Kevin Hines

A Tool for Mass-Producing Homasote® Brickface

Homasote® brickface is often used to simulate realistic brick surfaces on scenery in both regional and educational theater. The tool described in this article dramatically reduces the time and skill required for mass-producing Homasote® brickface.

This splitter has a stationary blade. See Figure 1. The operator inserts a blank into the guide channel and strikes down repeatedly on the ram, forcing the Homasote® blank into the blade until the shearing is complete and the brickfaces fall through the escape hole in the base of the tool. The enforced alignment of the blanks keeps the splitting consistent. The ram’s travel is limited in order to prevent contact with the blade. Splitting ...