# Curious things I see that keeps the job interesting



## ship (Mar 30, 2005)

Just don’t make filament supporting bridges like they used to. This was a 2Kw/120v lamp that had it’s filament fall while still hot which melted thru quartz glass. Luckily as opposed to the filament in melting thru glass reaching air than the lamp exploding, it would seem the filament wire broke shortly before this and cut off current to the rest of the lamp.

Finally, my favorite of the day. The amazing “ParCo” adjustable Hack “O” Matic fixture yoke for when a single bar of steel or aluminum is too expensive and difficult to make into a yoke by those charged with making gear work safely. As I was told, “it worked didn’t it, 20 years later it’s still together.” Cut apart what parts you need from a rock and roll par can yokes and just rivet them together to make a much larger one. Given of course no rivets were in stock long enough to function properly in binding the surfaces like a normal rivet, they just put four rivets per section - two from each side on each lap joint seam. Gee, this person was right, it did function in that only a few of the seams were loose, bent or sort of out of alignment. You will note the bend also with a hole centered at the corner in further reducing the strength of the stap. But have no fears, they will have also put a safety cable around the yoke.


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## BNBSound (Mar 30, 2005)

30 amp 220 volt dimmer pack, connected to 30 amp dryer outlet, connected to 15 amp extension cord x2, connected to 30 amp stage pin connected to 50 amp 220 volt drop box. Over all, 150' of cable with 6 connections in the middle. Once you do the math the fire seems like not such a surprise.

Not my fault this one, just helped clean up the mess.


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## falcon (Mar 31, 2005)

on one of our lights we have it coming from twistlock to edison to twistlock to edison to twistlock to edison, for about 200', I don't know why whoever did it didn't just put all the twistlocks togehter and then over to teh eidson. I would just replace it with on of our larger twistlock cables and just adapt it over to edison at the end, but this thing is way to hard to get to. it drops down into the wall and out the bottom wiht just enough clearance for the twistlock to be pulled through


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## LX-88 (Mar 31, 2005)

Great stories everyone. Ill add one of the more comical things coming out of our theater right now. We have a par can that is afraid of heights. The electric will be down to focus it, and it will be on, but as soon as we hoist it up it shuts off and refuses to come on until we bring it back down.


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## cutlunch (Mar 31, 2005)

LX-88 said:


> Great stories everyone. Ill add one of the more comical things coming out of our theater right now. We have a par can that is afraid of heights. The electric will be down to focus it, and it will be on, but as soon as we hoist it up it shuts off and refuses to come on until we bring it back down.



To me this sounds like a safety issue that needs sorting out quickly. I would say there is a loose connection in one of the cables. It is all right when it's down so maybe there is no pressure on it and it makes contact normaly. Once it is pulled up the cable position must shift forcing the connection to move breaking the circuit. This could lead to someone getting a shock.

I would be interested to hear what the fault is you find.


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## Mayhem (Mar 31, 2005)

Ship - don't ever try to tell me that your life is boring! Would love to hear the reason behind the yokes. 

As for the PAR with altitude sickness, I would put my money on either a broken wire within the multicore that supplies the bar. Or a faulty connection in the junction box.

Check for cable snags/piching when the bar is raised. Is there a basket or other support for the cable?


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## ship (Mar 31, 2005)

I'm hoping this post starts a sort of constant post of what you found and were dumbfounded with in knowng better than, without much comments from others in telling you what's wrong with it unless asked for. 

This is a post to add to by those that already know what's wrong and even cite it, they just want to present something that makes them scratch their head in wonder before it does drive them mad. 

Humorous posts.

Photos are great but story time is also good. It's a posting that is more what you find and don't accept in knowing better, than one are forced to deal with or allow the use of. Just them wacky tech people proceeding you type of thing.

The lamp in being shown it, I was asked what to do with it. Such a person questioned the lamp but in not knowing any better really will have re-installed it.


Mayhem said:


> Ship - don't ever try to tell me that your life is boring!
> Would love to hear the reason behind the yokes.
> 
> As for the PAR with altitude sickness, I would put my money on either a broken wire within the multicore that supplies the bar. Or a faulty connection in the junction box.
> ...



This reason for the yokes was given by someone who admitted to having built one of the yokes - though he would never bend a yoke centered around a large hole in it at the corner thus only admitted to one while calling the other unsafe. Yes there is stuff he is very qualified for in well over 25 years in the industry, but some things you scratch you head in a "what were you thinking" type of way. On stagecraft recently there was mention about past telepone type tech people in doing interesting things. This person qualifies as someone that spent a little too much time in working for "Ma Bell" before he got into lighting. 

While citing his rational for the yoke as being a budget thing in that they could not afford a long enough piece of steel or aluminum to bend to shape, much less rivets. Safety if considered was to take a back seat. Now that there is budget I would hope he would not do similar - hope doing the operative term. Guy is brilliant but like all including me does have his moments. 

His point was the yoke did hold up with time thus must be safe in being sufficiently done. This given they found at the bottom of an "extra yoke" bin thus was not used. Others with more sense it would seem were also afraid of them. But those same others afraid of using them were also afraid of getting rid of them 


I in being dumb founded by the adimssion I was hard pressed to make the why it's unsafe point beyond proximity of 1 square inch of aluminum lap jointed material with four two short 3/16" rivets in it which went over his head. I could not adiquatlely show beyond that dumb fasination with his rational. Old man of the theater won that debate in that while some rivet joints were loose, the yoke had not as stated fallen apart. Given of course it was no longer in use as the primary reason for that.

I cut them up today for usable scrap parts. Got all of about three sections each 14" worth of aluminum bar from them. The rest was sent to the recycling bin. Just could not fathm such a thing. 
In making the yokes larger in width and height, one will have thought a fixture that was also heavier such that even a used 1/8" x 1" aluminum yoke/strap off a Par Can to it will not have been sufficient for the weight. Still dumbfounded for words.

I do hope all find their "old man of the theater" mentours as I have found twice now in a career. You will learn a lot from them about how stuff functions above text book or so far experience. But I also hope that you once you learn such stuff get to the point you can seperate experience from lazyness and un-safe hack due to what was "necessary" in the past but no longer suitable.


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## JahJahwarrior (Mar 31, 2005)

I've found two par cans now (and there are two more of the same type still up there that I need to check soon!) that, inside the lamp, had...um, I cannot remember exactly, but either very short leads from the ceramic or none at all, that were covered with that heat safe fabric, and then several inches of just rubber coated wire. In one, the insulation had falled off, and the wire had actually broken, the wire was in several pieces inside there, and this is a lamp that doesn't ever move--it had been stationary for atleast two years. The other one, I was moving around, and exchanged the 500 watt lamp for a 1k, and noticed the wiring was again, falling apart. It still worked, but I took it out and threw it in the corner. They'll probably be trashed.


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## sound_nerd (Apr 1, 2005)

The venue i'm working in right now is wired both with 20A twist lock, and u-ground receptacles....I have yet to find someone who knows enough about the system to explain it to me. Both types of plugs run back to the dimmers, so it should be either one or the other. The things that make my life difficult. (hunting for adapters from 4 rental houses to fill my need)


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## avkid (Apr 1, 2005)

Why do you need to buy adapters? I make my own out of plugs from the hardware store and 4 foot cable sections,it is very cost effective and still quite safe if you observe amperage and wire gauge.


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## EPAC_Matt (Apr 19, 2005)

Laptop powered by a dimmer. I was in the soundbooth and it was on stage facing the other way so I couldn't see if it was running.. or on fire..


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## herr_highbrau (Apr 19, 2005)

Very old bulb that was gently fermenting. Yes, fermenting. It had some weird material (Organic, my Deputy thinks) that I've never seen before, and hope never to see again!


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## ship (Apr 19, 2005)

herr_highbrau said:


> Very old bulb that was gently fermenting. Yes, fermenting. It had some weird material (Organic, my Deputy thinks) that I've never seen before, and hope never to see again!



Take a photo of the old lamp and the organic material, it would be a curious sight for all to see.

I was just abrasive fiber wheeling off some white/green organic like material of my own today. This off some mercury vapor 400w black light lamps. Comes from heat and bad contact on a brass base most often, that or given it's brass just water and oxidation Depends upon what type of corrosion it is. Most likely in this case the latter for me in that I also had to get rid of a nest of some type of flying dead bug that made their home inside the fixture after the show. Think the black light attracted them because they were all over the place when not melted on the ED-37 mercury vapor lamp. Lamp base corrosion was easier to clean than the melted bugs off it's globe.


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## Radman (Apr 20, 2005)

More sound related: Running the show with the pads on on every channel and wondering why it sounds crappy. Luckily I caught this before opening night.


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## sound_nerd (Apr 21, 2005)

avkid said:


> Why do you need to buy adapters? I make my own out of plugs from the hardware store and 4 foot cable sections,it is very cost effective and still quite safe if you observe amperage and wire gauge.



Didn't buy them, just borrowed. Ended up getting what I needed from the local professional theatre. Real nice of them to lend me 30 adapters for a week and not charge anything.

I've made my own in the past from bulk parts, but the ones I have weren't enough.


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## ship (Apr 27, 2005)

???, ..., Idiots!, ... .


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## zac850 (Apr 27, 2005)

Ship, that made me just start laughing out loud! Wow..... thats just..... wow.


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## Eboy87 (May 20, 2005)

Pardon me for asking but,

What in the name of hell is that!

I recognize the C part, the rest..... someone got creative. Oh well. Here's mine:

We were training some new freshmen on how to gel lights. Problem is, we seem to be low on frames for S4s. "Never fear, super Frosh is here!" The idiot makes a frame from a piece of black cardboard. I'm wondering Sunday why there is smoke coming out of our ante pros. Cardboard is not heat resistant.

Also, during another preformance, I notice something dripping from our cyc electric. Naturally, being the inquisitive one, I go investigate. When I look up on stage, the "Liquid" is dripping from a cyc light. I go pull it down, pull out the gel, and notice something funny about the bulb (one of those long thin halogen ones, like the construction ones). It had grown a liquid tail. I had no idea how it melted, I replaced it the day before. Oh well, at least no one was injured, and the smoke alarms didn't go off for either.

Ian


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## soundman (May 21, 2005)

ship said:


> picture



The safe working load for that is what about 2 pounds?


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## koncept (May 21, 2005)

I gotta ask, because I don't know but what is that? (more so as to where it would be used)


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## ship (May 21, 2005)

There are various forms of shackle on the market. Normally one would use what’s called a screw pin shackle and use tie wire to ensure it won’t come un-screwed if permanent install. Otherwise there is pin and cotter pin shackles and ones that use a bolt that are less used because it's difficult to easily remove them.

Having studied this shackle some, it shows no signs of ever having been threaded thus it was one of the other versions - no doubt the type that uses a pin and cotter pin retainer for it.

Someone along the way replaced the pin provided with a quick release pin no doubt to make it quick and easy to remove. The shackle seems to have been designed to have a pin in it, but replacement of one pin that’s got a cotter pin retainer for another type that has a push button extractor is very against normal safety standards. No matter if the pin might be rated for the same 3 Ton load or not - if it even is rated for load in the same way, you are not to install components on rigging equipment not coming from the factory for that equipjment. Can’t even replace the nut on a wire rope clip if missing if other than factory. Much less in the photo you can see shadow around the opening for the pin and pin. The tolerances of this opening were not very good for the type of pin in use. This type of pin is designed to go into a slightly smaller hole and as a other than lifting capacity type of thing.

So someone it would seem used a non-factory spec. or specifically load rated pin to replace the factory one as a easy removal solution. This no doubt was a very light load and needful quick release situation where someone was not informed about proper products for doing this because the pin in use is not cheap to buy thus it was not a cost effective solution either. They must have thought they had a brilliant solution and for the most part in no doubt even using a oversized shackle for the application I theorize. The shackle is in very used condition but no real fattening of it’s pin thus it could not have been used at capacity or in a shock loading on the non-rated pin. For the most part, the pin won’t pull free unless you really tug on it so they were thinking, it’s just not proper use of materials and a bad idea in general. There are other solutions for load rated gear when you need to quickly release it.

Bad idea, and while of the same coloring, due to the tolerances of the hole, I seriously doubt anyone sells this type of equipment. Came off a show thus someone was using it and probably a few of them. Got one of them after the show, apparently the stage hands did not question it’s use, nor there probably is more in use by who ever once owned it. Such things are part of what cause stage tragedies. It showing back to my shop shows that not even any of our crew noted some other companie's use of it since it was not destroyed on the spot.


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## teksalot2 (May 22, 2005)

Cyc light, filament didnt break within the glass envelope, but the lamp itself curved outward so far that it couldn't make the connection anymore.... but the lamps filament was intact.


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