# Rigging Road/Storage Case



## JVTD (Nov 20, 2014)

So I just purchased a fair amount of new rigging equipment for our musical, Spamalot, that we closed a couple weeks ago. I now had time to look at everything we have and gather it all together. I've gone from being worried to neurotic about students loosing or misplacing this fairly expensive stuff. Seeing as how my shop is underneath my auditorium, and my smaller theatre is a trek to another part of the building I feel justified in spending some money, time, and labor in building a Road Case to store everything in. Plus it's a cool thing for my students to work on and this way its all in one place so I can lock it up when its not being used between shows. 

I was wondering if anyone else has made something similar and could provide photos or a description of what you did. 

I'm planning on spending some money on proper durable road case hardware. Some of the things i want to store in it are Shackles, cable spools, 50 pounds of trim chain, various hanging hardware, Swagging tool, copper sleeves, thimbles, and turnbuckles. 

I'm open to hearing about any professional solutions but unless there is a major advantage I am unaware of, I'd prefer to build it in house.


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## np18358 (Nov 21, 2014)

Here is the first of a step by step video series on making roadcases. Extremely straightforward. You would have to adjust slightly to add the casters and handles as such, but still it is pretty simple. 


We have one of these for audio, and another for rigging equipment. SUPER well built, I feel like it could be dropped out of a plane and still survive. 
Either way I am sure you will be fine.


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## Footer (Nov 21, 2014)

A road case is way overkill if it will never see a truck/ratchet strap/load bar/stacking. It can be good experience, but making road cases that are good is very difficult for the first timer and can be very expensive (500+ a case). For what you want, I would probably go the work box route. Think of basically a tall rolling cabinet with doors that fold ALL the way back. Make it out of wood, usually "broadway" flat style and your set. Put good casters in, shelves where you need it, a lock on the door, and go nuts. For a portable shop it is a really good way to go. Road cases that are not built as a work box tend to just be good for "empty everything out then deal with it". Very few road case designs are actually designed to be worked out of. I wish I had pictures of these style boxes... I'm sure others do. If built right many broadway style shows tour with them anyway even without the ATA hardware.


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## derekleffew (Nov 21, 2014)

Something between this (similar to theatre tours)



and this (what arena riggers use)


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## Fountain Of Euph (Nov 28, 2014)

A good flight case is always a plus. Use them for everything. They also make a great tech table in a pinch

Sent from Taptalk for Android, this was.


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## de27192 (Dec 12, 2014)

Personally for in-house use, I like stackable wooden trays which go onto a wheeled base. Easy to make - make a tray on wheels out of ply and battens, maybe 6" tall. Then make yourself a tray of the same dims, instead of wheels just have triangles in the corners, which slot perfectly into the inside of the wheeled tray. Make yourself a variety of different depth trays, with the same length and width as the original wheeled tray, and the same triangles in the same locations, you can quickly stack these trays one atop of the other, and make up different stacks for different needs. You can keep the trays on shelves in storage, and very quickly slide the shelves off, and onto your wheeled dolly, in whatever configuration you like, so that the required equipment is taken to stage, and is already pre-sorted into trays the way that is best for you. You can colour-code the shelves and label them to make it quick to find what you want.

This is my favourite way of working when things don't have to be tipped onto trucks each night.


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## JVTD (Dec 24, 2014)

Thanks Everyone for your input we did go the road case route. I'll post pics as soon as the paint dries. Its nowhere near perfect; but, for a first attempt and it costing about $130 I can't really complain. The students had a lot of fun with it.


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