# LIFT SMALL STAGE



## nobody (Sep 23, 2010)

DEAR ALL
I WORK ON A PLAY AND MY DIRECTOR WANT TO LIFT A PERSON WITH LIFT BUT BECAUSE OF VERRRY LOW BUDGET I WANT A SOLUTION I THINK OF CAR JACK BUT I NEED TO LIFT A HEIGHT OF 80 cm , so anyone of you know how 
thanks alot.


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## headcrab (Sep 23, 2010)

What kind of effect are you trying to achieve? In general, any sort of lifting or flying anything cannot be safely done on a very limited budget.


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## nobody (Sep 23, 2010)

I WANT JUST LIFTING A PERSON BUT I DONT KNOW IS IT POSSIBLE WITH CAR JACK OR PALLET OR WHAT?


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## erosing (Sep 23, 2010)

nobody said:


> I WANT JUST LIFTING A PERSON BUT I DONT KNOW IS IT POSSIBLE WITH CAR JACK OR PALLET OR WHAT?



It would be very appreciated if you could refrain from using all caps. 

Thanks

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## derekleffew (Sep 23, 2010)

Go here for some ideas. Hydraulic Lifts by B and R Scenery


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## sk8rsdad (Sep 23, 2010)

nobody said:


> I WANT JUST LIFTING A PERSON BUT I DONT KNOW IS IT POSSIBLE WITH CAR JACK OR PALLET OR WHAT?


 
Answering this specific question your typical car jack or pallet jack is not going to work. Most jacks are intended to lift no more than 30cm. To get an 80cm travel, some sort of mechanism would be required to amplify the travel distance. 

Let's assume, for sake of argument, you could find one that could do the job, and was rated to lift and safely control the descent of a human. Here are some questions for your director:

Is the jerky and slow lift that the handpump on either of these 2 devices offer the right look for the show? 
Is it acceptable that the lift take place over a period of a minute or more? 
Does the set offer concealment for the stagehand pumping away?

I am inclined to "or what" which would be to reassess the requirement starting with a discussion of the dramatic moment this lift is supposed to achieve and whether there are other ways to accomplish it.


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## dbthetd (Sep 23, 2010)

Teeter-totter.

Dare to be stupid. Just make sure things happen in the right sequence or it could be unfortunate.


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## kicknargel (Sep 23, 2010)

You could use a motorcycle lift, available from Harbor Freight and others for a few hundred dollars. Plenty of safety precautions needed, especially in the arena of pinch hazards.


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## dramatech (Sep 23, 2010)

It depends a lot on the building skills in your theatre and how much time you are willing to put into the task. 
During the show "Cats", we built a lift mechanism for the tire at the end of the performance. It needed to move it 2 and 1/2 times the starting height. After many design attempts, I realized that "Genie" lifts due this all the time, so I designed the mechanism to work pretty much the same as a "Genie". Because Aluminum channel is so expensive and requires TIG welding, we built it with steel channel. We welded channels back to back and made internal rollers out of delron stock. In the Genie lift a hydraulic piston, moves one section and that section moves the next by using bicycle type chains fixed at points on the various sets of tracks. In my case, hydraulic was not something that I was familiar enough to feel comfortable to use. I instead use cable rollers on fixed shafts from the first and second unit. I used a Harbour Freight hoist to pull the cable, which as it pulled the rollers closer together, it lifted the second section, which in turn using the chain would pull up the third unit and then the fourth the same way. On the first test, all of the roller shafts collapsed. I Fixed that with harder steel shafts and more mounting points. On the second attempt. The "Idler shafts" That the Delron idlers rode on bent. Again closer mounting points and harder shafts solved the problem. Then we had to add some Delron guides to the bottom of all the tracks, for more stability when the lift was as full height.
I started on this device 7 weeks before blocking rehearsals. 
One might say that it was crude or too much effort, but we used it in 25 performances plus rehearsals. Then we sold it to another theatre that did about the same number of performances and on and on. The last I heard of it, it had been used by five theatres and had done over 200 activations and never failed.
It is possible to make that small stage rise, it just requires inginuity and building skills. You first need to assess if your show really will gain from the effect, then if you have the skills to build it with a level of safety and reliability. In our case the audiences' reaction, made the effort of building the effect, every bit worth the time and labor.

Tom Johnson
Florida's Most Honored Community Theatre


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## MPowers (Sep 23, 2010)

80 cm is not a huge lift, but if you don't have the stuff to do it. it might as well be a mile.
If you are in Egypt as your profile indicates, the various suggestions for USA stores and such are probably not a lot of help. There are still a lot of questions to be answered such as what kind of space, how much, how deep, is there beneath the floor the actor will be standing on. If you can do minor steel work in your shop, a small sissors lift can be constructed that can be operated by cable and a small hand crank winch. Slow but safe and reliable. There some other shop built methods but Until I know a bit more about your shop and time frame I can't really offer any more help.

One thing that would help a lot is to describe what the FX is supposed to look like and what is the context of the show? Is the play one we might be familier with?


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## JohnG (Sep 26, 2010)

... How about a wooden lift you make yourself out of 2x4. You make a piston type one where you have a smaller wooden frame in that. Castor the smaller one and make sure it fits EXACTLY (enough wiggle room to put the castors and let them move but not enough to come out of your little set up) in the larger piston. Then you use mechanical advantage to lift you could use manpower to push down on a 2x4 handle and lift.
Just make sure it's exact. You'll need a longer 2x4 to make this work. Oh and to finish it attach a small plywood top to it. and bam you can lift it.


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