# Rigging Education Video



## StradivariusBone

So for some time now I've kicked around the idea of creating a series of "Stagecraft 101" videos to use as teaching materials for my new tech kids at the beginning of each year. This summer I finally had the time to set this up and create a short intro to rigging video that I'm hoping will give my kids some ideas before we start flying things. Eventually I want to flesh this out into a lot more content, but you've got to start somewhere.

Ultimately, I also hope this might be of some value to other HS TD's on the board here, as I know we all look for content to show our kids from time to time. Right now the video is unlisted as I'm still working on a few things and wanted to get some initial feedback before going fully live, but if it's something you think you could use have at it! Also, if there's something in there that's glaringly unsafe or incorrect feel free to smash that flame button on your keyboard. I'm a big kid and I've got my pint of ice cream ready so I can take the abuse. 



Thanks!


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## Robert

I like your video. I would have used it in several facilities. However, I always taught the operator to test the tension on each side of the purchase line. This will give an alert to an out of balance load exists. If one line is slack and the other under tension, there is an out of balance load. If the inside line is taught, then you are arbor heavy. If the outside line is taught, then you are batten heavy. I never assumed that an arbor was loaded properly, even if I did the loading. I now you mention checking the load in another video to come, but I would teach how to verify the load if you are giving any guidance on operation. I am aghast at the concept that runaways are sometimes considered part of the normal operation of "dangerous " fly systems.


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## StradivariusBone

That's a good point too! I should add I received a couple PM's that were also very constructive and had some helpful insight into a few things I've overlooked.


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## Jay Ashworth

"Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner"?


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## StradivariusBone

Jay Ashworth said:


> "Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner"?



Should be fixed now. Forgot to enable embedding.


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## Jay Ashworth

2 questions, so far: 

Do you have releases from the students (and their parents) whose name badges are visible in a couple shots?

When weighting a line, is it not necessary to add weight *while* adding items to the batten, so as not to go past the 50lb limit of the line lock? Sure, you won't fall as far, but if what you're putting on the batten is $30k worth of movers, I'm not sure that matters...


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## Jay Ashworth

"... and work can then resume on the stage."

Smartarse.

PS: Does this kid have Niven dislocaters in his sneakers or something?


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## Jay Ashworth

Nice work on the incidental music and B-roll. I assume from listening to it that the background music is buyout, and no clearances are necessary?

My only question is: why is there so much slack in your purchase lines? While I won't say ours are tight as a drum, they're pretty tight; is that uncommon?


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## RonHebbard

Jay Ashworth said:


> 2 questions, so far:
> 
> Do you have releases from the students (and their parents) whose name badges are visible in a couple shots?
> 
> When weighting a line, is it not necessary to add weight *while* adding items to the batten, so as not to go past the 50lb limit of the line lock? Sure, you won't fall as far, but if what you're putting on the batten is $30k worth of movers, I'm not sure that matters...


 Would you not be loading the pipe [batten] with the pipe at the lowest limit of its travel thus it having no way to fall lower? 
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## StradivariusBone

Jay Ashworth said:


> Do you have releases from the students (and their parents) whose name badges are visible in a couple shots?



None necessary. Thanks to a wonderful and unusual summer schedule this year, I had a few weeks time of a dark theatre to do all this. That's your's truly.


Jay Ashworth said:


> Nice work on the incidental music and B-roll. I assume from listening to it that the background music is buyout, and no clearances are necessary?



Nah, it's just a junky couple of tracks I whipped up in Garageband. I'm working on something a bit more substantial since it's very repetitive, but I'm trying to avoid the copyright hawks. 


Jay Ashworth said:


> why is there so much slack in your purchase lines?



We just had a re-rope maybe 3 months back and I feel like they're still stretching a bit. Part of it might be the angle of the camera as I had it pretty close to the rope. 


Jay Ashworth said:


> When weighting a line, is it not necessary to add weight *while* adding items to the batten, so as not to go past the 50lb limit of the line lock?




RonHebbard said:


> Would you not be loading the pipe [batten] with the pipe at the lowest limit of its travel thus it having no way to fall lower?



Yep! Can't fall off the floor as the saying goes. When we have taller pieces it's obviously a bit different of an animal, but having a lock rail halfway through the arbor travel tends to help with that at times.


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## Jay Ashworth

StradivariusBone said:


> None necessary. Thanks to a wonderful and unusual summer schedule this year, I had a few weeks time of a dark theatre to do all this. That's yours truly.



Didn't realize you were that young. Whipper snapper. ;-)


> Yep! Can't fall off the floor as the saying goes. When we have taller pieces it's obviously a bit different of an animal, but having a lock rail halfway through the arbor travel tends to help with that at times.



No, my point was that you're going to make the battens more than 50lb heavier than the arbor while hanging, overweighting the locks.

And I dunno about you, but we have a hard time hanging the fixtures if the pipe's on the ground; our in-trim is usually 3-5ft, depending on what we're doing. If we hang 8 movers on a pipe at 5 feet, and the lock pops and they fall 3 feet to the ground, they're gonna break. :-}

Oh, one other note:

Redo the main title and shift the graphic right a little, to better clear the architectural element in the shot.


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## icewolf08

At 2:16, you talk about how to move the lineset saying that you "pull on the line in direction you want the batten to move." Going on to say, if you pull down on the line, batten moves down and if you pull up, the batten moves up. However, an operator should not be pulling up on the fron't purchase line. That releases the tension set by the tension block, not to mention it is a terribly inefficient motion for the operator. No matter which way you want the batten to move, you should always be pulling down. Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.


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## egilson1

Jay Ashworth said:


> Didn't realize you were that young. Whipper snapper. ;-)
> 
> 
> 
> No, my point was that you're going to make the battens more than 50lb heavier than the arbor while hanging, overweighting the locks.
> 
> And I dunno about you, but we have a hard time hanging the fixtures if the pipe's on the ground; our in-trim is usually 3-5ft, depending on what we're doing. If we hang 8 movers on a pipe at 5 feet, and the lock pops and they fall 3 feet to the ground, they're gonna break. :-}
> 
> Oh, one other note:
> 
> Redo the main title and shift the graphic right a little, to better clear the architectural element in the shot.



Most in trims are set at about 4' AFF. This means the arbor is all the way out against the upper crash bar and you are no longer using the lock to hold the load. 

Now if a particular space has that in trim set to let's say 2', then that's a design flaw.


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## RonHebbard

icewolf08 said:


> At 2:16, you talk about how to move the lineset saying that you "pull on the line in direction you want the batten to move." Going on to say, if you pull down on the line, batten moves down and if you pull up, the batten moves up. However, an operator should not be pulling up on the fron't purchase line. That releases the tension set by the tension block, not to mention it is a terribly inefficient motion for the operator. No matter which way you want the batten to move, you should always be pulling down. Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.


 @icewolf08 Exactly and the first thing I mentioned to @StradivariusBone in a discrete PM.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## StradivariusBone

Jay Ashworth said:


> No, my point was that you're going to make the battens more than 50lb heavier than the arbor while hanging, overweighting the locks.




egilson1 said:


> Most in trims are set at about 4' AFF. This means the arbor is all the way out against the upper crash bar and you are no longer using the lock to hold the load.



Our arbors hit the crash bar with the pipe ~4' off the deck so lighting, curtains, some set pieces are not usually an issue. We do run into the problems Jay's talking about when hanging walls or anything taller than 8' or so. That usually requires adding some weight to get it upright and then adding the final weight from the lock rail, but it is always different depending on what we're working on. 


icewolf08 said:


> Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.




RonHebbard said:


> @icewolf08 Exactly and the first thing I mentioned to @StradivariusBone in a discrete PM.



This is interesting! Our lock rail is above the stage deck so I don't usually start my kids off pulling down on the back purchase line because it's not unreasonable to think that they could accidentally lean too far over and fall. Once they are comfortable operating the system, then I typically introduce the concept of pulling on the rear purchase line to get a set moving, particularly anything with a lot of weight and dead inertia. I'd never been told that using the rear line was wrong, but I'd never heard that it was preferable to exclusively using the front line either.


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## icewolf08

StradivariusBone said:


> This is interesting! Our lock rail is above the stage deck so I don't usually start my kids off pulling down on the back purchase line because it's not unreasonable to think that they could accidentally lean too far over and fall. Once they are comfortable operating the system, then I typically introduce the concept of pulling on the rear purchase line to get a set moving, particularly anything with a lot of weight and dead inertia. I'd never been told that using the rear line was wrong, but I'd never heard that it was preferable to exclusively using the front line either.


It shouldn't require much leaning out other than to grab the line. One should be able to operate the lines without leaning out. Pulling up on the front line causes a slack line above the operator as the tension block moves up and releases all the tension it is holding. In a balanced system, this shouldn't pose a great risk, but it isn't ideal. On completion of travel the tension block as to settle back down, which can cause position shifts or other unwanted motion in the system.

Speaking of lots of weight and inertia, you might consider adding a sentence or two about the fact that in a single purchase system, when you move a balanced lineset you are actually moving double the weight of the scenery. This seems to be something that people gloss over a lot. If your lighting gear weighs 1000lbs, you are moving at least 2000lbs (more when you include the weight of the batten and hardware). Also, and maybe for future video, you might mention that a well balanced lineset is balanced at the center of travel, and usually slightly batten heavy at lowest trim and slightly arbor heavy at highest trim due to the fact that all the lift lines are on one side or the other (wire rope is heavy).


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## RonHebbard

icewolf08 said:


> It shouldn't require much leaning out other than to grab the line. One should be able to operate the lines without leaning out. Pulling up on the front line causes a slack line above the operator as the tension block moves up and releases all the tension it is holding. In a balanced system, this shouldn't pose a great risk, but it isn't ideal. On completion of travel the tension block has to settle back down, which can cause position shifts or other unwanted motion in the system.
> 
> Speaking of lots of weight and inertia, you might consider adding a sentence or two about the fact that in a single purchase system, when you move a balanced lineset you are actually moving double the weight of the scenery. This seems to be something that people gloss over a lot. If your lighting gear weighs 1000lbs, you are moving at least 2000lbs (more when you include the weight of the batten and hardware). Also, and maybe for future video, you might mention that a well balanced lineset is balanced at the center of travel, and usually slightly batten heavy at lowest trim and slightly arbor heavy at highest trim due to the fact that all the lift lines are on one side or the other (wire rope is heavy).


 @icewolf08 & @StradivariusBone Alex; In full agreement and these are both points I mentioned to Strad' in my initial P.M. where I also agreed these were (Quoting Strad') "outside the scope of this (preliminary) video."
Your point about aircraft cable being heavy clearly is always a factor in play but becomes more and more of a factor as system sizes grow. The first single purchase system I worked with had a mixture of 50' & 70' pipes supported by 5 & 7 lines each. The differential weight was definitely more of a factor with the longer pipes.
The same considerations come into play as proscenium and grid heights increase.
With higher prosc's come taller legs and drops / set pieces thus grid heights increase to permit flown goods to clear sightlines.
Just when you become comfortable dealing with the feel of the shifting weight factor in a facility with an 85' grid, you learn the lessons anew when you're working with grids in excess of 100'. We've a 108' and a 120' grid in nearby cities and the experience of pulling an empty pipe in from the its highest to lowest extremes of travel can become an interesting experience with the operator needing to really lean into the operating line to haul the batten in initially then passing through the 'easy pulling point' and finally having to hold the batten back as it gains both weight and momentum wanting to run in on its own. Alex, I understand you're already well familiar with the concept but it may not be something coming appreciably into play in Strad's venue.
And then you make the jump to a double purchase system and the cable lengths and weights, along with the additional weight on the arbors, drives the concept of how much weight you're shifting, putting into motion and stopping home all over again.
Next comes a genuine need for compensating chain.
In the entirety of Canada, we only have one serious installation of compensating chain. In Toronto, the "Four Seasons Center" is the home of both the National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company. Their grid for access and the support of spot lines is at 120' AFF (Above Finished Floor) with the system pipes supported by overhead sheaves underhung from overhead supporting structure. It's a single purchase facility with the lower idlers approximately 12' below deck primarily due to the entire building's low noise concerns. Servo driven assist drives are also accommodated in their first basement level. Every line set is fitted with a double-width compensating chain similar to what I'm told would be employed on a very powerful motorcycle. The compensating chain installation is done right in every way with the whole system being a smooth, quiet, pleasure to operate. Granted you've still got the joys of overcoming inertia [both at rest and in motion] to deal with but the first time you haul a pipe from upper EOT [End Of Travel] to lower EOT is a uniquely joyful experience.
With apologies for boringly droning on.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## microstar

icewolf08 said:


> It shouldn't require much leaning out other than to grab the line. One should be able to operate the lines without leaning out. Pulling up on the front line causes a slack line above the operator as the tension block moves up and releases all the tension it is holding. In a balanced system, this shouldn't pose a great risk, but it isn't ideal. On completion of travel the tension block as to settle back down, which can cause position shifts or other unwanted motion in the system.
> 
> Speaking of lots of weight and inertia, you might consider adding a sentence or two about the fact that in a single purchase system, when you move a balanced lineset you are actually moving double the weight of the scenery. This seems to be something that people gloss over a lot. If your lighting gear weighs 1000lbs, you are moving at least 2000lbs (more when you include the weight of the batten and hardware). Also, and maybe for future video, you might mention that a well balanced lineset is balanced at the center of travel, and usually slightly batten heavy at lowest trim and slightly arbor heavy at highest trim due to the fact that all the lift lines are on one side or the other (wire rope is heavy).



I think saying you're moving double the weight of the scenery on a single purchase system would greatly confuse the issue. If you're moving 1000 lbs of lighting gear on a single purchase system..... you're moving 1000 lbs of gear. If it's a double purchase system, you're effectively having to move 2000 lbs of gear, which is why you have to load twice the counterweights of course. I understand that what you're stressing is that there are a total of 2000 lbs of weight in motion with a single purchase system though. All semantics, I guess.

I've never heard of pulling up on the front operating line to fly out the pipe...must be incredibly difficult to do smoothly.


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## icewolf08

microstar said:


> I understand that what you're stressing is that there are a total of 2000 lbs of weight in motion with a single purchase system though. All semantics, I guess.


This. Yes, it may be semantics and/or confusing, but when you are talking about the total weight in motion on a single purchase system it is double the weight of the gear. On a double purchase system it would be triple the weight of the gear. Point being that just because system is balanced and easy to move, you can't forget that there is an awful lot of weight in motion.


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## RonHebbard

microstar said:


> I think saying you're moving double the weight of the scenery on a single purchase system would greatly confuse the issue. If you're moving 1000 lbs of lighting gear on a single purchase system..... you're moving 1000 lbs of gear. If it's a double purchase system, you're effectively having to move 2000 lbs of gear, which is why you have to load twice the counterweights of course. I understand that what you're stressing is that there are a total of 2000 lbs of weight in motion with a single purchase system though. All semantics, I guess.
> 
> I've never heard of pulling up on the front operating line to fly out the pipe...must be incredibly difficult to do smoothly.


 @microstar Two comments, semantics or otherwise:
*Single purchase:* 1.000 pounds on a batten equates to 1,000 pounds on the arbor equates to 2,000 pounds of inertia at rest or in motion ignoring frictional losses and several other factors such as the weights of the various system elements themselves.
*Double purchase:* 1,000 pounds on a batten equates to 2,000 pounds on the arbor thus 3,000 pounds to move and stop.
"pulling up on the front operating line" I feel has been commented upon, critically criticized and corrected by one or more well qualified posters and then there's the additional problem / concern with the difficulties of watching for your high trim marks coming up from the comparative darkness below the lock before suddenly becoming visible above the lock when you've, by then, o'er shot your trim.
Yes, I'm well aware of additional warning trims and spirals of ooey-gooey sticky residue accumulating on the operating line. 
Clearly pulling up on the operating line is 'bad form' and I suspect even @derekleffew would agree we've more than adequately flogged @StradivariusBone already. Possibly @teqniqal @MNicolai and @BillConnerFASTC may feel compelled to join in the "flogging". * Personally*: I feel @StradivariusBone has the beginnings of a great piece of work which will be appreciated by, and of great value to, many of our posters, particularly those working in the educational and amateur sectors.
I'll probably get deleted *again* for this but *THANK YOU!* @StradivariusBone for your efforts.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## BillConnerFASTC

egilson1 said:


> Most in trims are set at about 4' AFF. This means the arbor is all the way out against the upper crash bar and you are no longer using the lock to hold the load.
> 
> Now if a particular space has that in trim set to let's say 2', then that's a design flaw.



I have on several motorized systems designed it so battens could come to the floor. May program in trim at 4', but seems it could be useful and cost is usually nothing. I have some deep rigging pits where I thought about it for manual, but haven't done it. I would if a movable stop on the T wasn't so complicated and unique.

Its just one more tool/ one less restriction for the techs and designers.


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## icewolf08

RonHebbard said:


> @microstarYes, I'm well aware of additional warning trims and spirals of ooey-gooey sticky residue accumulating on the operating line.


Personally, when the purchase line is something like Multiline or similar, I prefer flagging the line rather than tape. Takes a little skill to get cloth flags in the rope, but once you learn how to do it, it makes life pretty easy and no sticky residue. Of course, you are kinda hosed on cloth flags if your purchase lines are Stageset-X or similar.

I think the video is a very good idea and well executed as well. I think it will be good resource.


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## BillConnerFASTC

As a basic warning, I think you might cover that in the event of a run-away - DO NOT try to stop it and move fast out of the stage area. Too many injuries and at least one death I know of where someone thought they could stop it and grabbed onto the hand line, forced to release it when they hit something on the way up - probably with their head.


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## venuetech

The one bothersome thing I noticed was when the lock ring was removed, then the operator left the rail to check that all was clear. In my mind the stage should be checked before the lock ring is removed. The operator should never leave the lineset unattended with the lock ring removed.


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## RonHebbard

icewolf08 said:


> Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.


 @icewolf08 @StradivariusBone I'm almost embarrassed to be typing this. One of my "brothers" who spent most of his working life in one of my city's steel mills ALWAYS explained / illustrated it thus:
He'd position himself in front of his assistants and give a presentation reminiscent of stewardesses pointing out the plane's emergency exits. He'd stand there with his hands clenched into gripping fists, alternately positioning both hands against the center of his chest, then together out in front of him, then back against the center of his chest while simultaneously reciting his mantra:
"It's easy. Repeat after me. In. Out. In. Out." It was embarrassingly simplistic to observe. I'm embarrassed to admit it but he was unforgettably definitely correct. Hands in to fly in. Hands out to fly out. He knew the mentality of most of his work-mates and reduced his instructions to their lowest common denominator. Whatever works.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## What Rigger?

RonHebbard said:


> @icewolf08 @StradivariusBone I'm almost embarrassed to be typing this. One of my "brothers" who spent most of his working life in one of my city's steel mills ALWAYS explained / illustrated it thus:
> He'd position himself in front of his assistants and give a presentation reminiscent of stewardesses pointing out the plane's emergency exits. He'd stand there with his hands clenched into gripping fists, alternately positioning both hands against the center of his chest, then together out in front of him, then back against the center of his chest while simultaneously reciting his mantra:
> "It's easy. Repeat after me. In. Out. In. Out." It was embarrassingly simplistic to observe. I'm embarrassed to admit it but he was unforgettably definitely correct. Hands in to fly in. Hands out to fly out. He knew the mentality of most of his work-mates and reduced his instructions to their lowest common denominator. Whatever works.
> Toodleoo!
> Ron Hebbard.


That's genius! I'm stealing it.


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## Jay Ashworth

FWIW: Our rail is at the deck, locks about 3 ft up. Our pipes all fly in flat to the deck, so we're not on the stops at loading height.

And whether we pull down on the back rope or up on the front is pretty much an operator decision; we do usually finish the move on the front rope, though.


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## Jay Ashworth

BillConnerFASTC said:


> As a basic warning, I think you might cover that in the event of a run-away - DO NOT try to stop it and move fast out of the stage area. Too many injuries and at least one death I know of where someone thought they could stop it and grabbed onto the hand line, forced to release it when they hit something on the way up - probably with their head.


I can supply a pic of the hand of my theatre manager, the one time he forgot this rule.

And this rule applies *even if you're wearing gloves*, which you should always be doing working fly, and I don't recall you mentioning that.


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## RonHebbard

Jay Ashworth said:


> FWIW: Our rail is at the deck, locks about 3 ft up. Our pipes all fly in flat to the deck, so we're not on the stops at loading height.
> 
> And whether we pull down on the back rope or up on the front is pretty much an operator decision; we do usually finish the move on the front rope, though.


 @Jay Ashworth I've three comments:
1; I'm surprised to learn your pipes fly in to deck level and I sincerely hope the arbor is against its upper stops at that point.
2; My vote remains with the 'always pull down' camp.
3; As you leave pulling up or down on the near rope to your operators, and as your rail is at deck level, can I assume your tensioning idlers are also at deck level [As opposed to in a pit below deck level] and you instruct your operators to routinely kick down on your tensioning idlers after each time they've completed a 'pull-up' operation?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## Jay Ashworth

RonHebbard said:


> @Jay Ashworth I've three comments:
> 1; I'm surprised to learn your pipes fly in to deck level and I sincerely hope the arbor is against its upper stops at that point.



I've never tried to fly a pipe past the deck. 


> 2; My vote remains with the 'always pull down' camp.



I generally do, cause it's easier.


> 3; As you leave pulling up or down on the near rope to your operators, and as your rail is at deck level, can I assume your tensioning idlers are also at deck level [As opposed to in a pit below deck level] and you instruct your operators to routinely kick down on your tensioning idlers after each time they've completed a 'pull-up' operation?



Our bottom pullies, whatever one calls them, are in a pit about 2 feet below the deck (and hence 5-6ft below the locks).


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## teqniqal

Over-all: A+. A few items in the video you might consider reworking / re-shooting:

You show the flyman releasing the rope lock BEFORE checking the hauling line tension, The procedure should be to check the hauling line tension BEFORE you unlock the line set - otherwise you might be in for a big surprise.
Nobody is wearing hardhats. Weights, battens moving (or not moving), all kinds of sharp edges and corners on lights, etc., are all opportunities to get your flesh and bones torn-up. A lot of work done in the theatre is performed leaning over with our butts in the air and our heads down, so using hard-hats with chin straps is a really good idea, otherwise you may find you hard-hat falling to the floor below. Lead by example by showing all stage crew wearing hardhats with chin straps.

You list the procedure to add all the lights / scenery to the batten, then load the arbor. I'd revise this to show the users performing a pre-rig planning session where they figure-out how much weight is planned to be added to the batten (lights, cables, scenery), then figure-out how many 10, 20, 40 pound weights will be needed to compensate and balance the load. A spreadsheet is a good tool to have them create (and for you to check that they didn't mess-up the calculations). Plan your fly - fly your plan. Once that is done, _then_ you train your ground crew to pace their addition / removal of lights / scenery so the Fly Crew can keep-up with them. Ten workers each adding 20 pound lights at almost the same time can happen a lot faster than one or two Flymen on the Loading Bridge can realistically transfer weights. This is particularly important on the load-out. If the batten is stripped faster than the arbor is unloaded, you can have a run-away occur very quickly.
Your video showed some battens in your loft that did not have the yellow end-caps on them. Get them all capped, and make a point of pointing-out that they should all have caps so the crew reports battens with missing end caps. A 2" diameter RED-RING on the cheek bone or around someone's eye or around their nose (good make-up session for the video) can exemplify what happens when you inadvertently walk into the end of an unprotected batten pipe.
You refer to the ' 'fall arrest harness' but it is unclear whether the user is using a 'fall restraint lanyard' or a 'fall arrest lanyard'. I think the term 'fall protection harness' is more appropriate (the harness does not arrest the fall), and then you refer to the 'fall restraint lanyard' being secured to the designated anchor point(s) so the worker cannot fall down the fly well. A 'fall arrest lanyard' is the type with a controlled tear-apart section that decelerates you_ after you have already fallen_. The point of the 'fall restraint lanyard' is to prevent you from ever getting into a position where you can fall.
The crew is all wearing blacks. Blacks are fine during the run of a show, but they are not appropriate during load-in and strike. Bright fluorescent safety colored shirts and hard-hats are highly recommended so everyone can see each other in what is otherwise a dark work environment.
Although many people prefer to operate the hauling lines without gloves so they can 'feel' the rope, it would be good to suggest that persons with uncalloused hands consider wearing leather work gloves, particularly if your fly system has older hemp / sisal type ropes in lieu of cotton ropes. The weight loaders should be wearing work gloves that have a 'grippy' rubberized palm / finger surface so they have better control of the weights; and gloves with padded / ribbed backs so they are less likely to get a bruise when they have a weight dropped on them or get pinched between some weights.
Stage Crew working the batten loading / unloading should be wearing safety glasses. A loose end of a power cable, tie rope, or wire rope that whips out due to careless handling can slam you right in the eyeball and do a lot of damage. Frayed wire rope ends can scratch an eyeball seriously. Broken glass (lens chipped, shattered lamps, shattered glass reflector, etc.) can fall-out of light fixtures, too. You really don't want a glass shard in your eye.

Stage Crew and Loading Crew should both be wearing shoes with steel / composite protective caps over the toe area. Dropped weights, scenery, or lights can damage feet; and thin dance shoes / tennis shoes do not protect against nails and tacks penetrating from the bottom side. You can get OSHA compliant work shoes for $20 if you shop around, so there is no excuse for giving student a pass on this.
Loading Crew should wear knee pads.
Lifting and turning procedures should be taught to all crew, as the added eccentric weight of a light or counterweight can pop hip joints and tear-up backs. Lifting with your legs and making sure you pivot on the balls of your feet when you turn are both lessons to learn. Getting someone down from a loading bridge with a buggered-up knee or popped hip joint is VERY difficult. Do you have a plan for this?
Many of the items above are the result of recognizing that* a stage is a construction site* (OSHA Part 26). General industry rules (OSHA Part 10) can be applied during rehearsals and shows, but the rest of the time treat your shop and stage as a fully functional construction site. A good way to formalize this is to have a procedure established where the TD / Head Carpenter turns-over responsibility for the stage to the Stage Manager (change-over from Part 26 rules to Part 10 rules), at the beginning of a rehearsal or show; then have the Stage Manager turns-over responsibility for the stage to the TD / Head Carpenter after the show / rehearsal is complete (change-over from Part 10 rules to Part 26 rules). It doesn't matter if you are actually legally required to operate under OSHA rules (this varies by location) -- do it anyway -- it is good training for the real world.

I agree with the suggestion that you use spike ribbons in lieu of spike tape on the hauling lines. Get a Rigger's Fid and inserting the ribbon in the rope is easy.


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## StradivariusBone

Lots of good points there, Erich. Not at all trying to dismiss anything safety-related, but personally I feel like you listed enough material for another video entirely! Our routine here is to spend the first 2 months or so of the semester doing the "book work" on all aspects of technical theatre as related to what the students will be expected to do. A lot of this is more focused to training kids to be operators first and only focusing on the design and planning of a design later with some of the 2nd or 3rd year kids. 

For us, most of my kids don't actually ever load or unload an arbor. I train them how to do it and I let a few interested/capable ones do it from time to time, but the majority of our events don't require the fly system beyond setting drapes and the bulk of the ones that do require hanging anything typically are only asking us to hang drops. We do tend to fly much more during our own drama productions, but that's 3 times per year max. Most of the time I need kids that can move a pipe safely and be familiar enough with the system to know when something isn't right or needs attention. 

That all being said, the first week of class is pretty much all safety and how not to kill anyone in the theatre. Interspersed throughout the year we reference back to that. My kids have a good safety culture and will call each other out on not using PPE and are good at policing themselves, under supervision of course (I don't exclusively rely on them to make sure they are safe obviously). I'd like to eventually build this into a series of intro videos and in my planning I was thinking of creating a safety one that centered around carpentry, but also touched on other aspects of stagecraft. 

----

Back to the pulling down notion, I was an audio guy, turned lighting guy and starting this job four years back necessitated I learn about rigging. The TD immediately before me was a great guy, but not very experienced in tech theatre and the one before him (who was the first for this facility) was a musician and audio guy who also had to learn on the fly (ha). 
They both pulled up to fly out and I think the reasoning here was (beyond being audio people) is that our lock rail is in the middle of the arbor travel, meaning that when most curtains are at in trim, the arbor is right at lock rail height. Also, being at height, you are also contending with the lift lines, since the majority of out trims will put the arbor below you. Now, I know there's nothing wrong with pulling down on the arbor to move it, but I think that's where the trend here might have originated. I'd be interested to hear from others who have worked on systems with an elevated lock rail too. I generally have pulled down to start a set moving up and then pull up to maintain momentum. 

I went back and looked through a few of the resources I've acquired and only saw mention of pulling down on the back line in a white paper from Clancy. Everything else seems to just reference using the purchase line to move the arbor/batten without describing much at all about the direction. Granted, that's just a very limited sampling from a few minutes of browsing yesterday. 

I do love that about stagecraft though. I never cease finding something new where there's 100 people that are stunned that you didn't know it was that way. Reminds me of cheeseboro/cheeseborough/cheeseburger a bit.


----------



## StradivariusBone

venuetech said:


> The operator should never leave the lineset unattended with the lock ring removed.



I got some PM's about that one too! Sorry, that has been the protocol here. Visibility from our lock rail is limited, so kids would check the rail, look at the stage and call out, turn back around and pull the wrong set. Removing the lock ring first I think was his way of making sure the kid thought about what set to move. It will be reworked in 2.0.


----------



## BillConnerFASTC

BTW, I didn't note above but pretty impressive version 1.0. congratulations!


----------



## Jay Ashworth

Further about "which line to pull" -- Just like moving a guillotine curtain, I tend, once started, to use *both*, to make the move smoother; I'll move both hands down the lines, gripping the front, and then both hands up, gripping the back.

Assuming the lineset is in proper balance, of course. If it's out appreciably in either direction, you gotta pull down, cause you need gravity's help.


----------



## RonHebbard

teqniqal said:


> Over-all: A+. /QUOTE @teqniqal Erich; 3 points you MAY consider including:
> *1;* NEVER start battens swinging. So often you see pipes being flown in to their bottom EOT stop and they're being flown in perfectly fine by the fly person; descending FLAWLESSLY without any hint of swinging. (Which is a good thing) :
> *a;* if someone is waiting to spike a precise location of where an item, legs, scrim or projection screen for example, will land on the deck and
> *b;* Swinging battens are in no one's best interest when one, or more, crew members decide they're going to help the poor fly person pull in the batten. * WRONG!*
> *c;* At that point, the last thing the fly person needs is someone pulling down on the batten when it's already travelling in of its own volition and the fly person is gently slowing its descent as it's approaching its lower EOT [End Of Travel] stop.
> *d;* The batten was coming in with extreme lateral positional accuracy when some uneducated "helper" starts it swinging like a pendulum BEFORE anyone's had a chance to accurately spike its precise position on the deck (If desired / required)
> A swinging pendulum suspended from a 40' grid requires appreciable time to stop swinging.
> When suspended from a 120' grid, you may as well call "Lunch!", or at the very least "Coffee".
> *2;* You wrote of the proper tool to use when inserting ribbons into the operating line in lieu of spiking with various types of adhesive tapes which are prone to slipping and leaving sticky, grime attracting, residue behind. You MAY want to mention the tip of the cutting blade in your favorite Buck knife is *NOT* the tool for the job and you MAY choose to elaborate on why.
> *3;* Someone should mention it's extremely useful to have lateral center lines indelibly indicated on every batten and it's probably useful to explain why a center supporting cable rarely lines up precisely with the center of the deck.
> Normally a center supporting cable will be off center by the radius of its loft block / sheave.
> *Thank you* for an excellent, and comprehensive, list.
> @BillConnerFASTC / @MNicolai , would either of you care to comment?
> Toodleoo!
> Ron Hebbard.


----------



## Jay Ashworth

You blew your quoting, Ron.


----------



## RonHebbard

Jay Ashworth said:


> You blew your quoting, Ron.


@Jay Ashworth Huh? I know I had difficulty trying to get automatically calling out to various members to work but please elaborate on how I screwed up my quoting.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## Jay Ashworth

Your post, quoting teq, is *entirely* a quote of him, even though most of it is your writing. 

Probably a typo in a /QUOTE tag.


----------



## RonHebbard

What Rigger? said:


> That's genius! I'm stealing it.


 @What Rigger? Wait a minute. You replied: "That's genius! I'm stealing it." but you didn't give me a "Like" for it?? 
Talk about a tough / tuff crowd!
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


----------



## RonHebbard

Jay Ashworth said:


> You blew your quoting, Ron.


 @Jay Ashworth Jay; I've never known how to begin and end quotes.
What I normally do is work around / within the existing quotes. In the case of the post you're referencing, "Over-all: A+" was / is from Erich's post. I jumped in after his opening and typed my post. I believe I then deleted the remainder of Erich's post and retained the original end quote. I see what you're saying and now understand where and how I blew it.
Thanks for calling this to my attention.
Being blind, it took me well over an hour to type my post. Sometime while I was typing, a flag popped up warning: 
"The following error occurred: 504 Gateway Time-out" (cloudflare-nginx) [As has just happened again this instant.] 
I've neither any idea what this means nor what action I need to take. It always concerns me as I wonder if it means my typing's been for nought. After the error warning, I left clicked my mouse and was able to continue typing, eventually completing my post although, try as I might, I couldn't make my final call-outs to Bill and Mike work. My call-out at the beginning, long before the error mesage, worked but I tried at least three times each near the end of my post and had great difficulty in trying to get the call-outs to work 
Any enlightenment you can provide is ALWAYS appreciated.
Thanks again.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


----------



## Jay Ashworth

Cloudflare is an incoming proxy service that CB uses to avoid DDoS attacks.

I don't know how it interacts with leaving an editor window up for a couple hours.

How big a monitor do you have, and how much residual vision? Do you use a screenreader?


----------



## RonHebbard

Jay Ashworth said:


> Cloudflare is an incoming proxy service that CB uses to avoid DDoS attacks.
> 
> I don't know how it interacts with leaving an editor window up for a couple hours.
> 
> How big a monitor do you have, and how much residual vision? Do you use a screenreader?


 @Jay Ashworth 
1; What's a "Proxy service"?
2: What's a "DDoS attack" and what manner of pain would it inflict upon me?
3; My monitor's roughly 22 - 23" diagonally. I purchased this monitor when my original Dell / Sony 19" flat front CRT died prior to my mini-stroke and it's turned out to be a fortuitous choice. Contrary to what you'd instinctively think, smaller is better for me in the sense that I can manage to pull together portions of a screen image in my mind's eye and manage to deal with my PC. I can never encompass my existing monitor's display in any one gaze at any time and some days / times are worse. 
Regardless of which eye is open, I have essentially a sharply focused shutter cut coming in from SR on a slight angle as if it were cut in a little further US than DS. This "shutter" from SR is with me all the time thus heaven help anyone who approaches silently from my left as they're likely to find themselves in collision with me if I'm walking and / or if they're standing to my left when I begin gesticulating while conversing. In my remaining field of view, I still have my peripheral vision to my right but my vision consists of a varying number of a variety of sizes of black holes with me trying to pull an image together from the fragments I manage to focus on surrounding the several holes. I've worn tri-focals for decades and still do. Without my tri-focals I'd be in serious trouble and this was prior to my Sunday July 20th 2014 mini-stroke. I went to bed sometime early Sunday morning, probably between two and four a.m. only to awake Sunday morning to find my vision and balance radically compromised. Our master bedroom was 16' x 21'. It was a Sunday morning, after I'd been burning my 'candle' from both ends all week, and I hadn't needed to set my alarm planning to sleep until I woke up of my own accord. I crashed to the carpet before I made it to the bedroom door and twice more prior to relieving myself in front of our toilet in the classic male 'standing position'. My second crash landing found me wondering why I was laying on my left side with my back against the shower and my lips kissing the side of our toilet's base. I clawed my way up to standing and my third crash landing really hurt. Trust me, you don't want to come down hard on the sharp corner of a solid-surfaced vanity. When I awoke on the Sunday morning lying in bed, I had no indication anything had occurred deeply within my skull; no headache, no pain, no discomfort of any kind. I was used to waking up bleary eye'd but always slipped my glasses on immediately upon sitting up in bed. I was my normal, just woke up, bleary eyed self wondering why I was on the carpet looking up immediately prior to exiting into our 2nd floor hall. I'm a life-long total abstainer thus I wasn't suffering the after effects of a wild party. When my family got me to emergency, the triage nurse ran all her normal checks and didn't discover anything too undue. My BP was a little low but my doctor'd always described my normal BP as being on the low side of the normal range. I had no 'left side' vs. 'right side' signs of paralysis and no signs of any discomfort aside from the emerging bruise the vanity corner delivered to my tummy. Triage having accorded me a low priority, I walked down a hall to use one of Emergency's toilets and darn near damaged their terrazzo floor on my way back. I knew how hard their terrazzo was as I was in a wing of the hospital I'd helped renovate during my electrical apprenticeship back in the sixties. Trust me: Terrazzo poured, ground and polished on slab over "undisturbed soil" construction is a hard and extremely durable floor surface you don't want to argue with. Fortunately an Emergency RN happened to see me as I went from walking pretty much normally to crashing down hard on my left side and came running to ensure I didn't try to move on my own. The RN summoned two helpers, checked me for broken bones, took my BP again, got me up and seated and informed triage that she must've missed something. In less than 30 minutes I was on a gurney in Emerge' and 74 days later I walked out of the hospital. 
I've digressed. Sorry, I'm good at digression. I was scanned multiple times, including at least two ultra-sounds, two Cat scans and two extremely loud MRI's and they finally thought they caught site of where a minor bleed had occurred deep within my skull but the best they could tell me was it was in an inoperable location and there would be no recovery of my vision on the horizon as there were no alternate paths to be developed / created. 
It's resulted in an overnight radical change in my life and that's putting it mildly:
No eye-hand coordination.
No precision soldering.
No component level PC repairs.
No focusing lights
No setting cues.
No wonderfully subtle long running slow cross fades from evening to midnight over the course of an act.
No scissor lifts, zoom booms, or trestle ladders and NO DRIVING.
I can't watch TV as it's mostly rapidly moving images and I can't capture an entire screen in any one gaze let alone any one forty or fifty foot prosc'.
I have a tiny 14" TV but the last time I had it on I was listening to The Donald's election results.
( I will admit to enjoying some of his duets with Hilary on YouTube as I could manage to enjoy them on my PC and repeat segments as many times as I liked.)
*Residual vision you asked:*
Well, it is what it is and I'll explain it thus:
Near the end of my 74 consecutive days in hospital, an RN perilously close to retirement asked me how I was going to deal with my radically altered vision and my answer caught her totally off guard when I said:
"Well, there's good and there's bad and I find it best not to dwell on the negatives.
On the negative side, I'm missing out on a lot of seriously hot young RN's.
While on the positive side, the majority of your more mature staff are benefitting greatly from how I now view my world."
There was about a beat and a half pause while the aged RN cogitated and then she SPLATTERED frantically apologizing for laughing after having just met me upon coming on shift. I immediately laughed WITH her and assured her laughter was not only O.K. but one of the joys of my life and how it pleased me to have gotten her 12 hour shift off on a high note. Over the following 12 hours, and the next couple of shift changes, there were always little clusters of nurses huddling outside my door with one pointing and the remainder peeking as word spread through the ward of this odd-ball old geezer who'd made one of their senior RN's darned near wet herself while convulsing in laughter.
With apologies for droning on @Jay Ashworth but that's pretty much all I can tell you about my vision and how I deal with it.
You asked me about a "screenreader". If this is a feature in XP in which some little robotic / synthetic voice recites each keystroke as you make it, my closest computer nerd suggested it was something I'd find helpful and enabled it during one of his visits without telling me about it. The next time I used my PC the droning little voice STARTLED the heck out of me! I compose what I write in my head prior to typing and the danged little mono-toned parrot kept distracting the heck out of me. Chuck received a near immediate e-mail BEGGING How the heck do I turn this thing off? My speakers are always on as I depend upon them to notify me of the arrival of e-mails along with warnings at 11:45 p.m. and midnight for items requiring attention prior to end of day / first thing the next day thus I didn't want to turn my speakers off but OH HOW DISTURBING that little mono-toned nuisance was. I was SO relieved when an e-mail arrived telling me how to silence the little phuquer.
Take care Sir and thanks for asking / helping.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


----------



## venuetech

StradivariusBone said:


> Visibility from our lock rail is limited, so kids would check the rail, look at the stage and call out, turn back around and pull the wrong set. Removing the lock ring first I think was his way of making sure the kid thought about what set to move.


I use ring placement as sort of a quick ID clue. In your case I would move the ring to the top/tip of the brake handle to indicate that is the lineset to work with. Other nearby rings should be in the normal notched position or even all the way at the base of the handle. So it is more effort to remove the ring. This works nice for quick scene changes as I can prep ID the linesets involved in that change to a high ring position. Sets that do not move during the show have the ring at the base.


----------



## derekleffew

We pause now for some anecdotes and other amusing thoughts...
In days of yore locking rings were not vinyl-coated but bare (sometimes painted (Tiffin Green(r))), and thus the first thing my first TD taught me, "I hate noise from the rail!". Those rings make a very rewarding <ping> when dropped only a few inches.
Don't google image "locking ring". Where's the eye-bleach?
I think waiting until the last second to remove the locking ring is a bit fearful. If the ring has to keep the lock closed, that's a different problem.
/resume


----------



## What Rigger?

RonHebbard said:


> @What Rigger? Wait a minute. You replied: "That's genius! I'm stealing it." but you didn't give me a "Like" for it??
> Talk about a tough / tuff crowd!
> Toodleoo!
> Ron Hebbard.


More likes for you, Glenn Coco. You go, Glen Coco!


----------



## RonHebbard

What Rigger? said:


> More likes for you, Glenn Coco. You go, Glen Coco!


 @What Rigger? Dare I ask? Who's Glen Coco and why do I have a feeling of impending doom heading my direction??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


----------



## What Rigger?

RonHebbard said:


> @What Rigger? Dare I ask? Who's Glen Coco and why do I have a feeling of impending doom heading my direction??
> Toodleoo!
> Ron Hebbard.


Great. Once again I'm the only adult in the room quoting Mean Girls.



http://meangirls.wikia.com/wiki/Glen_Coco


----------



## Jay Ashworth

Aw, fetch.


----------



## BillConnerFASTC

@RonHebbard I don't think you should feel the least bit inadequate for not recognizing Glen Coco. In fact it actually raises you credibility.


----------



## StradivariusBone

So it was brought to my attention that I inadvertently removed the original video from this thread! I've been working on the updated/final version and am almost ready to release it, but in preparation I un-unlisted the original one. I will update shortly with version 2.0. I just wanted to thank everyone again that contributed opinions and advice. I sincerely hope this is something that could be beneficial to our craft. When I started this gig, I was lacking experience in theatrical rigging as most of my practical experience came from audio and lighting. I had to learn quickly and found a few mentors that really helped me along. With that in mind, this video is a collection of that knowledge I wish I had initially walking into this world. 

Anyway, I appreciate your help and your patience. 2.0 will be out soon. Thanks!


----------



## StradivariusBone

Ok, here's the updated version! The additions and oversights definitely made for some additional length, so for those of you into the whole brevity thing I apologize. Theatre rigging is a veritable rabbit-hole of information. Though I'm beta-testing with my own techs probably tomorrow who will almost certainly be more ruthless than any of you all 



I do plan to make some more tech theatre instructional videos in the relatively near future. This one took about 4-5 weeks of working off and on, so it may be a while now that school has cranked back up. In addition to the tech aspect, I also plan on just adding content to this channel with projects I do around my house. This concept was born out of several like-minded friends of mine commenting on Facebook after I fix and repair broken stuff around my house. 

Like any good business-destroying (and perpetually broke) millennial I tend to avoid calling contractors to do typical home repair when it's cost-effective and I don't need to buy a crazy amount of specialized tools. I also build things with and for my son, some of you might recall seeing the firehouse saga in the Off-Topic forum last year. Just think it will be fun to share that sort of thing with a broader audience and maybe inspire or get inspired to create cool crap. 

Anyway, I hope this might be of use to some of you! Thanks!


----------



## RonHebbard

StradivariusBone said:


> Ok, here's the updated version! The additions and oversights definitely made for some additional length, so for those of you into the whole brevity thing I apologize. Theatre rigging is a veritable rabbit-hole of information. Though I'm beta-testing with my own techs probably tomorrow who will almost certainly be more ruthless than any of you all
> 
> 
> 
> I do plan to make some more tech theatre instructional videos in the relatively near future. This one took about 4-5 weeks of working off and on, so it may be a while now that school has cranked back up. In addition to the tech aspect, I also plan on just adding content to this channel with projects I do around my house. This concept was born out of several like-minded friends of mine commenting on Facebook after I fix and repair broken stuff around my house.
> 
> Like any good business-destroying (and perpetually broke) millennial I tend to avoid calling contractors to do typical home repair when it's cost-effective and I don't need to buy a crazy amount of specialized tools. I also build things with and for my son, some of you might recall seeing the firehouse saga in the Off-Topic forum last year. Just think it will be fun to share that sort of thing with a broader audience and maybe inspire or get inspired to create cool crap.
> 
> Anyway, I hope this might be of use to some of you! Thanks!



@StradivariusBone Two comments, largely continuing to 'pick nits'.
Being blind, I perhaps listen a little closer than those with more normal vision. That said; I'm hearing a lot of variation in your audio track as it progresses past edit points. I'm not hearing any particular errors in pronunciation or phrasing but am finding variations in room tone / proximity to the mic / background reverb' those sorts of comparatively minor distractions / annoyances distracting.
Point two; Again I'm suggesting the inclusion of a cautionary warning against overly helpful deck hands "helping" to hasten the batten's final few feet of descent to its low end of travel [EOT] point / stop block while not realizing the fly-person is most likely gently holding back on the operating line at that point and has no need to be unfairly caught off-guard by a deck hand's sudden addition of "helpful" weight / encouragement. I'm also again suggesting a cautionary warning against deck hands setting a batten in lateral motion in any direction(s) for the several reasons I've previously mentioned.
Bottom Line: Good (Better and better) work! *Great job* thus far, definitely of great use to many readers.
Hot shite or "cool crap", useful contributions to our knowledge pool are ALWAYS both useful and appreciated.
*Thanks again and please do continue.*
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


----------



## What Rigger?

StradivariusBone said:


> Ok, here's the updated version! The additions and oversights definitely made for some additional length, so for those of you into the whole brevity thing I apologize. Theatre rigging is a veritable rabbit-hole of information. Though I'm beta-testing with my own techs probably tomorrow who will almost certainly be more ruthless than any of you all
> 
> 
> 
> I do plan to make some more tech theatre instructional videos in the relatively near future. This one took about 4-5 weeks of working off and on, so it may be a while now that school has cranked back up. In addition to the tech aspect, I also plan on just adding content to this channel with projects I do around my house. This concept was born out of several like-minded friends of mine commenting on Facebook after I fix and repair broken stuff around my house.
> 
> Like any good business-destroying (and perpetually broke) millennial I tend to avoid calling contractors to do typical home repair when it's cost-effective and I don't need to buy a crazy amount of specialized tools. I also build things with and for my son, some of you might recall seeing the firehouse saga in the Off-Topic forum last year. Just think it will be fun to share that sort of thing with a broader audience and maybe inspire or get inspired to create cool crap.
> 
> Anyway, I hope this might be of use to some of you! Thanks!




Nice. (And Megatron made the cut!)


----------



## StradivariusBone

Just did the screening with my captive audience of high schoolers and it seems like it passed the test! My 6 year old is still trying to figure out how I mastered cloning technology. 

My sincere thanks again for all that shared information, ideas, and encouragement!

-ED


----------



## Protech

StradivariusBone said:


> Ok, here's the updated version! The additions and oversights definitely made for some additional length, so for those of you into the whole brevity thing I apologize. Theatre rigging is a veritable rabbit-hole of information. Though I'm beta-testing with my own techs probably tomorrow who will almost certainly be more ruthless than any of you all
> 
> 
> 
> I do plan to make some more tech theatre instructional videos in the relatively near future. This one took about 4-5 weeks of working off and on, so it may be a while now that school has cranked back up. In addition to the tech aspect, I also plan on just adding content to this channel with projects I do around my house. This concept was born out of several like-minded friends of mine commenting on Facebook after I fix and repair broken stuff around my house.
> 
> Like any good business-destroying (and perpetually broke) millennial I tend to avoid calling contractors to do typical home repair when it's cost-effective and I don't need to buy a crazy amount of specialized tools. I also build things with and for my son, some of you might recall seeing the firehouse saga in the Off-Topic forum last year. Just think it will be fun to share that sort of thing with a broader audience and maybe inspire or get inspired to create cool crap.
> 
> Anyway, I hope this might be of use to some of you! Thanks!


----------



## Jay Ashworth

Hey, BTW...

Those scenes around 14 minutes with the arbor weights.

Are those steel-toe sneakers?


----------



## JChenault

Overall quite nice. One nit. Is the rail you attach your harness to load roared for the shock load?


----------



## StradivariusBone

Jay Ashworth said:


> Are those steel-toe sneakers?



Yup. They are Keen's which I actually found recommended somewhere on here. Much lighter than my other steel-toe boots and just as resilient to gravity induced toe injury. I love 'em!


JChenault said:


> Is the rail you attach your harness to load roared for the shock load?



I got a couple other eagle-eye's in the PM's that noticed that as well. I asked our ETCP rigging contractor about that a ways back and he said he didn't see too much of an issue with it, but still recommended we have him install a safety line (if for no other reason than to make it easier to stay clipped in while working the loading rail). Like all things in education, this is moving at a snail pace, but it is something we're working at.


----------



## Aaron Clarke

@StradivariusBone 
A sincere thank you for this. The kids in my summer tech camp really liked this (the laughed a lot!) and since most of them are not of age (restricted to 16 and above by our board for good reason) to go onto our fly rail this really helped them understand all that "stuff" above their head. 

Again thank you. And sorry for waking the sleeping post.


----------



## Jay Ashworth

No, by all means.

And I'll ask Strad how the "I plan to make more" thing's coming along for him.


----------



## StradivariusBone

Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad it was useful to you and your students! Someday I'll get around to making part two.


----------



## NickVon

Great Video!


----------



## StradivariusBone

NickVon said:


> Great Video!


Thanks!


----------



## venuetech

RonHebbard said:


> @Jay Ashworth
> 1; What's a "Proxy service"?
> 2: What's a "DDoS attack" and what manner of pain would it inflict upon me?
> 3; My monitor's roughly 22 - 23" diagonally. I purchased this monitor when my original Dell / Sony 19" flat front CRT died prior to my mini-stroke and it's turned out to be a fortuitous choice. Contrary to what you'd instinctively think, smaller is better for me in the sense that I can manage to pull together portions of a screen image in my mind's eye and manage to deal with my PC. I can never encompass my existing monitor's display in any one gaze at any time and some days / times are worse.
> Regardless of which eye is open, I have essentially a sharply focused shutter cut coming in from SR on a slight angle as if it were cut in a little further US than DS. This "shutter" from SR is with me all the time thus heaven help anyone who approaches silently from my left as they're likely to find themselves in collision with me if I'm walking and / or if they're standing to my left when I begin gesticulating while conversing. In my remaining field of view, I still have my peripheral vision to my right but my vision consists of a varying number of a variety of sizes of black holes with me trying to pull an image together from the fragments I manage to focus on surrounding the several holes. I've worn tri-focals for decades and still do. Without my tri-focals I'd be in serious trouble and this was prior to my Sunday July 20th 2014 mini-stroke. I went to bed sometime early Sunday morning, probably between two and four a.m. only to awake Sunday morning to find my vision and balance radically compromised. Our master bedroom was 16' x 21'. It was a Sunday morning, after I'd been burning my 'candle' from both ends all week, and I hadn't needed to set my alarm planning to sleep until I woke up of my own accord. I crashed to the carpet before I made it to the bedroom door and twice more prior to relieving myself in front of our toilet in the classic male 'standing position'. My second crash landing found me wondering why I was laying on my left side with my back against the shower and my lips kissing the side of our toilet's base. I clawed my way up to standing and my third crash landing really hurt. Trust me, you don't want to come down hard on the sharp corner of a solid-surfaced vanity. When I awoke on the Sunday morning lying in bed, I had no indication anything had occurred deeply within my skull; no headache, no pain, no discomfort of any kind. I was used to waking up bleary eye'd but always slipped my glasses on immediately upon sitting up in bed. I was my normal, just woke up, bleary eyed self wondering why I was on the carpet looking up immediately prior to exiting into our 2nd floor hall. I'm a life-long total abstainer thus I wasn't suffering the after effects of a wild party. When my family got me to emergency, the triage nurse ran all her normal checks and didn't discover anything too undue. My BP was a little low but my doctor'd always described my normal BP as being on the low side of the normal range. I had no 'left side' vs. 'right side' signs of paralysis and no signs of any discomfort aside from the emerging bruise the vanity corner delivered to my tummy. Triage having accorded me a low priority, I walked down a hall to use one of Emergency's toilets and darn near damaged their terrazzo floor on my way back. I knew how hard their terrazzo was as I was in a wing of the hospital I'd helped renovate during my electrical apprenticeship back in the sixties. Trust me: Terrazzo poured, ground and polished on slab over "undisturbed soil" construction is a hard and extremely durable floor surface you don't want to argue with. Fortunately an Emergency RN happened to see me as I went from walking pretty much normally to crashing down hard on my left side and came running to ensure I didn't try to move on my own. The RN summoned two helpers, checked me for broken bones, took my BP again, got me up and seated and informed triage that she must've missed something. In less than 30 minutes I was on a gurney in Emerge' and 74 days later I walked out of the hospital.
> I've digressed. Sorry, I'm good at digression. I was scanned multiple times, including at least two ultra-sounds, two Cat scans and two extremely loud MRI's and they finally thought they caught site of where a minor bleed had occurred deep within my skull but the best they could tell me was it was in an inoperable location and there would be no recovery of my vision on the horizon as there were no alternate paths to be developed / created.
> It's resulted in an overnight radical change in my life and that's putting it mildly:
> No eye-hand coordination.
> No precision soldering.
> No component level PC repairs.
> No focusing lights
> No setting cues.
> No wonderfully subtle long running slow cross fades from evening to midnight over the course of an act.
> No scissor lifts, zoom booms, or trestle ladders and NO DRIVING.
> I can't watch TV as it's mostly rapidly moving images and I can't capture an entire screen in any one gaze let alone any one forty or fifty foot prosc'.
> I have a tiny 14" TV but the last time I had it on I was listening to The Donald's election results.
> ( I will admit to enjoying some of his duets with Hilary on YouTube as I could manage to enjoy them on my PC and repeat segments as many times as I liked.)
> *Residual vision you asked:*
> Well, it is what it is and I'll explain it thus:
> Near the end of my 74 consecutive days in hospital, an RN perilously close to retirement asked me how I was going to deal with my radically altered vision and my answer caught her totally off guard when I said:
> "Well, there's good and there's bad and I find it best not to dwell on the negatives.
> On the negative side, I'm missing out on a lot of seriously hot young RN's.
> While on the positive side, the majority of your more mature staff are benefitting greatly from how I now view my world."
> There was about a beat and a half pause while the aged RN cogitated and then she SPLATTERED frantically apologizing for laughing after having just met me upon coming on shift. I immediately laughed WITH her and assured her laughter was not only O.K. but one of the joys of my life and how it pleased me to have gotten her 12 hour shift off on a high note. Over the following 12 hours, and the next couple of shift changes, there were always little clusters of nurses huddling outside my door with one pointing and the remainder peeking as word spread through the ward of this odd-ball old geezer who'd made one of their senior RN's darned near wet herself while convulsing in laughter.
> With apologies for droning on @Jay Ashworth but that's pretty much all I can tell you about my vision and how I deal with it.
> You asked me about a "screenreader". If this is a feature in XP in which some little robotic / synthetic voice recites each keystroke as you make it, my closest computer nerd suggested it was something I'd find helpful and enabled it during one of his visits without telling me about it. The next time I used my PC the droning little voice STARTLED the heck out of me! I compose what I write in my head prior to typing and the danged little mono-toned parrot kept distracting the heck out of me. Chuck received a near immediate e-mail BEGGING How the heck do I turn this thing off? My speakers are always on as I depend upon them to notify me of the arrival of e-mails along with warnings at 11:45 p.m. and midnight for items requiring attention prior to end of day / first thing the next day thus I didn't want to turn my speakers off but OH HOW DISTURBING that little mono-toned nuisance was. I was SO relieved when an e-mail arrived telling me how to silence the little phuquer.
> Take care Sir and thanks for asking / helping.
> Toodleoo!
> Ron Hebbard.


Well you have got great keyboard (typing) skills! (Says the hunt n peck guy)


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