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Unplugged

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  1. Thanks for that Gareth I think it is a little unnecessary to tell people they are not qualified because of the questions that they ask. Thank You Stuart, those things are good to know. Very helpful. I used a very similar model (different brand, but looks identical) to move cases to and from the upper level in a warehouse. (It was rigged to a dolly that travelled along a girder.) With very light use (moving a handful of cases every week or two) it broke within a year, and the one we bought to replace it didn't last any longer. One drawback that's possibly relevant to this situation is that as the wire spooled from the drum it would sometimes jump slightly, I suspect because it never laid quite perfectly. This meant that there was a bit of a shock load imposed, we soon realised that we had to run strops round the cases and not just hook onto handles. I suspect that all of these design of winches come out of the same factories. The difference between buying a "reputable" brand is that there (might) be more stringent quality control imposed, and you have a bit of comeback with the retailer. Of course, what you're proposing to do with it falls outwith the manufacturers' guidelines, so you're not going to have much advantage from that. We replaced the second winch with a far heavier duty chain motor (which cost ten times as much). It's been a very worthwhile purchase, and has been perfectly reliable for about 8yrs since. However it's a large, heavy item. Getting it mounted was quite a task (we didn't dare lift it with its predecessor!) and I'd be wary of doing something similar on most typical small theatre bars. For lifting kit up onto the grid etc., either a simple rope pulley or manual chain hoist would be preferable - it's more portable and there's far less that can go wrong.
  2. Thanks for that. Do you have any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise that would suggest that these motors are less reliable than the ones I would buy from any other source? Are German or American ones any better? Is it the price that makes us feel Is there a brand or type of winch motor that you would recommend for stage use, spotlines or lifting up to a flybar? or even taking equipment up to or down from galleries or slots. Simon Trust me - you do NOT want to go down the route of using those things for anything more than lifting kit well away from stage. Is it the price that makes us feel uncomfortable about these motors or maybe the fact that they are available on ebay? If I can get this hardware delivered for less than $150 then it has to be constructed with no QC from a company that cuts corners wherever they can, doesn't invest in R&D and sells junk, it must be bad! Sorry, then end of this sentence dropped out of my reply some how Simon
  3. Hi There, I am Tech Manager for a Theatre in Provincial Queensland (Outback Australia). We have 25 Double Purchase fly lines. We run an Eisteddfod each year, Four Dance Schools and Two secondary School use the theatre. we are endeavouring to get an Amateur large scale Musical happening every other year. The Centre used to do that, but it died when the local mine changed from 8 hour to 12 hour shift pattern. There is Just the two of us techs here. Not everso busy but enough work for three of us. We have two inexperienced casuals and can get extra hands from a local agency. There are no nearby theatres with which we can share crew. We came here two years ago and found, as in many theatres, there should be a policy of "No clients operating the flys" But this policy becomes very difficult to enforce when we find that Fredrick (husband of the lady that runs the Dance School) has been flying at this theatre for 30 years and there is not anything that he can be taught! To enforce the policy would be flying in the face of years of tradition and would upset people who have the ears of Councillors, - Council owns the Theatre! I would be that "know nothing upstart" who has drifted into town and spoiled the show for hundreds of children and their parents. Charging $600 for another crew member as flyman is not on either, it's been perfectly safe since 1988, why should the poor dance school have to up their hire amount when there is no perceived safety concerns or extra danger eh? He only does show and rehearsal calls which consists of flying in and out the half tabs twice and flying in and out one back drop. It used to include flying the house rag as well (4 cues and a bounce per show) I have since fixed that by installing a new track and motor so now the stage manager (dance mum) can close it. I am working on repairing the motor from the old track and installing that on the half tab bar. Should have that in place by the time we re-open. That leaves the backdrop cloth! I have a solution and would like to runs this past some experienced flyman for opinion. I plan to install one of those cheap Chinese winch motors, on a mule, over the head block of one our double purchase upstage line sets. I will need to extend or duplicate the remote operating device so that the winch can be operated from the fly floor or stage level. I fly the cloth and balance it, then attach the winch cable to the top of the cradle. I then over weight the cradle with six bricks (60kG) . Now, when the winch is operated, lifting the cradle, the cloth flies in, and when it drops the cradle the cloth flies out, There is a limit stop on the winch that I can adjust with cable clips (dog clips) for an in-dead and I will install a limit at the bottom of the frame for an out-dead. This can then be operated from a pickle or pickel at stage level (the brake is left off for the performance). Although I will still in effect have clients operating flys (powered flying), I wont have them on the fly bridge. After the show the duty tech will check the system, dead the cradle at the bottom, and isolate the motor. Has any of you ever done this for a show? I have used chain motors attached to the bottom of the cradle to assist with reloading lighting bars, pre-loaded trusses, we would have the cradle down to min weight while we swapped LX rigs for rep Opera. This was in Linz, some time ago. We would then reload the cradle to operating weight. If any of you have advice, lets hear it. https://www.ebay.com...5.c100005.m1851 https://www.ebay.com...353.m1438.l2649
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