smash!!!

[El Presidente]

I know, I know, but he's very stuck in his ways about using himself to keep people from walking underneath them ;)

[w/robe]

...and his actions are putting his life and her education in jeopardy as well as setting a very bad example to all the other students. Will it say on her qualification that she is not competent to work at height or will she be going for jobs along with the rest of you but without the same experience?

[Ynot]

I'm also trying to find when in the other thread it says it is bad practice to hang mac's on a piece of truss between two stands?

Ah, well, err, humm, OK - maybe I remembered something that wasn't there! ;) Apologies for mis-speaking there.

AHA!

I knew we'd discussed this elsewhere.

THIS thread has more on the topic.

[Nat_Keiller]

I've heard a tale of a student who, while followspotting in the theatre at Eton College managed to end up holding the weight of the light having managed to work the yolk loose. The Queen was sitting underneath at the time...

 

This may be apocryful though...

 

a very small strain of truth here, but not quite as described above...and however the Queen was not in for this performance...!

 

My lips are sealed however..!

 

Out of interest - you must know someone that I would....would be interesting to know who..! - (though from your profile I now have a pretty good idea who..!)

[vbm]

Out of curiosity, I'm sure everyone tightens their clamps and puts safety steels on every fixture, but, has anyone ever actually seen a lamp fall from a rig?

I have never seen a lamp fall from a rig without provocation, that I can recall. I have seen a Manfrotto stand collapse "spontaneously" under the weight of a Golden Scan HPE. This was before Manfrotto halved the load rating of the 087 stands from 60kg to 30kg. Quite scary...

 

And this is probably off-topic, but... Many years ago, before health and safety was invented, I lifted an 8-lite with a scroller off a truss on a (very) dodgy festival stage. I was standing on a bar at about 10 feet, the scroller hadn't been attached to the 8-lite properly, or safetied (I hadn't rigged it...) The scroller & the 8-lite went their separate ways, the 8-lite stayed in my hands but the scroller hit the deck. Luckily nobody was anywhere onstage at the time. The scroller was already faulty (that's why I was trying to get it down) but it didn't work at all after that.

 

Its frightening when you look back at the things you did when you were starting out...

[Jamtastic3]

vbm, what happened to the Golden Scan? Did it survive a good thudding?

[vbm]

vbm, what happened to the Golden Scan? Did it survive a good thudding?

 

The 'Frotto cable snapped so the stand wound itself down at a terrifying speed. When it hit the bottom, as it were, there was a loud and ugly cracking sound as the Scan yoke buckled (and those things are seriously heavy duty!) which resulted in the yoke being more of a "W" shape than the usual "U" shape. The scan was otherwise intact and in full working order (!!!) though I did have to reprogram all my looks with the Scan on the stand in the fully wound down position! Somebody with a better understanding than me of the maths could probably figure out what the effective "weight" is of 42kg of Golden Scan HPE descending from 2.3m and hitting a dead stop.

 

Once again, I would point out that the gear wasn't mine and wasn't rigged by me- it was on a festie at which I was a visiting L.D. It made the band jump though..!

[samrulesapply]

I'm a lampy in a 1500 capacity venue underneath a 2500 capacity venue on a major uk holiday park. Both venues are open at the same time during adult breaks and we often have Bad Manners playing upstairs. As soon as 'lip up fatty' starts the 2500 start jumping making the ceiling of my venue move 4-5 inches up and down the air pressure generated opens fire doors and people often leave our venue through fear. All generics become horribly out of focus during ths affair. Theres 4 circular trusses scattered around the venue holding 4 250at Robes and one Robe Dominator 1200xt each seeing a circular truss loaded like this bounce 5 inches is scary! I wasn't informed when I started that this happened and dove under the LX desk the first time it happened. I hope nothing falls!

[Ynot]

As soon as 'lip up fatty' starts the 2500 start jumping making the ceiling of my venue move 4-5 inches up and down the air pressure generated opens fire doors and people often leave our venue through fear.

Wha????!

If the ceiling/grid moves at ALL because of this sort of event in the upstairs venue, then something MUST be done to prevent it, surely....?

In any man's world, any movement due to audience jumping up & down upstairs cannot be good.

I'd certainly be concerned whether the structure can take it, and continue to do so indefinitely before collapsing.

 

That sounds serious............

 

Of course, I could just be being a little alarmist......

:** laughs out loud **:

[Andrew C]

If there was NO flex in the structure, I would worry. This would mean that it had reached the limit of its elasticity; that is not to say that 5" of movement is good, acceptable, or within the design criteria of the floor.

 

I think I'll avoid the venue on "Fatty Nights".

[Ynot]

If there was NO flex in the structure, I would worry. This would mean that it had reached the limit of its elasticity; that is not to say that 5" of movement is good, acceptable, or within the design criteria of the floor.

I agree that some is inevitable, maybe even desirable, but yes, 5 inches is WAY too much! Anything that means the rig visibly moves cannot be good....

I think I'll avoid the venue on "Fatty Nights".

You and me both...! :** laughs out loud **:

[Brian]

Rule of thumb.... Deflection should be no more than 0.3% of span to prevent surface damage and public alarm!

[samrulesapply]

I have raised concerns over this to the powers above and beyond that are management but they usually fob it off saying its perfectly fine. Despite the fact that the venues were designed for 2500 family members sitting quietly sipping drinks and watching pantomimes and other such guff whilst there children eat to many sweets NOT designed for 2500 drunken 18-30 years olds simultaneously jumping. A Vast span of family breaks over the summer periods so I've got time to re-inforce the underside of my lx desk for hiding under when the adult breaks return in autumn. I shall attempt to catch video footage of said movements then. Another observation relating to this event was our front of house tabs quite visibly 'moving' when closed.

[El Presidente]

...and his actions are putting his life and her education in jeopardy as well as setting a very bad example to all the other students. Will it say on her qualification that she is not competent to work at height or will she be going for jobs along with the rest of you but without the same experience?

 

I don't know if it would. I'd imagine so, or when she asks for referances from him it says "not confident at working at heights, needs training" or something along the lines of. :)

[dbuckley]

When you ask an engineer what the floor loading of a place is and they have no construction data, they do a "deflection test", which involved putting a load in and measuring how much the place bends. The deflection distance is measured quite accurately, as it's quite small. Five inches of movement would scare the bewhatsits out of me, and I too would leave. Quickly.