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Hoisting Mac 600


cmccabe

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Hello,

 

We have a couple of mac 600's and a manual chain hoist. The hook on the hoist is too big to go directly throught the safety point on the macs and we need the minimum distance between hook and lifted item to make it easier to rig when in the top of a tallescope. Currently the kit is hoisted with the caribena end of a safety bond (50kg rating), By that I mean the caribena is clipped onto the mac and the chain hoist hook, (the other end of the safety bond is left free). Due to the shape of the caribena, the pull of the mac and chain hoist isnt always directly opposite each other, sometimes with the caribena turning on its side, with the gate facing up or down bearing the load. Is this acceptable or is there a better way? The macs have a very small safety point in the middle and I havnt found a shackle that fits.

What are the suggestions?

 

Please bear in mind that I am asking for advice and other peoples recomendations.

 

Thanks

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Can't the ground man just haul it up on a rope?

 

25.4kg :P

 

Then get some muscle, or a friend. Or a braked pulley.

 

I've never been in a situation where lifting a single light on a separate hoist is the easier answer!

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With the greatest respect, why use a rope on a heavy piece of equipment when I have something that makes it easier and safer. Plus I would have to attach the rope to the lifting point and I believe that even that might not fit in the small lifting hole.

 

 

 

Which brings me nicely round to my original point...is there a small link that is rated above the 33kg mac but small enough to fit in the lifting point?

 

 

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Pulley, Small sling and a rope around through both handles of the Mac. It's how all of ours are done. 25kg isn't heavy when youcan put your full weight behind it.

 

seconded, taking into account the speed of most manual chain blocks I reckon the rope to be less tiring when doing a number of heads.

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[Devils Advocate]

 

Should one really be using the safety bond point as part of the lifting operation?

 

[/Devils Advocate]

 

Edited to add:

 

Fourth'ed- Rope, Opera block, rope through both handles and tied back onto itself

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you said your working off a tallescope... I know this may be bad practice but the way we have rigged movers and have used mac 600s in the past is to either use rope and hoist it up the side of the tallescope, or hook one of the clamps on the mac 600 over the tallescope edge and hoist it up from there... may sound bad but it is effective in our situation and works
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At least the safety point is rated, unlike most handles.

 

True, however, how does it get from the flightcase to the bar (as in a bar that's at stage level)...? Surely most 'handles' are secured well enough take gentle(ish) lifting/maneuvering, they are just not rated for the potential shock loading? Anyway, that's probably a whole different thread!

 

you said your working off a tallescope... I know this may be bad practice but the way we have rigged movers and have used mac 600s in the past is to either use rope and hoist it up the side of the tallescope, or hook one of the clamps on the mac 600 over the tallescope edge and hoist it up from there... may sound bad but it is effective in our situation and works

 

This sounds like a practice that should really stop! Can you clarify what you mean by 'hoist it up the side'?

 

With the greatest respect, why use a rope on a heavy piece of equipment when I have something that makes it easier and safer. Plus I would have to attach the rope to the lifting point and I believe that even that might not fit in the small lifting hole.

 

Which brings me nicely round to my original point...is there a small link that is rated above the 33kg mac but small enough to fit in the lifting point?

 

If you are intent on doing it this way, then hows about something from this page? We have some in work, so I'll try and remember to see if they fit through the hole tomorrow.

 

Edited to clarify the first point

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To the OP - sorry, but you really do sound like you're making work for yourself!

As has been said, the speed of pretty much any chain hoist I've used is pretty darned slow, and the effort needed to raise something like a Mac 600 would bore the bejeez out of me!

I'll fourth/fifth/sixth whatever the simple use of an opera block. If you're struggling with one line, do what we do when hoisting heavier movers - use TWO opera blocks & lines - one on each side/handle. The advantage there is that the lamp goes up the way it needs to hang and thus reduces the amount of fart-ar5ing around at the top.

 

And yes, I know that strictly speaking the handles aren't supposed to be rated BUT as I see it using them to hoist with properly is safer than the alternatives.

 

As for Kingstech and the idea that you pull ANYTHING heavier than a couple of lamps/clamps/frames in a bag on a rope by hoisting on the top of the talle is pretty much suicidal!!

STOP!!!!

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We have an Esca 2000 I think it is usually its a two person job one on "the tower" and one on the ground... both of us prepare the unit to be hoisted to the grid on rope which has a loop on the end which gets placed around the clamps as it is large enough the rope also has a smaller rope attached to the safetly just incase, and then one of us climbs the tower rope in hand and pulls it up the non ladder side putting weight on the stabalisers, and when it gets to working height we use our hands to attach it to the grid.

 

I know this is really bad practice but there is no other way of getting them on to the grid as we dont have any motorised hoists and our grid is static.

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Sorry, but NO!!

This is SO wrong as you describe it.

 

OF COURSE there's a safer way to do it - just as I described above.

If you have the bars to hang the lamps on you have the points from which to hang an opera block pulley or two!!!

 

 

 

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