Seachangers and sidearms?

[gafftapegreenia]

If I were to mount a Seachanger on a boom, would it be wise to attach a side arm so the yoke is not being torqued? We have buckets full of sidearms, but rarely use them. Today during crew one of the electricians hung two Source 4 and Seachanger units from booms sideways directly from the c-clamps on their yokes. I just wonder if, since it will be like this for a few weeks, if switching them to sidearms would be better for the instrument.

Even thought when I ask a few others in the shop what they thought, and they said it would be fine, I have a gut feeling the sidearm would be a better idea. What does the board think?

[icewolf08]

Why don't you use sidearms whenever you hang lights on booms? It is a lot easier to focus.

[Logos]

Yeah, I don't like the idea of a light hanging sideways of its clamp for a long period, and don't you have to overstress the C clamp. The hook clamps we use here certainly will also do the job but have to be overtightened IMHO. Use sidearms (we call them boom arms.)

[jonhirsh]

Sidearms rock.

But I would not worry about the clamp.

[gafftapegreenia]

See, this is my point, we have sidearms but rarely use them. As I'm not the only one hanging lights, and I am a Freshman, I don't have the power to mandate sidearm use. They invented sidearms for a reason right?

[soundlight]

Use the sidearms. Especially with the seachangers. And they're easier to focus. Funny thing, I just did booms today for our dance rig - and I know that sidearms make things easier.

[derekleffew]

Sidearms are probably the most under-used piece of kit in the "iron" category. One of my favorite "tricks" is to use them on truss for cable management, such as when multi needs to turn a 90° corner. No more picking cables up off the floor or tying each cable independently. Also keeps the cable from "running" where it drops off the truss to the dimmers, until you can strain relief with shackle and spanset.

By all means, yes, use sidearms on vertical hanging positions. Those who don't are either too lazy to remove the instrument's clamp, or just don't know any better. Now if you don't have sidearms, I've found hanging a fixture (or even a mover) with yoke either US or DS makes for a speedier, easier focus. Pan becomes tilt and tilt becomes pan, but on a conventional it doesn't matter (unless it's a radial!) and all moving light consoles allow the user to "swap pan and tilt."

[ship]

I don't mind using side arms for roostering out or extending away from but not on a horizontal plane from a vertical pipe. Believe that's not what they are designed for doing or a good idea.

Normal side arms have C-Clamps on them the same as fixtures but as opposed to fixture clamped directly to the boom, these fixtures attached to a side arm have much more torque going against and possibly over-stressing the clamp. Given the sea changer is more heavy than a normal Leko, I would be concerned for two reasons. First if your side arm is the normal ½" sch. 40 normal water pipe instead of sch. 80 water pipe, that pipe could bend. Second and more important the side arm could fail more easy in a direct proportion of side arm length to the amount of extra torque that side arm is putting on the C-Clamp - in direct relation to that.

There is some old style side arms out there that have a bit more reinforcement to the clamp portion but if it’s the normal side arm that’s just a Altman clamp with cotter pin pipe in it, I would be concerned about the added torque over what weight is normally known for such a thing. (Again a Sch. 80 pipe is recommended.)

A better way to side arm for these lights would be to do cheseboroughs with the desired length of batten pipe or 1.1/2" Sch. 40 pipe to the boom. The cheseborough is rated for much more weight. Another option is to use ½ cheseboroughs welded to 2" aluminum pipe, or RotaLocks which are similar to cheseboroughs but not really as good for this type of application.

As always, safety cable each fixture not to the side arm but to the boom. A double wrapped sunday loop or Perstrusk (sp) Knot of wire rope to the boom so it cannot slide down the boom with the safety cable hooked or looped to it is possibly the best way to do this.

I have also seen safety cables latched to eyelet rigged ½ cheseboroughs or at times C-Clamps that don’t have fixtures on them also.

[icewolf08]

I was taught that the forged cheesboros were not rated for this type of application. I would always choose rotalocks or the new style aluminum "cheesboros" that actually have a SWL imprinted on them. I would certainly use cheeseboros like this if I could find any paperwork that said they had a rating, but I have yet to find that document.

[soundlight]

We use aluminum cross-pipe connections that have allen keys, put 1.5' sections of 1.5" sch. 40 pipe on them, and hang instruments on the top and bottom of them.