Rising Stage

[buddy101089]

Hey,
We are doing a concert in septermber where they want during the middle of the song for the drums to rise from the ground or from close to the ground and they want it to be a slow smooth ride. What do yall suggest that we do/use and we are on a very very low budget and i guess i just need to know what device i need to look at to use and what yall use. We are in the atl area so if yall know any rental companies that would be great too! thanks in advance for yalls responses!

[ricc0luke]

very very low budget? i don't want to waste your time and tell you a bunch of b.s. here. probably not possible. that would require hydrolics or maybe ou could get away with puenmatics to do safely. the cheapest and simplest thing i can think of is a winch and 4 cables on each corner of the drum platform. the cables would be seen, and to get the right equipment to do so safely would still require at least a few hundred.

i would just look into lighting effects for the drums on a raised platform.

[MHSTech]

Best thing I can think for you to do is try to find some rental place that will rent you a scissor lift table. Something like this... http://southworthproducts.com/Displa...r+Lite+Compact
You'll want to find something with a bigger footprint also, to reduce the risk of it tipping over. You'll probably also want to build a platform on it and bolt it down somehow and bolt it to the floor with several lugs. And you'll need to build at least one bar around the back of the platform to keep the drummer from tipping back and falling off.

The nice thing about these are that they aren't very tall when they're all the way down, you could probably build a skirt on the platform to hide the whole thing when it is retracted.

This probably isn't the best way to do it, but it should work, in theory. But if it doesn't, just call me Hans Off, because I want nothing to do with your drummer falling on his arse from 6 feet up in the air and getting clobbered with drums.

[Foxinabox10]

You could also rent a scissor lift that has removable sides. Most places will rent curtains that hang over the sides and are really long, so as you go up, the curtain will go up and be long enough to reach the ground still. If you do that, make sure you get an electric one (most of them are gas). A lift rental place might donate the rental if you pay the transportation cost.

[MHSTech]

Originally Posted by Foxinabox10

A lift rental place might donate the rental if you pay the transportation cost.

Tax write-off.

[jonhirsh]

Um sorry guys but Aerial Lift Platforms i.e. Scissor lift are not to be used without the side rails in any circumstance. This would be breaking the user agreement nullifying any and all liability of the insurance company and or the manufacturer. The only reasons to remove the rails are for transport reasons like getting it through a door that is low. You are not to operate it during these times. If you’re in Canada you are inviting your self to a possible $50,000 dollar fine personally and your company an even larger one also you can face jail time if an injury occurs. This is according to the green book. I don’t know about the American laws but I would think they would be just as strict maybe even more so.

Sorry.
JH

[Foxinabox10]

Originally Posted by jonhirsh

Um sorry guys but Aerial Lift Platforms i.e. Scissor lift are not to be used without the side rails in any circumstance. This would be breaking the user agreement nullifying any and all liability of the insurance company and or the manufacturer. The only reasons to remove the rails are for transport reasons like getting it through a door that is low. You are not to operate it during these times. If you’re in Canada you are inviting your self to a possible $50,000 dollar fine personally and your company an even larger one also you can face jail time if an injury occurs. This is according to the green book. I don’t know about the American laws but I would think they would be just as strict maybe even more so.

Sorry.
JH

If your auditorium has the means, you could put the drummer on a fall arest system and that would allow you to operate the lift without rails, right?

[jonhirsh]

Nope, not only can you not operate a lift without the rails but apparently which i did not learn till a few weeks ago, you can not operate a lift even one with rails with out an harness. And belts are no longer legal only full body fall restraint harnesses. So climbing gear is out. Also modifying the lift for any purpose voids any and all protection from the manufactorer and the insurance company.

But obviously the industry breaks these rules all the time. But thats no excuse. The green book which is canadian guidelines for which all industrial work places must obide states that employees and employers can be fined in the case of an accident detiremind to be the cause of a worker. There fore it is your best intrest to follow the guidelines.

As said before i dont know much about the USA standards. but i do know that they are strict. And you must follow them.

All i know is my curent "employer" (im a freelancer) Asked me to get a lift ticket and while in the session i learned quite a few things that scare me esspecialy in this industry regarding Lift Platforms. So if your in canada and are intrested in using lifts please contact me and i will inform you of who to get hold of to get your own lift ticket. And please be advisied that without an lift ticket you cannot go up in a lift weither you are driving it or not. It is the equivelent to driving a car without an drivers licenese.

JH

[avkid]

This "lift ticket" thing sounds interesting to me, would you care to elaborate on it? I'm also curious if anything like it exists in the U.S.

[jwl868]

The US OSHA rules slightly less strict than the Canadian rules. The US rules make a distinction between "scissors lift" and other lifts (such as the boom lifts used by cable lienmen.) The attached link from the US OSHA website is very thorough and one should go further into the regs for more details.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owad...ONS&p_id=24191

Interestingly, US OSHA regulates the "scissors lifts" under their scaffolding rules. And a factor, often forgotten, is that the fall protection regulations do no apply below 6 feet above the next level in construction and 4 feet above the next level in general industry. (See 29 CFR 1910, subpart D [1910.20] - Walking - Working Surfaces.)

An additional note is that individual states may have more stringent requirements.

Joe