Thanks for the tip. I have read about how heavy these are, but I've never lifted one myself. The unfortunate thing is that they're still about 10' off the
ground in their original position, and the whole rig sits on a 2x8 plank
catwalk. Hopefully I can borrow a ladder. I just don't want them to get dented up when they're removed by others! Might find a rope to lower them down as well.
Depending upon what your options are for overhead points, you may want more than a rope. Possibly two ropes and / or a couple of pulleys, and / or a tidy little 1/4 ton
chain hoist with a couple of slings wouldn't be at all out of
line plus you really ought to have at least one other EXPERIENCED
hand along with you before you find yourself wearing an A7.
Granted, being
blind now, I haven't really looked at exactly the cabinets you're looking at but when I think of an A7, or A7-500, standing up vertically with its bottom 10' in the air on a stout plank and its
horn and
driver either on top or tucked within, I wouldn't want to be under it when someone unfamiliar with its weight and center of gravity is above me and / or about to feel the full weight of the
system on a single rope naively clutched in their hands.
Please pardon me for stating the obvious, that this is definitely one of those situations where you really need to be aware of the full weight of the load before you find yourself wearing it.
I feel bad to be stating this to the experienced but I'd rather that than feeling guilty for not stating it for the neophytes.
I have another of my TLDR tales tucked away for another day which centers around a younger, stronger, person 'chock 'o
block' full of good intentions who insisted on helping me with getting my weighty rack full of good old, full of
iron, BGW's down to a
level flat floor from a rehearsal
stage at about 42" above. The rack had an internally rubber padded bonnet style slip-over
cover held in place by four locked butterfly latches and four
flat folded Sessions handles on the sides, two and two. The deceptive part was the four, ball bearing, Darnel oval-tread casters designed to plough easily through the shag carpets of the day. This also meant they rolled extremely easily on a
Masonite rehearsal
deck. I had my own method which allowed me to elevate the rack (by myself) all the way from the rehearsal
hall floor up onto the rehearsal
deck by flipping the '
road ready and buttoned up' rack over and up with the aid of a second, similar, rack as an intermediate
point. I would have rolled the rack back down in a reverse manner but, rather than allowing me 30 seconds to
roll the other rack into position, young 'Mr. Muscles' insisted he was going to show this 'old guy' how it was done. I made a last minute suggestion that we could at least take one side / two handles each and, without any further discussion, young 'Mr. Muscles' pushed me aside and, with one very quick test
roll on the
flat and smooth hard surface, my rack full of BGW's and cross-overs was air-born for something like a 1/4 second before it slammed into the floor MUCH to the young guy's astonishment.
Boy! Was he surprised and apologetic!!
I was VERY pleased to note that none of the casters tore through either of the two layers of 3/4" Russian birch comprising the
caster board. Those carpet-tread, ball bearing swivel and ball bearing rolling, Darnels were REALLY good casters and everything lived to serve me for another many years; the BGW's, the
Yamaha F1030's, the rack, the casters and the
caster board. Buy once. Cry once and I learned to be far more forceful when it came to letting people help me lift something heavy down if they weren't first involved in helping me lift it up.
With apologies for another of my TLDR, side-tracking, posts.
Be careful @ Les C. Deal
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.