Looking for "best practice" on storing luminaires

Mark Harris

Member
I'm recently joined a new (to me) amateur group and volunteered to design and operate the current production. I was slightly horrified to arrive there and find that most instruments were stored in a loft up a stepladder on the floor. My preference and experience has been to have an off-stage section of grid available for luminaires while the theatre is dark (and preferably one that can be closed off while set construction occurs.

We're going to pack out this Sunday, and I want to recommend that we leave the lights where they are, just unplugged and tidy. Can anyone point me at a "best practice" document? It doesn't have to support this approach. If I'm way off-base here, I'm open to change, but it seems to me that placing instruments on a wooden floor in a crowded loft is sub-optimal.
 
Mark,
I don't believe there is a 'SOP' for this. Every theatre stores their instruments differently. I have seen some stored in both methods you listed above, and some in unit boxes, and some on meat racks. I think something to be careful of (especially if they are going to be stored for awhile) is the environment. Make sure things aren't too humid. Over time, a small nick will begin to rust, and that's a cancer thats not fun to resolve. Older C-clamps are susceptible to this too. A simple drop cloth may help keep some dust off these fixtures.
 
Mark,
I don't believe there is a 'SOP' for this. Every theatre stores their instruments differently. I have seen some stored in both methods you listed above, and some in unit boxes, and some on meat racks. I think something to be careful of (especially if they are going to be stored for awhile) is the environment. Make sure things aren't too humid. Over time, a small nick will begin to rust, and that's a cancer thats not fun to resolve. Older C-clamps are susceptible to this too. A simple drop cloth may help keep some dust off these fixtures.
Bugger ;-)
 
No "right" way and I've seen all kinds of methods, on shelves in a basement storeroom, hung on a pipe rack system in an adjacent storeroom, hung on custom built rolling pipe meat racks, or inside road shop cases, on the floor in a storeroom, and as we sometimes do it, hampers with lids, or just left in place for the next hang.

I like the hamper method, for as long as you don't over-stuff the hamper and can close the lid, it keeps the dust mostly off the fixtures. As well you can label what's in the hamper and double check the inventory that way. Trouble is and dependent on the size of the inventory, it can take a lot of expensive hampers, that we don't (as example) like to leave sitting around stuffed with stage lights, plus you need to have the room to store the hampers, which we do. When we recently finished our yearly lighting maintenance, I just simply re-hung the overhead electrics hang, I didn't cable or two-fer anything. Our supposed next user is our Dept. of Theater and is probably going to re-hang everything. Since the electrics are winched, it was about as easy to rehang and push the UP button.
 
Not sure what the difference would be in going up the ladder to the loft (probably not too dusty up there) and going up something to a section of the grid offstage (probably more dust there) to retrieve the fixtures.
Sounds like they found the best storage place in that facility.
 
Like Mark said - there really isn't a standard for storing units, as a lot will depend on the specific theater, the inventory, and the layout.

Things I would look for:
* Are you easily able to access all the different types of units in inventory? Do you need special access to get to fixtures (ie, stepladder, someone to run the rail, or access card to a storage room)?
* Are the units efficiently stored? And stored safely?
* Are you able to store fixtures separately by type (both within unit types - ie, 36 vs. 50 degree barrels -- and different types, eg, fresnels versus pars) Are they easy to differentiate in their storage positions?
* Are you easily able to bring one to several dozen units from storage to the stage (or FOH balcony, or booth, etc.)?
* Are all of the accessories easy go get to? The same questions above apply to them, too.
 
Not sure what the difference would be in going up the ladder to the loft (probably not too dusty up there) and going up something to a section of the grid offstage (probably more dust there) to retrieve the fixtures.
Sounds like they found the best storage place in that facility.

I'm less concerned about the dust although the loft is far dustier than the grid) as I am about them being plonked on the floor or banged against the ladder. Not optimal for the lamps inside. Also, we live in earthquake country. I have a preference for instruments to be clamped to a grid in such circumstancesm rather than rollong around on the floor. I'm going to offer my services to clean up the loft, as there's a lot of junk there and I found it quite difficult to access all the bits and pieces I needed for the hang.
 
Our's were stored up stairs in a hallway on the ground so we built a meat rack using chain link fence pipe and 3/4" plywood. The pipe obviously smiles a bit when loaded down, but it's not flexing enough to the point where I would think it would fail. Our cost was about $80 for the pipe.

The plans were acquired from this instructable:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Stage-lighting-storage-and-work-cart/

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I worked place where the furthest upstage electric was never used much, just cyc clight, It had 2 levels of batons, so extra fixtures were stores on the top pipe. This was an automated electric so it was fairly convenient.

Meat racks, or shelving units on wheels, bodies and Lens tubes separate.
 
In college I used to like to pull every instrument into the electrics shop between hangs, and I still think that should be done if you are going dark for an extended period of time. We built on stage in college so it saved a little dust from going into the instruments. It also allowed time for every instrument to be inspected and repairs to be done.

However, in my experiences with theatres that produce year round, or nearly year round, strikes and hangs are scheduled so close together that storage for more than 20% of the inventory is uneccesary. 80% or more of the inventory is almost always in the air.

Meat racks are great if there is a convenient place to store them. I did some work at a college that stored their meat racks for the main stage in their black box, which was down a hall, thru several doors, up an elevator, thru several more doors, across an outside brick walkway, down another hallway, and thru a dressing room. Not very efficient.
 
That's our case- the only inventory that's on the rack is stuff we use as specials, spares for when we don't have time to replace a socket, etc, or broken fixtures waiting to be fixed. Everything else is for the rep plot and is in the air.
 
I had a chat with the incumbent tech guy. He's always wanted to put pipes into the loft but has never got around to it. Guess what I'll be doing soon. ;-)

Thanks for your replies, folks.
 
Being a road house all of our inventory comes down on a regular basis. The majority of it lives in a room just off the stage on pipes along the walls of the room. That way they don't take up much space for things like dead cases. Things like cyc lights and par bars usually make their way to the basement where they sit on the floor in whatever room isn't being used at the time.


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I can attest to recently having to spent at least four hours per fixture to many Lighting and Electonics Inc. Leko's in just saving them. Fixtures that were in storage in the orchestra pit below grade and in a masonry area - though not exposed lime from the brick or any flooding. 1990's cheap fixtures were in a worse condition than some I have worked with 100 years old or older. Talking by way of rust in some I couldn’t even extract the shutter plate assembly other than soaking a few days in Thread Locker stuck.
Huge work for not that old fixtures and in this case some that should have just been scrapped short of my saving them. Wonder how well it’s going with the other buyer of the lights that I trained but probably doesn’t have time to detail restore them. Big mistake on my part - I didn’t "field strip" the entire fixtures I was viewing, and what I didn’t see was really bad. This was not the road house fairly un-cared for gear I thought I was seeing, it was much worse I think by way of storage. I did a huge disservice to the other buyer in rxcommending buying these lights - won’t make that mistake again.
1911 theater with some lights stored in the brick catacombs that had lime dust off the brick peppering on them for at least 50 years, and also below grade location, the fixtures were in better condition than the also road house from 1928 with 1990's fixtures that were just stored in the orchestra pit below the extension of the stage perhaps for a few years at most if even that long. Granted a lot of the problems were of the fixture brand and care for the lights which were probably marginal at best for what condition they were really in. The L&E lights in general had one coat of spay paint at best on any surface and little to no graphite was applied as done. Other metals were just left un-painted and exposed. Fixtures might have been well on their way to "bad" condition before storage, brand was crap in quality it would seem in comparison to lights of alternate brands, but storage finished them off. Toast and hours of work just to restore.
Up a ladder and into an area that isn’t wet, in a basket that isn’t in a wet area, hung from a pipe etc... Storage is often best on un-hung pipes local to the stage - flying or not, but often the best areas. After that air movement perhaps for storage areas and in general storage conditions. Can also depend on the brand of light - if you buy a cheaper light, it might have a service life such as the L&E version of a Leko that takes hours to refinish and possibly will have been toast before they went into storage.
Recently bought some drill press vises - this amongst other tools or materials. They were waxed paper oiled in keeping the bright work fresh for as long as it took to sell the product Who cannot remember having to wipe down the oil from fresh Sch. 40 pipe or steel so it can get painted. I see best storage if going to be stored for an unknown amount of time... store it in the live - above ground (not worried about dust) somewhere after full service call. If no time for that, bag it and add little spray of WD-40 to that bag, than seal it. Later wash the lenses in a dish washer with Jet Dry, but the rest of the fixture should be as good as you left it.
Don’t know but options protected gear. Mostly I would think what is done if not too wet is a great storage place. How long the storage and how well maintained the gear a better question as with what brand of gear in storage. Some gear stores it would seem better than other gear.
 
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I can attest to recently having to spent at least four hours per fixture to many Lighting and Electonics Inc. Leko's in just saving them. Fixtures that were in storage in the orchestra pit below grade and in a masonry area - though not exposed lime from the brick or any flooding. 1990's cheap fixtures were in a worse condition than some I have worked with 100 years old or older. Talking by way of rust in some I couldn’t even extract the shutter plate assembly other than soaking a few days in Thread Locker stuck.

Eek! Thassalottawork!
 
Eek! Thassalottawork!
Yea, a lot of work but for a good cause in giving money to a theater plus saving them from the scrap yard. In the end, once fitted with a 100w A-19 GE Reveal lamp, they were perfect and better than new other than some warping of the resurfaced shutters. Allowed some fellow employees to own their own lighting gear which was when properly done safe and wouldn't need any care for a long time. That plus used household grade lamps but still had a very decent flat field hard edge beam that they didn't even have to bench focus. Love working on lights so juat wish there wasn't as many I had to get done on this project with more TBA. A normal 360/360Q in used condition would take me 2-3 hours of work in full restoration. That plus I have in works and under the belt lights that literally have taken months to get done or are even still on the waiting list. Always a new technique to try, some part to fabricate etc. to keep it fun. Have some Bantam Superspots that are 750w and rear fan cooled that have been in the works for almost a year now. Had time to sand blast and fabricate some missing parts but had to put them on the shelf for a while. Earlier this summer I had a little more time for them and had to re-surface because the un-treated sheet metal had rusted in the mean time some. Painted a base coat of flat black on the parts and put them back into storage and are fine now in waiting. Missing the rear fan covers to them and still trying to figure out how to make some - back into a holding pattern for later with lots of other lights I can work on in the mean time.
 
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Back on fixture storage.
If a more modern and not economy brand of fixture, they should store well enough but might depend on how long one intends them to be in storage as with the where question - that plus the condition of the fixture before it’s stored. Gear post Altman 360Q era of lights should in general store fine as long as in maintained condition.
An Altman 360Q series for instance would probably have problems in the gate assembly and various fasteners by way of heat wear from use, now given time to rust further and should be re-surfaced and painted or coated before storage. Once a thorough cleaning is done, should store just fine. A SL, S-4, Shakesphere amongst a few more modern lights are in general much better quality in surface treatment if not materials and should store fine.
If a few months, I might add some oil to all fastener screw threads such as thumb screws, brass or steel screws that are exposed to air or in contact with aluminum, and especially any screws on the C-Clamp - black oxide coated screws rust solid easily. For the most part, shutters and shutter plates plus the rest of the gate assembly should not rust if later than a mid-70's design and not a 360Q knockoff even into the 90's. Even worked on some 80's Colortran Leko’s that were dirty but in general fine, and some Altman 1KAL series that were nasty in getting put away dirty but overall still in good condition once the fog goo, cob webs, cigarette haze, confetti etc was scraped out and cleaned.
If long term storage, I would completely service call the light, add some WD-40 spray or silicone drying packs to a trash bag and bag the fixture. Don’t use both at the same time but both as with other methods should work in preserving the light and in just about any conditions stored in once the fixture is in a bag. Re-clean the lenses/lamp/shutters when ready to use & wipe down the fixture... ready to go.
 
Good thoughts. I'm only looking at between shows (3-4 a year), not long term. Cheers.
 

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