Storing ETC Source 4 Instrument and barrels

willbb123

Active Member
Hello, My name is Will, I am the Lighting Supervisor for a theatre in Iowa. I've been reading this forum for a while now but have always been able to find what I'm looking for and never needed to post.

Our Lighting inventory is made up of ETC Source 4's 19, 26, 36, and 50 degrees. The way that we have always stored them is by sorting the instruments by degrees and hanging them in there own spot on a half cat (5 or 6 feet off the ground). This works well if we ever need to change out an entire instrument. But since we basically do everything off the REP plot, we hardly ever change out the entire instrument, instead we just change out the lens. So we end up with a bunch of lenses that we are not using sitting on the floor of the cat, or the dimmer vault, and a bunch of instruments without lenses on the cat.

I was thinking about taking the lenses out of all the instruments and storing the lens on a shelf in the dimmer vault and keeping the instrument on the rail. This would be inconvient if I had to hang a new instrument, but it would save me time if I'm just changing out lenses.

Anyone else have any ideas on a better way?
 
The age old question. It really just depends on what you do more. If you can keep the body's and the barrels in one place, I would say do that. That way you can "make" a fixture and don't have to worry about having to pull barrels out of the fixture when needed. I have seen rental shops that do both. Because you are working in a rep situation, I would seperate the fixtures, but leave say 5 completed of each around. I would assume you do more barrel swapping then just dead hanging.
 
Is the issue really "How to store the lense tubes" ?.

Seems you have a certain amount of fixtures hung in rep, that occasionally have lens tubes swapped, plus spare fixtures that get hung extra and also will have lens tubes changed prior to hang ?.

Maybe build a wood shelf system on the 1/2 catwalk, large enough to hold all the extra lens tubes and don't keep the lens tubes in spare units. Or store all the lens tubes in anyplace that's convenient - maybe a rolling cart in the dimmer vault (or wherever convenient) so as to roll to a build-up work area for the extra fixtures.

Not for 'nuthin, but this is why I buy the zoom S4's. $460 ea., vs. $300 for a S4 with a single lens tube, plus $100 ea. for 2 additional. Plus labor saved not swapping lenses, and no requreiment to come up with efficiant methods to store lenses. I have 66 S4 25-50 zooms, ands will buy the 15-30 series. I recently used a few of the larger (15/30's) and didn't find them at all awkward or front heavy in practice. Much easier to use then the Shakespeare 15-30 zooms I currently use.

Steve B.
 
Re: Storing ETC Source 4 (PAR LENS)

This Thread is old ,but i'm going to tack on to it and see if I get any bites

Wondering if any of you have come up with a good inexpensive way to store the extra S4 Par lens when not in use? I've only got about 8 of each right now, though that will become 16 in about another 4 months.

I've seen a theater use 5gall buckets labeled and with the insides having the foam that comes with the lens glued to it.
 
Re: Storing ETC Source 4 (PAR LENS)

Build or buy a custom road case:
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ETC Source 4 Par Lens Case by David O Smith - Google 3D Warehouse

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Event Tech | Technical Support and Rentals for Special Events » Event Tech Custom Shop

Dish dispenser / 7" plate caddy (think dining hall/cafeteria):
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Mobile Dish Dispensers - Piper Products Incorporated

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Cambro - ADCS


EDIT: Missed the part where you said "inexpensive".:( Just use the 7"x7"x3" cardboard boxes the lenses come in. Just about everyone I know does this. The boxes that PAR64 lamps come in
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might work also. Ironic?
 
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Re: Storing ETC Source 4 (PAR LENS)

EDIT: Missed the part where you said "inexpensive".:( Just use the 7"x7"x3" cardboard boxes the lenses come in. Just about everyone I know does this. The boxes that PAR64 lamps come in
View attachment 5424
might work also. Ironic?

This i think will be option for now. I've been looking trough catalogs trying to find a "stiff" wall divider for a file cabinet, as i have a number file cabinet space. Just haven't found anything rigid enough to use as a separator/spacer for 7". Anyone come across something along those lines for a standard file cabinet?
 
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Re: Storing ETC Source 4 (PAR LENS)

This i think will be option for now. I've been looking trough catalogs trying to find a "stiff" wall divider for a file cabinet, as i have a number file cabinet space. Just haven't found anything rigid enough to use as a separator/spacer for 7". Anyone come across something along those lines for a standard file cabinet?

Masonite? 1/4 inch ply?
 
Re: Storing ETC Source 4 (PAR LENS)

Plexiglas? Foam core? Roof flashing? Vinyl siding?

I was hopeing for something that could clip into the slots already in the fileing cabinets. I also don't have a shop here. Best i have is a few drills/ screwdrivers/ wrenches and staplers :-(

Now i am thinking about creating a "box" for inside the filling cabinet with dividers in the box widen enough for the lens. Would then also work for spare frames and such too.
 
Re: Storing ETC Source 4 (PAR LENS)

the old theatre I was at had them in their cardboard boxes inside those plastic stanley tool boxes that were empty inside, they were a nice fit in those.
 
Re: Storing ETC Source 4 (PAR LENS)

At school I just used a 4 drawer filing cabinet. I kept the foam and stacked each type of lens per drawer and cushioned them with their original foam. I kept maybe a dozen of the boxes for transport, but normally I'd just load up a milk crate and shlep them to whatever fixture needed a lens change.
 

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