Recent content by dpak

The vertical pipes reach just a few inches higher than the hanging pipe, so they will be attached to it with cheeseboro clamps.

Quick update - he's able to get the pipe replaced with 1.5 inch pipe (he has a buddy who works for a pipe company). After talking it over, he's thankfully decided against the horizontal pipes. The pipes screw into metal bases which will be attached to a 2x2 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood. They will...

So the chorus teacher, on someone else's advice, bought a lot of schedule 40 water pipes to make a grid to hold lights (he had a connection that could get the pipes cheap). The thought was to have them on a base plate on the stage and attach them to the pipes hanging above the stage, then use...

High school drama teacher here. First, I know what I’m asking should not be done, but I don’t think it’s a battle I can win. So…When some of the other performing arts groups in the school perform on our stage, they might have over 100 students on stage along with chairs and stands. They want...

So I bought the light tester - it shipped very quickly - and tried out the offending light. It was giving a short, but nothing waws obviously wrong with the pins. I took the lamp housing apart and found a surprise. The shorted out wire was actually pinched underneath the plate that the spring...

Thank you for all the responses! I had thought the ferrules were just for convivence - I will be buying a set and putting them on all stage pins, along with trimming the wires down. I'll also review with the students how to plug in. As for plugging in live, is there any alternative? We do that...

High school drama teacher here. A student plugged in a fixture (S4 Jr) with stage pins into an adapter cord with an Edison plug to test the light before bringing it up to the catwalk. There was a spark, she said she felt a shock, and there was a puff of smoke. Below are pictures of the pin and...

Kitty Litter buckets. They're stackable! Wash them out thoroughly before use.

If it helps, this is for the final scene in Footloose. If we do end up lowering it, once it is down, it would stay down for the rest of the performance.Thank you for all of the responses. I think the real solution is to have the county raise the roof 20 feet and install a fly system. Or have...

At that point, maybe we will be able to just beam a virtual set and lighting into people's eyes.

Well crap - I didn't think about the power to the motor. Instead of pipe, I should have said electric, where we have lights hanging. It's static - we don't have a fly system.It looks like I'll need to scrap the hoist idea and just have the disco ball behind a border.Thank you, everyone!

Thank you for all of the replies!The hoist does have a limit switch. The pipe is static. There are places I could put the mirror ball but I don't want it visible until it is needed (hence the hoist). Ideally the mirror ball would be attached to a motor to spin it which would be hung from the...

This is the hoist. It's over kill for a disco ball, but it was affordable on Amazon.

Thank you - that's good to know. I'll start looking at other solutions. I might be able to attach some clamps to the hoist.

I have a hoist that I would like to hang from one of the pipes. It will lower and raise a disco ball. The total weight is about 25 pounds (20 for the hoist, 5 for the ball). The brackets that came with the hoist will not fit over the pipe. Would something like the piece below be strong enough...