Lighting Work box content (corporate)

I have a fun little opportunity total on this winter season.

The company I now work for, who never really had a lighting department and hired me to build one, does not have a lighting work box for large corporate shows.

So I will be building one! The best part is the budget is basically limitless if I can reasonably justify the purchase.

A little about the type of shows we do, for now most of our shows consist of 4-8 Vipers, 6-18 Auras, Color force 2 12"s and 72", and depending on our shows S4 lusters or normal S4's and S4 parnells.

I have already put together a decent list of what should go into the box along with the obvious stash of gaff, e, and other various tapes.

Hardware wise I have
- Full set of screwdrivers, Allans, security and regular torxs bits, a few Robinsons bits.
- Full set of truss tools, a few 3' sparsest and gack flex,
- 2 knuckles of shackles
- Soldering Iron and helping hands
- 12 terminators
- 3 to 5 pin adaptors
- some short network cables
- a Swisson mxt350
- a fleenor 1x5 opto
- extra c and mega clamps
- a few rigid and swivel burros
- ultimate flat wrench
- spare leashes for tools
- several c wrenches
- truss bolts
- a spud wrench
- spare l21-30 ends
- spare power con ends
- 20' 12/3 cable
- 1 hog usb super widget
- a little light
- insulated coffee cup
- 1 full roll of tie line
- 10 safeties
- various color and defusion
- S4 irises and gobo holders both A and B

now on to my question...

What has saved your bacon in the past that is now a staple in your work box for corporate gigs? Our fixtures ship with spare lamps in their road cases so I don't think I need a stash in the work box.

Laser. Tape. Measure.

Zip ties, e tape and diagonal cutters. Those were my bread and butter in corporate.

Fuzes specific to the items you'll have to maintain.

A couple of sidearm s, incredibly useful for cable management, or as an impromptu pipe wrench
RJ-45 cable tester, ethernet network checker
DFD DMSTSTR in 3 & 5 pin
ProdAdv BestSeat
pin splitter
BlackWrap , BlackTak
GRN & WHT Cam-lok turnarounds, both genders
Roll of baling wire
Waxed paper, for diffusing LED batten s
PPE: ear, eye, gloves

Hardware! A small box of assorted bolts nuts and washers has gotten me out of more trouble than I can count.
Spare IEC cable. Those little things run off more often than I can imagine.
Chalk. Not quite as important in corporate environments, but often useful.
Small floor bases
Shims
FIRST AID KIT

Digital Multi-meter
Earth Ground Tester
Spare Batteries for meters / testers
Portable Power Pack
Small level
Edison to Stagepin (vice versa)
Edison to Powercon (vice versa)
Spare lighting toolbox (for when this one grows legs)
Rope
Carabiners
Towel
Black table cloths
Spare Harness if rigging.
Small tablet to store manuals on
Headache Medicine
Second insulated coffee mug

ChrisB_SanDiego said:

Small tablet to store manuals on
Headache Medicine

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Going to have to strongly agree with the Tylenol/Ibuprofen recommendation, and the iPad/Surface recommendation as well. I have all my plots, schedules, diagrams, and magic sheets on my iPad as PDF documents with searchable text for ease of using Ctrl+F/Cmd+F to search for circuits and such.

And don't forget the house techs cell number for when you accidentally trip a breaker or set off the fire alarm with haze.

alcohol swabs for lamp changes
3 pin turn arounds for com lines
clothes pins, safety pins, small squeeze clamps for holding fabric in place or other odd tasks
Edison plug strips/cube taps so everyone can charge their phone and laptop
office supplies, post its, pens, papers, sharpies, pencils, paper clips, rubber bands.

Everything in this thread has saved someone before, without knowing how big of a box it is it is hard to help you pair it down. My advise would be to keep a white board or google sheet shopping list for everyone to write down what they need for gigs and after the job is over evaluate what should have been on the gear list VS what can be covered by the box.

Spare parts/lamps for your fixtures. Knobs, bolts, screws, lamps, anything that commonly breaks on whatever fixtures your using, especially if it'll be faster to just fix the problem than swap lights.

Whirlwind Q-box.... great for troubleshooting timecode!

I saw an RJ-45 tester mentioned - depending on how much networking you use (which, for the size show you describe, might not be too much), an RJ45 crimper and ends would be a very good idea.
(along with, of course, spare connectors for every other cable type you use - being able to replace a crushed 5-pin DMX connector on a long homerun can be much easier than running a new cable!)
Also, the Behringer CT200 ccable tester has the unique ability to help detect intermittent connections - https://www.musictribe.com/Categories/Behringer/Accessories/Cable-Testers/CT200/p/P0BBR

How big is this box supposed to be? I would try to focus your workbox on tools and a few necessary spares. If you need to go to the lighting workbox because your rigging department didn't send enough shackles or truss bolts your problem is with the rigging department.
I would also try to build the box in such a way that you have a comfortable to work at flat surface in the box because otherwise you end up soldering on top of whatever road crate you can find.
Building a recessed male Edison (recessed so is packs well and doesn't break off) into the side of the box going to a multi-strip mounted in the box is also really handy.

porkchop said:

Building a recessed male Edison (recessed so is packs well and doesn't break off) into the side of the box going to a multi-strip mounted in the box is also really handy.

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Or, build in a retractable cable reel (like you'd hang on the shop ceiling), but first reverse the plug/socket on the reel. Now you have a built in, retractable power cord like a vacuum cleaner.

I would add that multiple colors of gaff are handy for corporate gigs, trying to match carpet/wall colors to hide your work. Also, all the colors of e-tape, especially if you work with feeder. I find rental shops are pretty lax about sending out properly colored sets, and I'm constantly re-coding them. A bag of candy is always useful,keeping your and your crew's blood sugar up makes the gig go faster and smoother. Spare cell phone charger.

Include paperwork, business cards, accident reports, etc. Other office stuff is always useful, legal and steno pads, pens, Sharpies. More Sharpies. Silver Sharpies.

AMP Probe. Also a true RMS multimeter.