Rigging Question

Hello all,
I have a rigging question- more of a 'should I' than a 'can I'...

I would like to make a horizontal wall (5x5 grid of par cans) of lights on my upstage wall- similar to a rock and roll show- for our upcoming production of Grease. I can use horizontal pipe into bases, but they would take up a lot of stage space. As an alternative, I thought of mounting pipe vertically to an existing line set. The batten I would like to use is almost at the upstage wall. Can I use cheeseboro clamps and rig vertical pipes hanging down from an existing batten? We know they will be visible, but that is fine as most of the time a drop or our cyc will be downstage. The batten in question would be fixed and never flown. Is this safe for my kids? or am I better off looking at a truss system?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

Weight management. Is key.

As long as you are rigging safely then I don’t see why not.

This board however is a if you have to ask you shouldn’t be doing it at all board when it comes to rigging.

Amiers said:

Weight management. Is key.

As long as you are rigging safely then I don’t see why not.

This board however is a if you have to ask you shouldn’t be doing it at all board when it comes to rigging.

Click to expand...

@Mistermon and @Amiers Consider pipe flanges on the bottom ends of the vertical pipes and the arbor under-weighted SLIGHTLY so the floor bares a portion of the weight to avoid floating and add stability.
Are you planning this to be close enough to your U/S wall that no one will try to cross-over behind it?
Are you planning to have performers UNDER it?? (Will the pipes extend all the way to the floor with the bottom six or seven feet clear so performers aren't hitting their heads on the actual PAR cans???)
Steel PAR64 cans???? Aluminum PAR64's / PAR56's / or smaller?????
Tell me your choreographer's not planning on using the vertical pipes "stripper pole" style??????
Are your director, choreographer, SM and yourself stellar at enforcing your 'No jumping and bashing the lights / throwing basketballs at them policies???????
Do you have other uses of your stage to consider during the time period from installation to strike????????
You need to consider all users, cleaners, maintenance folks, Sunday morning church rentals, ALL other uses.
So many thoughts, so many concerns; brings us back to this forum's policy as posted by @Amiers
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

RonHebbard said:

@Mistermon and @Amiers Consider pipe flanges on the bottom ends of the vertical pipes and the arbor under-weighted SLIGHTLY so the floor bares a portion of the weight to avoid floating and add stability.
Are you planning this to be close enough to your U/S wall that no one will try to cross-over behind it?
Are you planning to have performers UNDER it?? (Will the pipes extend all the way to the floor with the bottom six or seven feet clear so performers aren't hitting their heads on the actual PAR cans???)
Steel PAR64 cans???? Aluminum PAR64's / PAR56's / or smaller?????
Tell me your choreographer's not planning on using the vertical pipes "stripper pole" style??????
Are your director, choreographer, SM and yourself stellar at enforcing your 'No jumping and bashing the lights / throwing basketballs at them policies???????
Do you have other uses of your stage to consider during the time period from installation to strike????????
You need to consider all users, cleaners, maintenance folks, Sunday morning church rentals, ALL other uses.
So many thoughts, so many concerns; brings us back to this forum's policy as posted by @Amiers
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

Click to expand...

Thanks Ron,
They would be hitting the ground- about 1-2' from the U/S wall. No one under it. Pars are a 64-size instrument, Aluminum, LED fixture. No stripping on stage no touching the poles, no one else to use the stage while this is built.

All that said, this probably won't happen- but thank you for the input!

If you use a line set, and pipes also supported by the floor, I would also consider how you will stabalize the batten from swinging upstage/dowstage. Not a problem as long as it is considered

I'm confused about how this is a rigging question at all. Very common to see vertical pipe on base plates for side lighting positions in the wings all the time. You just want to move them to the US wall right? Since they're always there, why do you want to tie into the fly system at all? See if the gym teacher has some of those rolling volleyball uprights she/he isn't using...

Also I would rather have some kind of ladder system so that you can burger a parallel pipe to the baton at the top. I'd feel much more comfortable about that rather than having the pipe tail down vertically and having the potential for it to slip through the burger with added weight.

Since it wouldn't be flown and you could in theory flange the bottom of the pipes to the ground too I'm less concerned with it being vertical since it wouldn't be taking the full weight of that rig into the air.

I would double check what your batten's max is for a point load and spread the weight out accordingly so that no single point takes close to that amount, but other than that I can think of a few relatively easy and safe ways to do this. Depending on a lot of factors I might consider the need to mouse any fasteners that could rattle loose. Not saying it needs to be done necessarily, but something to take into a count.