Be safe on fly rail grids.

[BillConnerFASTC]

It's the classic problem of vendor "consulting". They can't stand up for what is really right if it costs more or their " client" will just go to someone else that will say its OK to do for less - whether that be no grid or access to rigging or house lights or whatever.

I do share your concern, if I understood, that the last 20 to 50 years of building school theaters with the last 6-8 years of tight money has created a lot of systems unmaintained, or at least poorly maintained. Fortunately we haven't seen much of rigging failures in national news, but the orchestra pit filler failures are a sign of this. More to come, I'm sure. Lucky that lighting and sound system failures rarely hurt people. I'm waiting for a shell ceiling to fall during a band concert.

 

[gafftaper]

Don't forget putting the loading bridge at the right height!

No doubt. Our lock rail is 20' over the deck and the loading bridge is at ~40 and is about a foot too high. Makes loading empty pipes interesting until you hit 60# or so.

My loading bridge is the same way. The bottoms of the arbors when flown all they way to the top, are about 6" below the loading bridge deck. So if an arbor is empty you have to sit on the floor and lean down to load. It's not exactly what I would call a safe design.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

My goal is to align to of arbor - bottom with loading bridge so when the pipe is empty there is usually 6" of weight so next weight is just above toe kick. If a long arbor with a lot of "empty" weight, like an electric with plug strip, double batten, and feeder - that may extend below bridge but usually full of weight to toe kick at least. Ditto shells. It seems so simple but I do spend a lot of time laying it out, feeding the structural engineer, and then checking his work as well as the fabricators. Hard lessen but just because you are real clear to everyone early about some things, in today's design and construction world the work will be passed though enumerable hands before complete, and may get changed at every point. Catwalk rails are the worst. We can put down reminders about elevations and pipe size at every step and still show up and they're wrong. Amazing.

 

[TheaterEd]

An empty arbor at my last school meant the only way to load from the top was to lie down and one arm the bricks out there....

I'm waiting for a shell ceiling to fall during a band concert.

This literally made me shudder. I don't even want to think about it. Glad I don't have one any more.

 

[StradivariusBone]

My loading bridge is the same way. The bottoms of the arbors when flown all they way to the top, are about 6" below the loading bridge deck. So if an arbor is empty you have to sit on the floor and lean down to load. It's not exactly what I would call a safe design.

Not to mention our arbors sit almost a foot away from the bridge itself. Loading/unloading is slow, careful, methodical work in our space, particularly on empty pipes. It's very difficult to keep your balance when you're leaning down to pick up 40#.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Is empty pipe weight or no weights at all?

Yes - distance from wall is big issue. I use 24" face of tee to edge of bridge, with a lot of detail time on the edge, like getting an verticals inboard. I wonder why the installers didn't just set the T further from the wall iin your case Strad. Other things preventing that?

You mention 40 pounds. I know it may be a PITA to some, but for OSHA repetitive lifting rules, we now say 25 pounds max for all cwt. With 6" weights, all basically 1". A little longer to load/unload but safer and less likely to have an injury or just pain from the work.

 

[StradivariusBone]

Is empty pipe weight or no weights at all?

Yes - distance from wall is big issue. I use 24" face of tee to edge of bridge, with a lot of detail time on the edge, like getting an verticals inboard. I wonder why the installers didn't just set the T further from the wall iin your case Strad. Other things preventing that?

You mention 40 pounds. I know it may be a PITA to some, but for OSHA repetitive lifting rules, we now say 25 pounds max for all cwt. With 6" weights, all basically 1". A little longer to load/unload but safer and less likely to have an injury or just pain from the work.

Pipe weight is about 8-10" below the top of the toe kick. Not sure on the distance of the T rail to the walls, it is built of precast concrete that were bolted together on site and is not flat, but has buttresses (wrong word, but I can't think of what they're called atm) about every 2-3' that jut out about 1.5'. That could have been a factor in attaching it to the walls. I'll have a closer look next time I go up there. I don't think the whomever installed the loading bridge and the t-tracks were the same companies.

We've got 20# and 40# iron, and most of the time I try to stack the 20#'s until it's at a safe height, but every once in a while we'll find a 40# on the bottom. That's actually our test for loading weights, if a kid can hold a 40# brick horizontal in front of their chest I'll let them load, but I always make them use 20's.

 

[robartsd]

but has buttresses (wrong word, but I can't think of what they're called atm)

I think you're talking about engaged columns (columns partially imbeded in a wall). Based on location, I doubt they are pilasters (non structural decorative columns on the face of a wall) or buttresses (sturctural elements primarily resisting lateral forces - unless your stage is in a basement and the wall is holding back the earth outside it).