Binding carrier mice

For the show we are doing, there is a full stage curtain that must be walked across the deck rather quickly. It is currently hung on a traveler track and the carrier mice are continually binding, making the movement jagged at best. I have tried tape on the track, adding more grommets and mice, and threading a rope through all the carriers, all to little or no effect. I am not sure what else to attempt. I cannot put the curtain on a sheave and pully because it must fully track offstage on both Stage Left and Stage Right. Anyone have any ideas about this?
 
Better quality track and carriers is probably the best answer but living with what you have, does it cause this problem both pushing and pulling? And are you just grabbing the fabric? For walk along, a tow rope tied to master carrier works and to open it, you might try a mid span tow rope and second person. It's more a behavior when the carriers are in contact. Closing - tow rope and one person pulling. Opening, two people off stage pulling open into a stack.

PS - you could extend track into wings and use normal traverse rigging.
 
Better quality track and carriers is probably the best answer but living with what you have, does it cause this problem both pushing and pulling? And are you just grabbing the fabric? For walk along, a tow rope tied to master carrier works and to open it, you might try a mid span tow rope and second person. It's more a behavior when the carriers are in contact. Closing - tow rope and one person pulling. Opening, two people off stage pulling open into a stack.

PS - you could extend track into wings and use normal traverse rigging.


Pulling isn't a problem usually. Mostly it's pushing that is more problematic. Yes, we are just grabbing the fabric. Our designer wasn't keen on any ropes being used with the curtain. It tracks all the way from one side of the stage to the other as part of show transitions.
 
Pulling isn't a problem usually. Mostly it's pushing that is more problematic. Yes, we are just grabbing the fabric. Our designer wasn't keen on any ropes being used with the curtain. It tracks all the way from one side of the stage to the other as part of show transitions.
@Gregganator Perhaps you, or a couple of big bully boys, need to explain the realities of life to your designer. @derekleffew Care to comment??
Toodleoo!
Ron ( posting from the reality of Canada ) Hebbard
 
Did anyone else read the title as "blinding carrier mice"? Never heard them called mice before.

Building on the tow rope idea...can you wrap the leading edge of the goods around the rope thus hiding it? I've had a similar problem with gossamer fabric that's actually not heavy enough to keep the carriers properly oriented. ISTR adding a small (3-5 lb.) sandbag just below the master carrier.

If expense is no object (ha!)...motorize the whole thing and have the actor mime the action.
I'll never forget how "deceived" I felt once when seeing an opera (Chicago Lyric's Madame Butterfly) whereby a bunch of black-costumed "ninjas" would come onstage and pull ropes to turn a huge revolve; afterwards the LD told me the whole thing was motorized.:(
 
When you say 'Mice'.....

Is this an I-beam track? If it's an I-beam track then as soon as you get the carrier tilted at a certain angle the frame of the carrier is going to bind against the bottom of the track. you have to increase the weight on each carrier or make sure you are pulling down at the same time as pushing off.

Change to a box track, Get taller stagehands that can push higher up on the curtain, make a stick that allows you to push higher up on the curtain, Attach a tow rope to the master carrier and use that to pull the stack off stage.
 
Pulling isn't a problem usually. Mostly it's pushing that is more problematic. Yes, we are just grabbing the fabric. Our designer wasn't keen on any ropes being used with the curtain. It tracks all the way from one side of the stage to the other as part of show transitions.

Then two people off stage to pull open or across stage, so the carriers don't bind against each other. Just don't push. And tie the tow rope several carriers back from edge so it stays hidden behind.

I never heard term mice for carriers before either. Tormentors anyone?
 
You wouldn't have to motorize it to fake the walk-along operation, just use standard traveler pull technology.
I think given the description of one piece as I understand, it goes all the way from all stacked stage left to closed to all stacked stage right, the handline is going to sag a lot, no matter how you tension it. It can be a problem on a big bi-parting traveler when its supported mid stage. Maybe if the wall to wall is in the 30-40' range, but I doubt that.
 
I think given the description of one piece as I understand, it goes all the way from all stacked stage left to closed to all stacked stage right, the handline is going to sag a lot, no matter how you tension it. It can be a problem on a big bi-parting traveler when its supported mid stage. Maybe if the wall to wall is in the 30-40' range, but I doubt that.

A potential solution to this would be to continue the webbing and carriers basically triple the width of the stage to support the hand line, assuming your carriers allow the line to pass through them.
Assuming a stage width of 20' (following the hand line) this would look like:
Dead-end pulley--20' of single carriers and webbing--master carrier--drop--master carrier--20' of single carriers and webbing--live end pulley--tensioned floor block--back up to the live end pulley and through some eye bolts or something all the way across to the dead end pulley.

IMG_3041.JPG
 
Except triple the stack space which would often be a problem. 20' curtain will have 50" of stack X 3 - over 12' - and 3 X the noise plus and potential cost of carriers.
 
Sounds to me like your carriers may not match your track. I never heard them referred to as "mice" before, but I can see why they could be called that...

If the carriers twist (rotate horizontally around the pin that holds the curtain) at all as the curtain is pulled from the floor, the wheels can bind in the track until enough force is applied to unbind the carrier wheel. A cheap solution might be to rip shims (out of 1/8" maso, maybe UHMW tape, etc?) and run them vertically on the inside of the outer walls of the track such that the carriers are pulled in a more uniformly direction with less chance to bind. The trick is finding out exactly what thickness this shim needs to be in order to better constrain the carriers without also binding them up.

How tall is this curtain? Is this standard EDC track? Does this binding happen in the same place every time? Are there any kinks or bends in your track?

I don't know that I buy this "the designer doesn't want to use rope" reasoning. As others have pointed out, there are lots of instances where it can LOOK actor-vated on stage but is actually rigged or controlled offstage (more consistent that way, too). Besides which, surely this curtain has to gather somewhere when it's offstage, even if it does travel the full width of your space, so there's already automatically space for a floor-operated rope line to be rigged and masked from being seen. Do you not have the right hardware? Not enough crew? Admittedly, it's simpler to just hang a curtain on track carriers rather than rig it but it's definitely more efficient in operation; as the rope line helps align all the carriers in a single direction and minimizes the twisting possibilities.

Good luck,
 

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