Conventional Fixtures Do you use a fixture's "integral safety attachment point"?

Do you use a fixture's "integral safety attachment point"?

  • Yes, always.

    Votes: 21 19.6%
  • Sometimes.

    Votes: 52 48.6%
  • No, never.

    Votes: 37 34.6%
  • What's a "safety"?

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • Total voters
    107
We just rented a couple S4's for an outdoor gig from Mainstage Theatrical Supply, and they had a permanent cable attached to the fixture. It was swagged to the yoke though, not the safety point.
 
If I utilized that safety point more I would probably piss people off. Considering most people striking lights are not really familiar with lighting. Hmmm Sounds like a good idea.
 
I put sometimes because the multiple theatres that I work in do it differently. At school, (UNC) and at the UCCC we just go around the yoke. But at the SCFAC, we use the integral safety point...
 
My answer is yes always and sometimes because of different fixtures such as Par 64s and such.. most of the time I make a loop through the safety point and through the yoke and around the pipe clipping back onto the noose so I feel protected against clamp and yoke failure.. maybe it's overkill and I can't imagine some of these clutches or bolts shearing, but I live in south central Illinois and we had a quake with aftershocks here a few months ago.. nothing fell but quite a few lamps were pretty loose up there, so I'm glad I had safeties on everything.. don't mean to be such a dork, but it's just the right way to do things I think.
 
My answer is yes always and sometimes because of different fixtures such as Par 64s and such.. most of the time I make a loop through the safety point and through the yoke and around the pipe clipping back onto the noose so I feel protected against clamp and yoke failure.. maybe it's overkill and I can't imagine some of these clutches or bolts shearing, but I live in south central Illinois and we had a quake with aftershocks here a few months ago.. nothing fell but quite a few lamps were pretty loose up there, so I'm glad I had safeties on everything.. don't mean to be such a dork, but it's just the right way to do things I think.

Through the safety point and yoke...... How long are your safeties everyone I've ever used you wouldn't have much slack left for focusing.
 
I don't know "yoke joint", but the Strand series below (on the left, LEKO with a star in the "O") had the attachment (two actually) on the side of the body, opposite the tilt-lock. Clever design, but I pissed off others when I used it.

My EC Parellisphere has a non-forged eye-bolt just behind the top shutter, 'course it weighs about 30 lbs. It may have been the first theatrical fixture to have an attachment point. Film/TV fixtures (Mole-Richardson, Bardwell-McCallister, et al.) had them for years before that.

Hello all. I'm new here as of tonight but I couldn't pass this one up. I worked in a venue 15 years ago with about 50 EC Parellispheres and had an interesting experience. We safetied the units via the yoke usually, but my boss was in the Upright lift hanging a unit and it was yet to be safetied. He tightened down the Altman Iron C-Clamp and it broke. The 30 LB Parellisphere fell to the ground from about 18' and shattered into about 785 pieces. It happened to slice the bill of my baseball cap on the way down. I was a lucky fool!

C-Clamp failure IS the most common cause of falling units. Integral saftey points can be good, but falling C-Clamps have severely hurt people too. If you really want to get anal, the C-Clamp should have two integral safety points, one on top and one on the bottom. The yoke should have one on the left and one on the right, and the unit should have one on the body and one on the barrel, or lens train, as appropriate.

Me, I'll just saftey to the yoke like I and everyone in every theater I've ever worked in has been doing since the beginning of time.

As for accessories, like scrollers or barndoors, PLEASE safety those all of the time. I've seen more of them fall then anything else in a theater.

Jb
 
...If you really want to get anal, the C-Clamp should have two integral safety points, one on top and one on the bottom. The yoke should have one on the left and one on the right, and the unit should have one on the body and one on the barrel, or lens train, as appropriate...
Far be it from me to "get anal", butt...
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...a C-Clamp with built-in safety cable. The Hangtuff™ by L&E.
 
I was messing around with some lights today and thinking about this thread and had what I think is a GREAT idea of how to attach a safety cable.

1) Pop one side of the yoke off and slide the loop end onto the yoke. This way every fixture always has a safety cable attached... no excuse not to safety.
2) Hang fixture.
3) Pass safety cable around batten.
4) On the way back around and pass the snap link THROUGH the loop which is attached to the yoke. This creates a choke around the batten and sort of a half choke around the yoke at the same time.
5) Pull some of the slack through... not too tight.
6) Snap onto integral safety attachment.

It's a little slower than some methods but I think it's a really safe while keeping the cable permanently attached to the fixture. What do you think?

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I have a feeling that most safety cables would not be long enough for that trick to work on all but the most straight down of focuses but if you had a source for longer ones you would have some.
 
I actually just looped safety cables through all of our safety points on our S4's. As a school, we have too much difficulty with lights being hung without cables, or the cables wandering off, and with the general risk that a student fails to safely hang a light, I need to know those lights aren't going anywhere if something happens. It's a little different for those who have more assurance each light is hung with a cable and is strongly held on by its c-clamp.
 
I have a feeling that most safety cables would not be long enough for that trick to work on all but the most straight down of focuses but if you had a source for longer ones you would have some.

My safety cables are nothing fancy, at first it looked like it was too far to reach but when you snug that choke down a little (but again you don't have to choke it tight) there is surprisingly a lot of room. It only takes slightly more cable than choking the batten and clipping to the safety point, which apparently is the official way you are supposed to use them. I bet I can do anywhere from straight down to 90 degrees.
 
As mentioned before, we have detached one side of the yoke and passed the loop end thru it. That way there is always a safety with the instruments. I love this method, becasue the is no excuse, however we have found that when the instruments are NOT hung, there is an issue of the safety actually becoming a hazard. We have had numerous people trip by putting their foot thru a looped safety while the fixture was on the ground waiting to be hung.
 
As mentioned before, we have detached one side of the yoke and passed the loop end thru it. That way there is always a safety with the instruments. I love this method, becasue the is no excuse, however we have found that when the instruments are NOT hung, there is an issue of the safety actually becoming a hazard. We have had numerous people trip by putting their foot thru a looped safety while the fixture was on the ground waiting to be hung.


I just pulled that tip off of a nearby ETCP rigger when he was in here doing an install last week. We do that on our Strand 6" Fresnelites, passing the yoke through the loop at the end of each safety, and then we run the cable through the handle on the back too. I'd much prefer if there was an integral attachment point on those fresnels though.

I did only recently start using the integral attachment point on all of my S4's. If you want to preserve focus range and secure both the yoke at the fixture, then pass the loop-end of the cables through the attachment point, then unbolt the yoke and pass the loop onto the yoke, then put the bolt back on. Then secure the carabiner-end of the cable over the object your mounting to via a single choker hitch.

That method pummels the arguments of anyone who says they don't secure their fixtures using the point because they find it too difficult to focus that way.
 
As mentioned before, we have detached one side of the yoke and passed the loop end thru it. That way there is always a safety with the instruments. I love this method, becasue the is no excuse, however we have found that when the instruments are NOT hung, there is an issue of the safety actually becoming a hazard. We have had numerous people trip by putting their foot thru a looped safety while the fixture was on the ground waiting to be hung.

Stand the instrument straight up and wrap the cable around the cap of the instrument a time and a half. That should take care of your extra cable problems.

Or we can all just buy Selecon's with the integrated safety cable retractors. They don't have it on all their instruments but it's a cool feature. See that knob on top, it's attached to one end of the safety cable. It slides in a track on top. The safety cable sticks out the back. You release the knob and let out as little or much cable as you need.
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I love my Selecon Fresnels!
 
While we were cleaning instruments, I got to thinking - For S-4's and the like, has anyone tried adding a second clip to a safety cable, maybe a load bearing locking carabiner? For those complaining about not having enough slack to work, you could still easily clip the cable in the shape of a 9. The carabiner keeps the cable secure so you don't lose it, and are only a couple of bucks a piece from a theatrical supply store. Little to no loss of focus range, and still quick when hanging/striking.
 
The only problem with a clip on each end, is both must be captive, for if they are removable and can be lost, they will be lost. Until the end of the Series 200 line, Vari*Lite supplied a very nice vinyl-coated cable with rated clips at each end with every fixture and repeater. They only cost about five times as much as a standard conventional safety.
 
I actually just looped safety cables through all of our safety points on our S4's. As a school, we have too much difficulty with lights being hung without cables, or the cables wandering off, and with the general risk that a student fails to safely hang a light, I need to know those lights aren't going anywhere if something happens. It's a little different for those who have more assurance each light is hung with a cable and is strongly held on by its c-clamp.

One of the advantages of being a crew of 1 is that I don't have this issue. Of course the down side is that if a fixture is missing it's safety cable, I know who's at fault.
 

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