Design Light Fixture Storage

[Goose]

Our school has been looking into storage for our lights. We have ETC Source 4's, ETC Par Can's, Cyc Lights and R40 strip lights. Im mainly looking for storage for the source 4's, par cans, and maybe some cyc lights (R40's would be nice to store but not as necessary). I am looking for some ideas on ways of storing these lights. I started to design a rack to store these on, but this is just an idea.

The rack will have wheels and possibly cable storage on the sides. The women is 6ft tall for comparison. Each round pipe has 3ft of space below it (except for the bottom two) to store a Source 4 and the rack is a little more than 6ft long.

 

[ScottT]

meat rack - ControlBooth

 

[derekleffew]

http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...y-transport-instruments-beside-meatracks.html
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/7174-meat-racks.html
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...ations/22021-help-its-mess-cable-storage.html
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/20950-i-need-help-our-meatracks.html

 

[dibbs]

We have racks that are 42 x 30 x 72. Some are 3you levels high and some are 2 levels high. Each level has 3the hanging bars. Smaller is nice because they fit thru doors and one person can push them.

 

[venuetech]

If this photo works....

you would see a rack that holds about 40 ers fixtures it would be about 6'6 long
It will need very heavy duty casters. and very good welding.

These were made for same floor storage so they never had to deal with "transport"

 

[Goose]

Try Number 2.

I like this rack because it is one large unit to store a lot of lights, but I feel it is too big and may not be strong enough. I think I am going to look into a smaller rack like the one above.

 

[josh88]

the problem with that is it is going to be really difficult to get to anything on those middle two bars. with things hanging on the outside you'll have to take some off to get to them (assuming they aren't all the same fixture) when you look at something like what venuetech posted those two racks probably have a footprint similar to your last picture, but you can swing one rack out and access both sides of both of them easily, storing just as many fixtures in the same space without having a lot of them stuck body to body in the middle.

 

[shiben]

Try Number 2.

I like this rack because it is one large unit to store a lot of lights, but I feel it is too big and may not be strong enough. I think I am going to look into a smaller rack like the one above.

the problem with that is it is going to be really difficult to get to anything on those middle two bars. with things hanging on the outside you'll have to take some off to get to them (assuming they aren't all the same fixture) when you look at something like what venuetech posted those two racks probably have a footprint similar to your last picture, but you can swing one rack out and access both sides of both of them easily, storing just as many fixtures in the same space without having a lot of them stuck body to body in the middle.

Go with a 3 pipe configuration. Works a bit better. The single pipe is ok but not as rigid. three is not really a problem. I would build one rack specifically designed for S4s, and another designed for S4 PARs, and another for cyc lights. Also would make them so that you could fit them in a truck neatly (whats the inside width of a trailer, 101" or something? Anyhow, given my druthers I would try and have them fit 3 in a semi short way across and all be the same length, so you could put other boxes and whatnot on next without having too much trouble. Give them a hard floor to catch things such as gel frames and anything that falls off during transport. Really big casters are your friends, and i would pay up and get nicer ones. Good casters are your friend on this sort of thing. Additionally, I would also build separate carts for cables if you want that, those get really heavy really fast and you will want a different configuration to those...

 

[derekleffew]

...Good casters are your friend on this sort of thing. ...

Seconded. The furniture casters shown in the drawing aren't going to cut it.

BTW, in the latest drawing, the PAR is hung correctly, the ellipsoidal is backwards. Why would anyone want to "reach around" the fixture to do/undo the c-clamp's pipe bolt?

 

[venuetech]

this is my R40 rack (in desperate need of new casters) As you can see in the photo I have a three pipe meat rack. It's wasted space as far as i am concerned. The center pipes are only good for dead storage. Especially the center bottom. I don't see much need for a floor on such a rack. I could never get such a big rack thru a single door.
Josh88 hit it on the head when he said

you can swing one rack out and access both sides of both of them easily, storing just as many fixtures in the same space without having a lot of them stuck body to body in the middle.

 

[Goose]

A lot of the ideas here make a lot of sense. The thing is it will not be transported besides on and off of the stage, and the size is big but the only place for storage of this rack is through huge double doors. Dead storage I don't see as a problem because we will organize them so you remove the front lights before the back ones (obviously). I sent the plans through already, but we still need the r40 storage so I need to design something for that.

 

[Toffee]

I always liked how we do it at my work with the storage pipe for the electrics above the race way that way we very rarely have to change weight. Our cat walk instruments are stored off to the side of the cats.

 

[Goose]

I always liked how we do it at my work with the storage pipe for the electrics above the race way that way we very rarely have to change weight. Our cat walk instruments are stored off to the side of the cats.

Our cheap school has no catwalk and the grid doesn't lower. We have to use a boom lift to hang lights. Also there is no way to hang the lights on our house electrics over the seats. It is a pain.

 

[shiben]

Seconded. The furniture casters shown in the drawing aren't going to cut it.

BTW, in the latest drawing, the PAR is hung correctly, the ellipsoidal is backwards. Why would anyone want to "reach around" the fixture to do/undo the c-clamp's pipe bolt?

Because the squint who put it on there is an ****hole and put it on backwards. They probably also tightened it with a wrench...