Safety Cables
- Thread starterchris325
- Start date
We have 54 working fixtures in our inventory (96 total) that we regularly use for shows. Last time I counted we had 11 safety cables. Two are pretty heavy duty, I think we "indefinitely borrowed" them from the digital media class' studio. The rest are okay, but two are used to hold up a drop in the SR wing from Fiddler on the Roof that was too nice to throw away. The only things we have safetied right now are the fixtures over the stage (cycs not included). Our FOH catwalk has a fence sorta thing, which is why I don't worry as much about those lights as I do about the others.
Safety cables are on my list of things to buy with the money we're getting soon.
Safety cables are on my list of things to buy with the money we're getting soon.
willbb123
Active Member
Every instrument that is not in storage, except for the cyc row. Instruments in storage dont get cabled, because of the way they are stored. They are on the inside of the catwalk. So if they were to drop off the pipe they would just hit the catwalk and stay.
Every accessory gets a safety cable. Except for our GAM twinspins, I have yet to find a good way to secure them.
Every accessory gets a safety cable. Except for our GAM twinspins, I have yet to find a good way to secure them.
Every fixture, every accessory, even on the ground. I leave safety cables on everything so that it is always there when needed and no one cuts corners while saying, "But I couldn't find one," even when they really mean, "I didn't want to look for one."
Our top hats have holes drilled in them for connecting safeties, as well as our barn doors. The only things that don't get them are template holders, gels, gel frames, and I've found no good way to give extra security to my image multiplexers.
I do have an issue when we hang our Altman R40 border lights though and have no good way to safety them.
Our top hats have holes drilled in them for connecting safeties, as well as our barn doors. The only things that don't get them are template holders, gels, gel frames, and I've found no good way to give extra security to my image multiplexers.
I do have an issue when we hang our Altman R40 border lights though and have no good way to safety them.
With striplights, I've been known to chain 2 or 3 safeties together and wrap them all the way around the fixture and batten in two different places. I've seen people who safety striplights by just wrapping around the point where the 'tilt' bolt goes in securing it to the hanging iron... but since I consider this the most likely point of failure for major mechanical disaster, I don't trust that. Wrapping the whole fixture and batten isn't pretty close up, but who cares?
And I'm also with the 'safeties really need to stay on every light all the time unless they pose a safety risk themself (shins, where they could be a trip hazard, as an example) because in my experience, tired electricians at the end of the day won't go find a safety if it's not there already... almost everyone will fasten it if it's on the light, but a lot of people won't go track one down if it's not there waiting for them.... be it from laziness or forgetfullness.
You know, I've never actually had to have a safety save a light... I've heard people say they have, but the only unit I've ever seen dropped fell as an electrician was getting ready to hang it when the safety wasn't yet attached... so couldn't do any good. But I'm quite certain that if a light ever did fall out of the sky and hurt someone, the FIRST question asked of anyone who'd drafted it, prepped it, hung it, focussed it, or even just walked close by it would be 'DID IT HAVE A SAFETY CABLE?' And if you say no, the hunt to assign blame for the accident just ended right there with you. Why would you expose yourself to that kind of risk to save a very few dollars or seconds?
Art Whaley
Art Whaley Design
And I'm also with the 'safeties really need to stay on every light all the time unless they pose a safety risk themself (shins, where they could be a trip hazard, as an example) because in my experience, tired electricians at the end of the day won't go find a safety if it's not there already... almost everyone will fasten it if it's on the light, but a lot of people won't go track one down if it's not there waiting for them.... be it from laziness or forgetfullness.
You know, I've never actually had to have a safety save a light... I've heard people say they have, but the only unit I've ever seen dropped fell as an electrician was getting ready to hang it when the safety wasn't yet attached... so couldn't do any good. But I'm quite certain that if a light ever did fall out of the sky and hurt someone, the FIRST question asked of anyone who'd drafted it, prepped it, hung it, focussed it, or even just walked close by it would be 'DID IT HAVE A SAFETY CABLE?' And if you say no, the hunt to assign blame for the accident just ended right there with you. Why would you expose yourself to that kind of risk to save a very few dollars or seconds?
Art Whaley
Art Whaley Design
renegadeblack
Active Member
I personally view it as a hazard that is punishable by law. Is it? I don't know. Do the techies I'm training know? I tell them that its punishable by law. Do they safety everything? You bet!
When I was back in middle school, we didn't know what these cables were that came with the rental lights. He told us that they're safety cables and that you only put them on rental lights
When I was back in middle school, we didn't know what these cables were that came with the rental lights. He told us that they're safety cables and that you only put them on rental lights
mnfreelancer
Active Member
What's the latest practice on "new generation" clamps for lighting that are rated and not cast iron? The Mega-claw and mega-clamp don't pose the same risk of cracking like the old cast iron c-clamps do. I have the tendency to want to safety anything clamped to a pipe because it's cheap, easy and fast. We often use airwall track hangers in hotel ballrooms that are rated and use american made bolts. There's no-where to safety to other than another expensive airwall track hanger so we usually just trust in the rated hardware since there is no clamp involved at all, just the cold rolled steel yoke and the rated rigging hardware, and the track that holds up many hundred pounds of acoustic airwall.
In talking about all of these "grounders" even though they are not in the air they are still dangerous. Mak sure you tell actors that there is a fixture there and that you put bright gaff tape to frame it to show there is something there.
Didnt feel like reading all of them so if this was already mentioned. sorry
Didnt feel like reading all of them so if this was already mentioned. sorry
Hopefully copper not aluminum oval sleeves and crimped three not two times in following the crimp pattern in not attempting to crimp the center crimp following the ones on the ends last - or you gonna break your tool or at least get it out of alignment in no-longer having proper crimps. This and in crimping your own, you have every few times checked the crimps against the go/no-go gauge so as to confirm not too tight or loose. If out of adjustment such crimps are thrown out until the tool is either serviced or replaced & there ain't a lot of places that will fix the tool but some will do so. Proper safety cables... I normally buy the standard ones, other than that me or those personally trained and checked up on by me in their doing so "did you check it against the go/no-go gauge.... I take as a very important thing to verify. Easy to make, perfer to buy them but if made it's to be verified as good.
One in general would assume this pole was waist high at least in it being perfectly valid not to safety a floor base fixture.
My garage by the way ain't safety cabled so should I change my results? This much less stuff on a C-Stand, floor base etc. at work ain't either.
So here is a good sub-question, if your manufacturer made safety cables have more than 1/8" of the dead end of the wire rope hanging out, outside of the crimp, what do you do about such stragglers which could even if seemily tinned become TBA needles to the fingers if not tinned as well as good?
Dremmell cut away the extra strands, tape them or deal with them (assuming sending back ain't an option)? Just recently had a few safety cables come on especially of the silver type that I didn't like in having longer dead ends hanging out of the crimp than normal or what I would call properly crimped. Seemingly the dead ends are tinned in thory not fraying but tinning a safety cable ain't always done very well.
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We're TRYING to get safeties on everything in the air. We said we needed more and they sent maintnance over with some cheap chinese chain and locking carbiners. They forgot to put carbiners on half the chains (wraping a chain works, right?). And the half they put on we can't get off when we need to move the lights (I believe a couple have been broken off-- with bare hands none the less). The actual safeties that we have are all in use though.
