stupidist mistakes

[mlacy]

All right, here goes nothing, from oldest to newest:
Our auditorium was done over in grand fashion on a shoestring budget. We were fortunate enough to get an entirely new light and sound system, a complete sourcefour, fresnel and roundel package with two full electrics.

1. When we first got the system, nobody knew how to run it, other than using the faders that had been standard on the previous board.

2. Patching dimmers to channels took about six months, because nobody could find the manual for the etc express 24/48 board we have.

3. never try to stop the fall of a fixture...one of the fresnels decided to unhook itself, leaving it attached to a safety cable (looped around the clamp and electric in case of emergency) dangling in the air. we have no catwalks, so a 20' ladder was bought for repairs and riggings of this nature. someone was assigned to catch it if it did slip (not smart, but i had nothing to do with that one), but we didn't know any better way back when.

4. The architectural sliders are evil during a show: we have no protection on them, so during our first performance with the new system (Footloose), an audience member leans up against them, turning the house lights on. we spent the better part of a week trying to get them to turn off again.

5. Learning how to disconnect the wall stations in #4 without bothering to figure out how to reconnect them (now we know how to do it, so we're prepared to turn off the more conspicous ones for performances).

6. Having a ladder knocked out from underneath you while hanging onto an electric 20' in the air above a stage (which was just refinished)...it didnt happen to me, but the person who taught me how to run the system

7. Having a hoist line snap while leviating a fixture to the first electric...good thing there was a table underneath where it ended up dropping on...minor damage

8. Sparking a followspot by giving it lower-than-normal voltage through a dimmer (we created an edison-to-stage pin adapter and plugged the spot into it)....it was about that time we discovered patching profiles.

9. Opening curtains that hadn't been in twenty years...there's a loft stage right where a lot of our old band instruments are kept. it has one window that always stays shuttered. for some reason, we needed to mount some fixtures to the bottom of the window (don't ask me how this was accomplished or what we were doing) and the shade fell down on top of the lights, melting the shade.

10. Make sure when you play CDs in a sound system that all components are on, and when you shut the door, antennas for the wireless mics are inside the door....we've lost two of our four antennas that way

11. When changing zones at the architectural processor (Unison racks), make sure nobody's around: whenever you change a preset or zone, all dimmers turn off. i did this during a rehearsal, and after explaining what I did to the director, was let off with just a warning.

12. Although not recommended, a hammer works wonders on loosening a bolt on a $500 fixture that seems like it needs an act of God in order to be adjusted. Just don't hit too hard.

13. I learned the hard way why you take homemade gobos out of a fixture when you're done with them....let's just say the fixture started leaking something other than heat.

14. Whacking a focused light with a ladder. This was the most recent one, and possibly the worst one...considering the lamp blew and the entire fixture did a 360....how do you bench focus a source four? some tips would be appreciated!

 

[RelativeMischief]

Was working a club gig a couple years back and my co-worker was getting the lighting rig up. The dimmer we brought was being powere by a 100amp 3ph service (camlock connectors). Buddy grounds the dimmer, then with his hand on the metal chassis of the dimmer, picks up the first hot line. He had about 208V @ 30amps go from his right arm to his left. Luckily he was thrown back by the jolt not frozen. Forever known as the "Flying Frenchman" afterwards.

When you've got two 3000w strobes powered from a wall socket, don't use the "blinder" button too often.

Speaking of strobes:

LD to Stage Tech: "I think the lamp in the strobe is gone, can you go check?" ... While Tech holds strobe up to face LD presses blinder button. Turns out the fixture was fine, even if the Tech couldn't see for 10 minutes.

I was running an outdoor gig last summer, 2x2 powere mackie rig with single 18s for subs. One of the subs had a small stress fracture but I figured with all the cars going by and the fact that the sub was quiet but not nessecarily sounding bad, I'd let it go. Didn't cross my mind at all that the fracture might get bigger after more use. The best word to describe the woofer when I got back to the shop would be, "Disintegrated".

 

[ship]

9. Opening curtains that hadn't been in twenty years...there's a loft stage right where a lot of our old band instruments are kept. it has one window that always stays shuttered. for some reason, we needed to mount some fixtures to the bottom of the window (don't ask me how this was accomplished or what we were doing) and the shade fell down on top of the lights, melting the shade.!

Story time, everybody bring your sleeping mats about me!

I remember now a dumb mistake by me given this. Long story but perhaps of value in setting up a stupid mistake but also some history of what is still out there in the industry. Or what when bad is really bad.

A 1926 opera house I once worked at had a gallery above the stage with four non-lockable counter balance linesets for the electrics / more or less permanently installed boarder lights, in addition to the pin-rail hemp type linesets. Only four real counter balance fly system linesets original to the house. It of course was a hemp/sand bag wing and drop house and these boarder lights in being balanced were always in balance so there was no need to lock them or prevent them from becoming a fly away given they stopped about eight feet from the deck. (Just high enough that if you did wish to use them and remove the fixtures, they would be a real pain in the rear for pipes even still. Suppose that’s why they abandoned them) Sure a 26' long section of boarder light with perhaps only one break, - four of the linesets and no room to add more lights to the pipes so they had not been touched since probably the '1950's or 1970's at best since they were useless pipes and no longer even attached to power.

Place still used it's origional cloth covered multi-cable drop lines, just now to the newer electrics. Long story about attempting to do grounding, much less the isolated grounding balls used to ensure the fly system did not become live given a lack of ground on the new bronze sash cord to solve problems in a hemp system but not that of the lack of ground in the drop lines. Let’s just say how much are these iso ground in between pipe and fly line things rated for in load rating and how old are they? (Still have no idea of where they came from or who made them and when.) This much less in the theater how it was yes, grounding was only on newer fixtures not that it went anywhere but thru the wire rope holding up the lights when the balls were not used. Wooden A-frame ladders on caster platforms were constant in use of course so you were high resistance as a theory. Most shorts thus were never known in the olden days as a theory or shock to the system. Nobody shocked thus falling off the ladder in dying or getting seriously hurt was a good selling point for not changing it. After all other fixtures where perhaps the neutral also shorted to ground installed on the pipe but not active thus becomes a ground better for you thus while you might feel a slight tingle, overall, the system does get a ground or is isolated in short. Great stuff these non-grounded and iso ball equipment systems. They do work as long as enough equipment has problems as the one having the short. So if say more than one fixture has a hot to fixture casing problem, it still is a ground in going thru the filament of the lamp by way than while not powered up thus also going to ground to some extent. As long as you don’t touch something or another pipe with less resistance to ground - say a pipe without Iso rigging system stopping of grounding by way of them balls - so the wire rope in the fly system does not become a conductor and short while also being load bearing cables, and it than provides a better path of lest resistance other than thru the filament of a lamp of the bar with a problem - given a second fixture with a problem on it, you are completely safe.

These all techie things with the fly system beside the point, at some point I had found a contractor constructed candle holder still attached to the structure of the building and ready to use. Imagine, crawling around over the top of the proscenium and finding a candle ready to use, much less the use of it to light your way while constructing the building. No light bulbs in bolting or plastering something, just a candle. It’s still up in the ceiling should anyone find it in later years. This was an old place still using it’s original asbestos fire curtain and fixture whips much less as you sat on the toilet and people walked above you on the stage you were showered in a little silvery haze of stuff coming off the plumbing pipes above you also asbestos coated but painted given certain holes in the coating. Plug in the over the fly gallery installed index light - in the wrong way (really old porcelain plug attached to a really old porcelain outlet) and your fly system was electrified by way of the C-Clamps attaching it to the safety pipe over head. Given it was grounded somehow - no doubt the frame of the theater or really old wood on stage, you never knew until you touched metal to metal and saw sparks. Somehow that wee short in the index light just had never been gotten to fixing - after all if plugged in right there was no problems with it.

About this boarder light, while at some point the rope to the battens was replaced by bronze bright sash cord - SWL of about 200# per line. (Less abrasive on a hemp block than GAC steel wire rope as a hack past done techie secret originating in the 1950's in the days of great theater but also using malleable wire rope clips and other techniques that were not as safe but are still culturally considered as premium real theater days - set off the train stage screws and jacks type of stuff in shows loading in and making great art.) These boarder lights were only using about three wire rope cables per pipe - that's about maxing it out per line on each fixture. The hand lines much less wire rope had been sitting idle for years upon years. The hand lines were now at least 1/2" thick, totally fibrous and rotten. Not telling how thick they originally were but there was lots of slack in the hand line. This in addition to a certain specific lack of lock to these battens - no lock at all, since they were in balance, apparently nobody ever thought they needed a locking mechanism for them. Given this, such things were always in the way and never used. Always in the way of the next show loading in but they neither could use them nor have anything in the area that might bump them - just change your design to compensate for what is there and cannot be moved. My task was to remove them while making as safe as possible the rest of the fly system on a low budget type of safety upgrade.

In getting to the point finally - hope the above description was of interest, I of course just pulled on the first hand line so as to bring down and remove the first fixture or at least access it given we were going to use a few techies as ballast for it once the fixture was removed so as to safely bring the pipe back up and de-rig it. Had a crew of six and long lines ready to be attached to the pipe so all will have been well in removing the pipe and donut weights later. Donut stage weights - turn them in just the right direction and give them a bounce and on the single arbor bar and they fall if bumped quite effectively. Who will have thunk it or come up with a better idea back in the days of sand bags? I had donut weights growing out of my ears but not enough steel to rig shows given a fly system using at least four different types of weights.

Got the first pipe moving, in fact got it moving than the hand line decided to break. Who will have thunk it? Hmm, ½" thick hand line that’s rotten and stretched out, much less had not been moved in years breaking once pulled upon. To confound this my hands pulling the line and making the wheels move hit me squarely upon the head. Dooh! Yep, stupid mistake, and while the hemp line pooled around me as it fell, the last part of the hemp line also hit me upon the noggin to just cross all “T’s in this being a stupid thing to do. Gee, MR. Master Rigger, perhaps this lineset might not have been so wise to trust your hands tugging upon.

Ok, it was not the classic run away in it being something that crashes to the deck or grid, arbor bending and stage weights falling everywhere, instead it was more like I got this thing running at 36" per minute but no way to stop it now that it was moving and the hand line was pooling about me. More than enough time for the most wheel chair bound person (as if ADA were invented for a stage in the 1920's), to still find time for a smoke break and get out of the way safely in time. Urr, ... this thing is out of control... get out of the way... Lost major Ego points in this hand line coiling about the top of my head, much less while we waited for the thing to crash and nothing to do about it, waited and waited for the boarder light to stop moving.

No problem, great engineering on very heavy duty hand made bolts about, the thing did not do any damage once it stopped moving. So what did I do, I of course did the same with the other three linesets. Only one more broke and it broke as I tugged on it but before the batten moved.

Ah’ what a way to start the day. Were it not so out of budget/time/thought/inexperience in calling myself a Master Rigger, that perhaps a rope that had not been used in 20 years old might break, I will have perhaps first replaced it or rigged it safely. Nope, get the job done was on my mind up until and even after the rope coiled about my head. Dumb in even trusting the at the time 70 year old bolts for the system without a very good inspection of them or in general the concept of them holding tight one last time.

System was removed and in general safety was or at least better safety factor was done during my era, but as a Master Rigger - professionally, much less in general, my learning curve could have killed some people. I did my best but what I did not know or consider was insufficient for once the thing got moving what damage it could have done. Did my best within budget but is budget a real factor in rigging? Did my best to the best of my understanding yet was young enough to trust a rotten hemp rope where expediant. Lots of lessons here in stupid mistakes, also in humor teorized, a sense of concept or scope of such things one is not in calling oneself master of really having mastered that should weigh on the brain before hand. TD of your show... are you really the TD' in having done all the math, or just some term for the person running the show by way of seat of the pants?

 

[saxman0317]

i was working with ropelights for our musical last year. (jesus christ superstar) and i pluged one in, somethinig wasnt working so i unpluged it. but i really didnt i just pulled the cap off of the edison plug. thus revealing the fuse. i didnt realizethis tho. so i went again to unplug it and i grabed a huge hand full of live electricity. the funniest sound ive ever made.

same one we did...got any pics?

But as for stupid mistakes...before spending about and hour rerunning cables and checking batteries and going crazy, make sure your receivers are on...

 

[nez]

as greg has mentioned we did jc and well we had a sweet kick ass tunnel system right and well i had made it so lights shine out of it when it is open and well i hade to redo the pluges on them cuz they were either twist lock or didnt have a plug at all and well that was last year and now this year just recently i have come to find out our schools insurance will not cover anything made by a student so if somting would have gone wrong holy crap but lucky not a thing did thank the lord

 

[Thranduil]

I had a nice classic run away yesterday. We had some strip lights(4) on a pipe that i needed for a part of the musical. The lights had been used as works before, so it wasnt a huge problem to get rid of them. So i flew them in, took em off with two other people. Now at this point im going to alert you that we dont have a weight loading gallery, or a grid of any sort. I had the line set wrapped and tied off, and untied, unlocked and was able to with the two other people get in in alot. we had about 2-3 feet left, and couldnt wrap the ropes anymore, when it slipped out of our hands, and it flew straight down, hitting one of the guide wire connectors and cutting one of the guide wires. All weights stayed in place, and no one was hurt, aside from the arbor grazing my finger as i pushed people away. That was my stupidist mistake. Could have been fixed by havign just one more person there, to brake on and off slowly.

 

[Chris15]

aside from the arbor grazing my finger as i pushed people away.

I am guessing from the fact that you grazed your finger that you were not wearing gloves. Perhaps they might help to reduce injuries in the future?

 

[Thranduil]

we generally have a no gloves near rail policy because idiots tend to get things caught, and i dont like to set examples for this, also even with gloves 400 lbs hitting the tip of your finger at speed is gonna hurt.

 

[Chris15]

I would tend to think that idiots should not be anywhere near the fly rail. I like my hands in their current condition, so I tend to wear gloves when there is the chance of damage to the hands. So I would say that stopping rope burn and reducing, for what of a better word, splinters caused by the manila rope. A well fitting pair of gloves would be good for OH&S. Idiots should not be near the fly rail and so should not have the opportunity to get anything caught. If not for getting things caught, fly systems can kill and so for that reason, people need to be kept away anyhow.

It might be that in your situation that the use of gloves is not appropriate, but in general, I would prefer to protect my hands.