bobgaggle
Well-Known Member
After looking over some old threads on rigging safety I wanted to know this community's opinion about rigging. IMO there are many different degrees of rigging in theatre, from simply tying a drop onto a pipe all the way up to installing new line sets. When I was in school almost all of my rigging knowledge came from hands on experience with my teachers in a theater. We learned all the basics: how to properly load an arbor, hang a sandbag (one of our theatres was a hemp house), hang a new pipe, attach whatever set piece to said pipe etc. In my experience these are all tasks that a technician would and should know.
The way I see it, there are things that a competent technician can do safely and there are things that they cant. My question is where to draw the line between the two. This forum has clearly said "if you're not sure, call a pro", and has had many discussions regarding liability and responsibility, but at what point does the TD or whoever say, "I know what I'm doing, but this should be done by someone certified."
I ask this because I've kind of confused myself. I recently got a few more books (mech. design for the stage, rigging math, structural design for stage) in an effort to stay fresh on the knowledge I'm not using currently in my job. (we have an 11' ceiling so we're hardly doing any rigging). In Rigging Math, I've learned how to compute the stresses on the legs of a bridle. In school I learned about proper safety factors and the differences in wire rope construction and WLL's, but not about how to properly make a hanging point using a bridle. After doing this studying, coupled with my hands on experience, I feel confident that I could hang something off bridled points and know that everything has been rigged within the limits of the hardware and adhering to a good safety factor.....but should I?
At what point do you feel like you've reached the end of your abilities?
The way I see it, there are things that a competent technician can do safely and there are things that they cant. My question is where to draw the line between the two. This forum has clearly said "if you're not sure, call a pro", and has had many discussions regarding liability and responsibility, but at what point does the TD or whoever say, "I know what I'm doing, but this should be done by someone certified."
I ask this because I've kind of confused myself. I recently got a few more books (mech. design for the stage, rigging math, structural design for stage) in an effort to stay fresh on the knowledge I'm not using currently in my job. (we have an 11' ceiling so we're hardly doing any rigging). In Rigging Math, I've learned how to compute the stresses on the legs of a bridle. In school I learned about proper safety factors and the differences in wire rope construction and WLL's, but not about how to properly make a hanging point using a bridle. After doing this studying, coupled with my hands on experience, I feel confident that I could hang something off bridled points and know that everything has been rigged within the limits of the hardware and adhering to a good safety factor.....but should I?
At what point do you feel like you've reached the end of your abilities?