[SML] Tripping

[Stephen Litterst]

On 9/15/15 11:49 AM, Keith Newman via Stagecraft wrote:
  What I am not sure of is if
> we were to trip a drop, do we need a center or multiple center lift
> lines for the bottom pipe.  We are looking at a drop and a scrim (both
> rentals) that are 40-45' long. How to add center lift lines without
> punching through the drop would have to be done. Perhaps some sort of
> clamp or catch on the upstage pipe could do the trick.

Yes, you'll need to support the bottom pipe as often as the batten is 
supported. (Or more, depending on the size of the bottom pipe.)


You could put small holes in the pipe pocket to allow you to thread 
wire-rope slings through to make the trip points.  Rereading your 
message, I see the drops are rentals, so I'm guessing that's not an option.

I have seen old school "batten clamps" that is a clamshell design that 
can clamp over the bottom pipe without puncturing the drop.  Look on 
page 72 of the Backstage Handbook (third edition) for an illustration. 
You could probably fabricate something that would perform that task.

Final option, if you can arrange it so you only need each drop once, is 
to set them up on a trip line to fall in to reveal the next drop.  We do 
that for Nutcracker each year (20' proscenium, 30' grid) and with some 
practice it looks good.  Our other tactic is west-coasting them with 
velcro bungee straps (StrapEZ.com) which allows us to un-west-coast the 
drop in about 30 seconds.  Can't do that a vista, though.

Steve L.

-- 
Stephen Litterst            Technical Operations Supervisor
litterst at udel.edu           Mitchell Hall
302/831-0601                University of Delaware