[SML] ETC Safety cable loop

[Mick Alderson]

> 
> How many use the Safety Cable loop thing built in to the ETC bodies for
> safety cables? I'm finding a lot of freelance hired/overhire crew are
> removing the cable from the loop and only wrapping the yoke to the pipe.
> One push back I've received is "it won't reach when overhanging" to which I
> show them to loop the cable into itself on the Safety loop and again at the
> pipe. Thus fixing the issue.

I do use the cast loop on standard Source 4's as a way to keep the safety captive to the body. It acts as a safety for the safety cable itself, just in case I drop the cable while working at height. I still pass the cable through the yoke and around the batten in the "normal" fashion so I'm not depending on the casting alone to catch the fixture. This doesn't work on S-4 Juniors as the cast loop is placed on the bottom of those and the safety cable that comes with them from ETC doesn't reach from there. For Juniors and non-ETC fixtures I take off one of the 5/16" yoke bolts, slip the end loop of the safety cable onto the yoke, and replace the yoke bolt. Been doing that since before Source 4's came out. Either way a cable is always part of a fixture and doesn't get as easily borrowed for other uses.

That ETC put the loop on the bottom kind of tells me it was meant for safetying accessories to the body as others have suggested. 

Mick Alderson
TD, Fredric March Theatre
UW Oshkosh