[SML] Tracking scenery on a budget

[JIM VOGEL]

Kim,
I’m having problems picturing the flapjack. (though perhaps I need to add some maple syrup)? ☺

Any chance you can provide a drawing somewhere?
Thanks
Jim


From: Stagecraft [mailto:stagecraft-bounces at theatrical.net] On Behalf Of Kim Hartshorn via Stagecraft
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2016 9:32 AM
To: stagecraft at theatrical.net
Cc: Kim Hartshorn <hartshwk at plattsburgh.edu>
Subject: Re: [SML] Tracking scenery on a budget

We often use something that we call a 'flapjack' to push and pull castered units.  We have used them succesfully on units up to about 6x12 with actors as riders.  Use straight casters on the units, the straight casters will prevent movement perpindicular to the caster alignment, movement in the parallel direction is locked by the flapjack.  The flapjack is simply a long push bar that is hinged in the middle and locked into the deck at the offstage storage position and connected to a convenient spot on the unit.  The geometry of the hinged push bar does several things, acceleration is easilly controlled (when the jack is flat on the floor the unit barely moves until the hinge joint has risen about 2 feet off the floor, as the jack is raised to full height there is a smooth acceleration until the unit is offstage.  This is also useful in the other direction as the unit decelerates and does not crash into anything..  For the most part these jacks are not noticable in use.  There are some limitations, we have found that travel more than 24' (12' hinged jack) is problematic, weight can also be an issue (but 600 lbs of actors and scenery is certainly doable).  For units that travel sporadically during a show it is not necessary to track the unit if care is taken aligning the straight casters, but we have also used the flapjacks to move tracked units.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim Hartshorn


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theatrical.net/pipermail/stagecraft_theatrical.net/attachments/20161111/b1feeda5/attachment.html>