Members Gstring Posted September 12, 2005 Members Share Posted September 12, 2005 Title says it all. Most bands use lighting trees and it's boring looking. Not saying everyone is a welder and bla bla but just thought I'd ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr. Botch Posted September 12, 2005 Members Share Posted September 12, 2005 I did, but it was certainly a "tiny-weekend-gig" only type affair. The cool part was it didn't use trees; instead I attached a battery clip to each end of some wood sticks, these clips were the right size to clamp onto the aluminum stringers used in suspended ceilings. All you had to do was open the clip, push the ceiling panels up 1/8", and clip on! No way for drunks to knock them down, and they didn't mark anything up.The lights themselves were simply mounted to the bottom of those sticks. I used standard colored bulbs mounted inside some plastic tubes that I had found, and simply wired everything to a homemade footboard with footswitches. Crude, but it did the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gstring Posted September 12, 2005 Author Members Share Posted September 12, 2005 I figure if I build something it has to have some sort of tree stand but I don't want to go as far as to recreate the tree look. I'd rather go with some sort of trussing. Suspended truss would be great but most clubs don't have much for suspending trusses. Kinda a bummer cause it's hard to put on a good show with what most clubs give you to work with. i'm just trying to put some thoughts together on how to build a more semi-pro rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fantasticsound Posted September 12, 2005 Members Share Posted September 12, 2005 Be very careful of homebuild truss and rigging. One mistake and you can discover just how dangerous and financially devastating an accident can be. Riggers are knowlegable in weight distribution, point capabilities and truss load management. One false move in any of these areas can result in serious injury or death to either you, your client or their patron. Even light trees should be approached with caution. I'm glad your system has worked for you, Botch, but you couldn't pay me enough to hang such a system. drop ceiling stringers are not load bearing beyond their intended use. I've seen signage in department stores pull them down with the right combination of AC force and a sign big enough to catch the wind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fantasticsound Posted September 12, 2005 Members Share Posted September 12, 2005 If you're serious, contact truss companies and find out the cost involved with various truss. They make purely decorative truss (suitable for hanging very light objects) all the way up to heavy duty truss designed for portable stage roofs, capable of spanning hundred's of feet while supporting full concert lights and rigging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members D Charles Posted September 13, 2005 Members Share Posted September 13, 2005 I've built light boxes out of 1/2" birch hardwood plywood to hold par 56 lamps and fashioned positioning brackets out of aluminum and attached em four to a bar to conduit, but I always held em up in the air with Ultimate stands. Yeah, I'd never hang anything from drop ceiling frames. Some installers get lazy and don't hit the ceiling joists. Plaster will hold up the grid in many cases, but don't put any weight on it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted September 13, 2005 Members Share Posted September 13, 2005 I would strongly recommend you do NOT try to build your own truss, unless you'd like ot risk everything you own becoming someone elses property from a fat lawsuit. Truss is not that expensive. If you can afford the lights, you can afford the truss. Plus, if you have nothing to hang it from, what's the point. You can't just toss a truss up on some 2x supports, it requires some serious structural supports to be legal for starters, and more important to be safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted September 13, 2005 Share Posted September 13, 2005 Originally posted by Gstring Title says it all. Most bands use lighting trees and it's boring looking. Not saying everyone is a welder and bla bla but just thought I'd ask. Yes, I've built trussing. It's a living bitch to get it right. The tolerances have to be to the thousandth's. You've absolutely gotta be jigged up right and have the right tools. Then there's the price of the raw materials: 2" aluminum pipe is about $4.00 a foot; therefore, just the raw materials for chunk of 2" x 12" x 10ft. square trussing is gonna run $200+. Then there's the fact that anything you put over-head is gonna have to be tested, certified, and a stamp of approval from a PE. Can you do it yourself? Sure. Can you do it yourself cost effectively? I don't think so. I've built some crank towers too. Just two. I'll never do that again either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gstring Posted September 13, 2005 Author Members Share Posted September 13, 2005 First off, I'm trying to actually build the truss. I'm more along the lines of building a couple heavy duty crank stands. There's got to be a way to build some good crank stands to hold prefabricated aluminum truss better than those tripod things everyone sells. If it is a safety factor then everyone should be more worried about crappy non heavy duty crank stands. Anyhow, just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted September 13, 2005 Members Share Posted September 13, 2005 Originally posted by Gstring First off, I'm trying to actually build the truss. I'm more along the lines of building a couple heavy duty crank stands. There's got to be a way to build some good crank stands to hold prefabricated aluminum truss better than those tripod things everyone sells. If it is a safety factor then everyone should be more worried about crappy non heavy duty crank stands. Anyhow, just a thought. The same liabilities apply. IMHO you'd be a massive lawsuit waiting to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fantasticsound Posted September 13, 2005 Members Share Posted September 13, 2005 If you haven't guessed already, Where and I have some experience in this matter, having mixed and tech'd for national acts and lived and worked around professional rigging for audio, lighting and video. I'll let you in on a not so hidden secret. JBL has a huge volume of material they worked up in the late 1980's concerning the proper hanging of their speakers. The story I was told when I first began selling pro audio, in 1990, was that they had been sued along with a sound contractor who had installed JBL speakers in a large church, with a center cluster directly above the pulpit. The contractor used his own method of hanging the gear, it failed and a preacher was killed in the process. Although it was the contractor's work that failed, JBL was sued for not adequately directing the proper rigging of their speakers. After that, any contractor using JBL that didn't use their guidelines for rigging any particular gear was solely liable for any damages or loss of life. I never independently confirmed the truth of this, but the fact remains; If you create your own, un-tested rigging and it fails, you can expect to lose everything, financially, and possibly face criminal negligence charges. That's a pretty stupid bet to take, IMO, rather than buy tested truss and learn to properly rig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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