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[Jon Dees]

My primary weekly service is at the college I go to.  It's a pretty simple little system, and it works fine for the program.  One of our issues, however, is storage.  We have one half of a former single bathroom in the student union at the college for 2 Yamaha S115's, 2 powered wedges (no name), an amp, a mixer (cfx12), cables, etc.  

A few years ago we built a cart/box.  It looks like a regular mixer-topped rack on steroids.  It's stretched vertically to about 5 feet, with room for our cables in the bottom, a shelf for the amp, and the mixer on a top shelf.  We then put 2 shelves out to the front and back that have 2 more casters on each of those where we put a 115 and then a monitor on top of the 115.  On top of the whole thing we put 3 boom stands, 2 speaker stands, 1 straight stand and 3 music stands.  It gets pretty tricky and heavy navigating some corners.  One of our problems is that the original casters are 1" or so.  If nothing else works out I'll upgrade those to at least 3".  

With that long, exciting narrative out of the way, does anyone have any thoughts on how better to store and transport the gear?  I've looked at an EWI trunk, but that isn't big enough to put the 4 speakers on top, and I would also like to be able to continue to keep the mixer at standing level for mixing.  It comes without saying that we're pretty much very poor and need the cheapest solution possible.  Also we have to minimize the amount of space we take up because 1 person bathrooms aren't very big.  It would also be optimal to have 1 person theoretically be able to push 1 cart with everything on/in it.  Anyways, just thought I'd put the puzzle our there for some to ponder.

Thanks,
Jon

[andrew gissing]

Storage and transport can be two separate things.

As you say storage space is cramped so you could keep as you've got now.

But for transport, you could get a small trolley/dolley to assist. If you get the sort that collapses then that might save space in storage. Or, seeing as they are pretty much vertical anyway you might be able to shove the bottom part under everything else and not take up too much room ?

You could look at using the trolley to move 2 of the speakers.

You could also look at something like a duffle bag to put the mic, music and speaker stands in. Even if you still put the duffle bag on top of your existing cart/box, it means trying to keep one thing on top rather than many separate things.

Or if the stands are pretty light, carry the duffle over your shoulder whist you push the cart/box.

Adding a trolley does mean a second trip or second person.

Hope this helps,


andrew


edit: I do have a full name; trying in user CP to change; it appears that there is no alias field anymore but there is a "name" field that does have my name... i'll pm Tom and see what i'm doing wrong, or if it's a glitch in the forum since the split.

[Tom Van Valkenburgh]

With out seeing some pictures, it's a little tough to make an exact recommendation, but here's a few possibilities:

Since they can stack, buy a few cheap hand trucks to haul your speakers. Use "bungee" cords to strap the speakers on and fasten one end of the cord permanently with tie wraps to the truck (so you don't have to hunt down the bungee cords each time). Unload at the stage, but don't try to unload the hand truck at the closet, the speakers stay on each hand truck, ready to roll next time. Our missions disaster relief trailer is equipped this way and can load and deploy in minutes with a full compliment of tools and supplies. We use about 10 hand trucks to do it. A few of the hand trucks have plastic "pegboard" tie wrapped to the back of the hand truck and use pegboard hangers to hold small items. This might work well for your loose cables. Maybe you could fasten some large diameter PVC pipe to each hand truck and use them to transport the mic stands by loading them upside down into the pipe? Just trying to think "cheap" here.

For a rolling 19" rack, I bolted a computer type "free standing" rack to a woodworking mobile base (an adjustable dolly with casters) (www.grizzly,com G7314 $69.95). The base can hold 700 lbs, has heavy rubber casters and struts to lock it to the floor when you are in place. Because the rack is so solid and bolted to the mobile base, you can lean the rack backward on the casters and move it like a hand truck in tight quarters. PM me with your e-mail address if you want some pictures.

Hope this helps.

[ProSoundWeb Community]