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Author Topic: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips  (Read 3436 times)

Alan Hamilton

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Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« on: May 04, 2009, 03:16:22 AM »

It's time for some new cases and possibly a rethinking of how we've been handling our socapex cables. Has anyone got any good tips/case  designs/etc they are using or have seen?

Any pics?

Thanks,
Alan Hamilton
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Gabriel Duschinsky

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Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2009, 08:45:44 PM »

We use standard truck-pack format cases...24x48 deal.

We recently bought some plastic cases to replace the old plywood roadcases. Same dimensions, but a lot more strong and lightweight.

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I'll try and get some tomorrow at the shop.



Gabriel.
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Rob Timmerman

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Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2009, 09:05:47 PM »

Pick a cable trunk that fits your truck pack and isn't tiny.  And put good casters on it.

I've seen 1/3x1/3, 1/2x1/3, and 1/2x1/4 all work reasonably well, although 1/2x1/3 is probably my favorite.  I find that mults are easiest to handle when coiled to about 3' diameter (+/- about 6").
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Alan Hamilton

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Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2009, 10:21:46 PM »

Procedure for quite some time as been to pull cable out of the truss, coil on floor, tie it, and then put it in one or both of 2- 24x45" cases. Both are dedicated electrical but neither are dedicated socapex.

One of those is the feeder cable trunk so it can get rather heavy but it has 6 or 8" casters on it and the truck has a liftgate, not a ramp.

I'd like to just dedicate some cases to the soco. Idea #1 is to feed it into a 24x45 case and figure 8 it around a couple of posts.... same as we do our snake. ...Only you'd get one in and then do another. And could dedicate an US and DS case for the duties.

I'm not sure how well it would pack in a 30x24" case although that would save floor space in the box. Nobody will be lifting one of these cases (nobody sane anyway Wink ) so they'll be eating floor space. I guess I could experiment with an existing 30x24 and see how it works.

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E. Lee Dickinson

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Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2009, 10:57:28 AM »

We use the big black plastic boxes with locks from Lowes/Home Depot. They cost about $40, and can hold 5 100' socos. These also fit 100' of 3-phase cam plus a set of jumpers or tails. They pack pretty well as a 1/4 pack.

We loom ours 4 at a time, drop 10' of the male end out of the box, then over-under the rest right in to the box.

On-gig, we park the boxes at the dimmer racks, grab the female end and walk it out to length. The rest stays coiled in the box, and the 10' male tail goes to the dimmers.
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Don DeLong

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Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2009, 12:06:04 PM »

E. Lee Dickinson wrote on Tue, 05 May 2009 09:57



We loom ours 4 at a time, drop 10' of the male end out of the box, then over-under the rest right in to the box.

On-gig, we park the boxes at the dimmer racks, grab the female end and walk it out to length. The rest stays coiled in the box, and the 10' male tail goes to the dimmers.


We do pretty much the same, but with 5 cables and a motor cable (1 at each end for a 40' pre-rigged truss with 2 looms), and figure 8 them into a quarter by half pack trunk.  We tried them with over/under which is how the rest of our cables are done, but leaving 30' or so in the trunk over/under wrappped with a bunch of lighting on turned the trunk into an induction furace.  I literally couldn't touch the aluminum extrusions on the case without gloves   Shocked  .  I opened the case and we did it different from then on.  With figure 8 wrapped looms, the cable itself is warm to the touch with a lot of load, but not nearly as hot as before.  

We also have a couple of trunks of individual 100' and 75' runs for smaller stuff, and supplementing the main looms when doing bigger trusses/specials/etc...

Hope this helps,

Don
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Alan Hamilton

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Looming Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2009, 06:49:14 PM »

Don DeLong wrote on Thu, 07 May 2009 17:06



We do pretty much the same, but with 5 cables and a motor cable (1 at each end for a 40' pre-rigged truss with 2 looms), and figure 8 them into a quarter by half pack trunk.  We tried them with over/under which is how the rest of our cables are done, but leaving 30' or so in the trunk over/under wrappped with a bunch of lighting on turned the trunk into an induction furace.  I literally couldn't touch the aluminum extrusions on the case without gloves   Shocked  .  I opened the case and we did it different from then on.  With figure 8 wrapped looms, the cable itself is warm to the touch with a lot of load, but not nearly as hot as before.  

We also have a couple of trunks of individual 100' and 75' runs for smaller stuff, and supplementing the main looms when doing bigger trusses/specials/etc...

Hope this helps,

Don


So how are you handling the truss end with your looms and the different lengths needed in the truss? Jumpers, different lengths in the looms?

-AlanH
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E. Lee Dickinson

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Re: Looming Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2009, 12:01:24 AM »

We loom ours evenly, and then add to the end. We find that to be the most versatile method for going from concert rig to fight rig to corpie rig.
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Dan Brown

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Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2009, 11:14:49 PM »

Don DeLong wrote on Thu, 07 May 2009 11:06

With figure 8 wrapped looms, the cable itself is warm to the touch with a lot of load, but not nearly as hot as before.  
Don


Don,

What wattage can's and soco are you using.
Sounds like your Soco is undersized.

We are using 14ga soco with our S4 cans

db
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Dan Brown

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Re: Looming Re: Looking for some socapex transport/handling tips
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2009, 11:16:11 PM »

Alan Hamilton wrote on Thu, 07 May 2009 17:49

Don DeLong wrote on Thu, 07 May 2009 17:06



We do pretty much the same, but with 5 cables and a motor cable (1 at each end for a 40' pre-rigged truss with 2 looms), and figure 8 them into a quarter by half pack trunk.  We tried them with over/under which is how the rest of our cables are done, but leaving 30' or so in the trunk over/under wrappped with a bunch of lighting on turned the trunk into an induction furace.  I literally couldn't touch the aluminum extrusions on the case without gloves   Shocked  .  I opened the case and we did it different from then on.  With figure 8 wrapped looms, the cable itself is warm to the touch with a lot of load, but not nearly as hot as before.  

We also have a couple of trunks of individual 100' and 75' runs for smaller stuff, and supplementing the main looms when doing bigger trusses/specials/etc...

Hope this helps,

Don


So how are you handling the truss end with your looms and the different lengths needed in the truss? Jumpers, different lengths in the looms?

-AlanH


Our looms are 150ft. for the longest cable and 8-10ft. less for each cable after that.

looms are done with friction tape first and then black e-tape over that.

db
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