Manual? What Manual? Rigging Instructions Vital
It’s time for the next drama or musical to begin tech rehearsals, and you’ve got new people on your stage crew. Do you know where your rigging manual is?
If you can’t find your system’s manual, you can’t remember ever seeing a manual, or you had no idea your system came with a manual, you are not alone. Manuals tend to disappear over the course of years, especially if your rigging system was installed decades ago.
Manuals disappear. Manuals that were available when the rigging system was new may be filed in places that Facility managers would never suspect. These thick documents may be stuck in an unmarked three-ring binder in your tech director’s office, or they may have long since fallen apart and been discarded. In some cases, the paperwork prepared during the building’s construction mandated that the rigging system manual go to the architect or the general contractor. It’s entirely possible that your manual never made it into your facility, let alone into the right person’s hands.
With no manuals to be found, how does a technical director answer questions that come up when new staff members or volunteers are using the rigging? Even seasoned professionals need to check calculations or proper usage on occasion, so it’s important to replace the missing manual as quickly as possible.
Get it right now for free. Luckily, J. R. Clancy makes it easy for you to get the manual you need. Visit the Safety page of our website here , and you’ll find a list of manuals that you can download for free. There are manuals for counterweight rigging with and without a loading bridge, for brail and straight fire curtains, and for our SureTarget and pushbutton control stations. Download the PDF file of each, and keep it on the tech director’s computer so it’s always ready when you need to reference it.
You also will find signs that you can order for free and hang backstage, to help remind your operators to take the right steps to use the rigging safely. You’ll find information about determining the capacity of your rigging sets, using counterweight and automated rigging, and even the correct way to operate a hand winch.
Train first, and then look it up. There’s no substitute for training your rigging system operators to use the equipment properly and safely. Once your crew has gone through training with a qualified instructor, however, keep your manual at the ready for the inevitable questions that will arise.
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