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2014 Winter Cart/Gear Tweak Diary


Jan McL

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3/8" IIRC and if I'm wrong someone will certainly soon chime in.

Take a shock mount down to hardware store. Bet they can find the correct piece. Or telephone closest sound rental/sales. They are most likely to have what u need in stock.

J

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

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  • 4 weeks later...

Oh my dear and most-geeky pals...such good...

 

Your cart is wonderful Mr. Sextro. Timing may not be everything, but it's a lot.

 

For my purposes, the fewer things plugged and unplugged, cased/uncased the better.

 

Now, update the custom wooden drawer progress that was more of a PITA and stretched the envelope edges of my skill set more than I wanted to stretch 'em, I present:

 

 

It fits real tight.

 

Failed to account for the pop rivets that impeded installation of the rightmost rail.

 

Fine.

 

Drilled through one and beside the other, trusting that structural integrity is not compromised. Dremel FTW.

 

Check.

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  • 4 weeks later...

And now, the follow cart, for which I purchased a double-decker top shelf that on receipt, made me suspect that the additional through-the-frame holes might compromise its structural integrity. Given we load/unload essentials to and from the stage to the truck each time we go on location, decided an extra case cart would be a good thing and pulled the trigger on a new Magliner Junior frame and plan to repurpose the old Junior still mostly kickin' after 20 years of abuse to to-and-from duty.

 

What I like about Backstage's newest version of the junior is that I could get larger flat-free tires all around, an huge upgrade from the two 4" solid casters on the previous model. Further, the bottom shelf sits lower and yields the perfect amount of room for the rack.

 

The 5/16" full-thread bolts are more difficult than I imagined to find, so had to order them from Amazon Supply. They should be here today.

 

13760453843_24cb9d826a_d.jpg

 

In the meantime, noticed that the rack drawers were drooping in the back and implemented a solution from Star Case:

 

13760801344_5c54a74814_d.jpg

 

13760450023_6cd8beace0_d.jpg

 

More better.

 

Finally, cut down old boom pole cases so each is properly sized and installed twist-on lids.

 

Discovered that with time, boom cases come to smell like locker rooms. Guess I'll drop a cloth bag of baking soda in there to see if that helps. Ew.

 

Cleaned the poles with a product suggested by Jack Norflus that was amazing and left the carbon fiber clean, shiny and smooth. The stuff also did a bang-up job making that old yellow power cable look fresh n' happy.

 

http://www.starbrite.com/item/power-cable-cleaner?category_id=537

 

 

13760924345_0fee43685f_d.jpg

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Jan,

I like the attached cap idea- I thought about it but never did it, I just screw the caps back on. Did you just drill a hole in each piece and tie a knot to hold it in?

Cart looks great

Marc

 

Holes, knots, foam, hot glue, heavy duty cotton string. Yup.

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Follow cart improvements continue with the addition of two sets of rotating four-hook storage options for 1st and 2nd boom people.

 

More hooks = better.

 

That they can fold flat (or not) = good.

 

13796491884_594f88d57e_d.jpg

 

13796494114_90511f247c_d.jpg

 

More hole drilling soon to commence whence I add several 1" and larger d-rings toward bungee attachment points and cable management.

 

One more thing to like about the new cart frame: holes already exist for boom cup attachment = two fewer holes to drill.

 

 

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Hey Jan,

 

I also made the same pole cases with the twisty caps about 6 years ago, but wasn't able to come up with a nifty solution to help keep it close at hand when opened.  Could you elaborate a bit more on how you managed to get the blue tie downs to stay on?

 

a.

 

Jan can obviously chime in to answer this herself… but just a guess- Drill a hole, tie a knot.

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Twice?! I think I'd start setting up cones at this point. Or maybe keep the carts further from the water.

Drilling a hole will give you a more secure hold. Try filling with epoxy to keep the water out.

 

If they offered orange-colored PVC tubings, we could double duty them as "lane" dividers!  Several PA's were moving stuff around my area, and without noticing what was behind them, they turned and knocked the container to the ground and all remaining items fell off into the pier.  Pretty narrow space.  Luckily, our divers weren't far to retrieve them back, never again!

 

As far as I can tell from the picture, it looks like holes were drilled and tie downs were knotted or somehow tied or secured inside from being pulled out.  The squared tips are hallowed so filling with epoxy might work.  I've thought about adding some kind of drainage grommet to seal the hole off, but haven't had the chance to go through that option yet.  Right now, the bottom is sealed off w/ an end cap w/ gorilla glue and the top is with a twisty cap, and cleaning that thing took some effort.  Twisty caps on both ends would work.

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I would think that less stuff in the hole might be better for a seal. A grommet would be good to protect things from scratching on the inside of the hole (if you had cables running through), but might leave too many pockets to miss when sealing with epoxy.

I used to keep zeppelins in large PVC pipe cases without the mounts. The pipes were lined with foam, so they were large in diameter. The downside of the PVC pipe case is its ease at rolling away from you when you're not expecting it.

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13806117075_c665dc10cf_d.jpg

 

Holes are 1/4" and would seal nicely with the application of a spot of silicone (stays a little flexible) but i have not sealed 'em since they just go to and from the truck and once there, stay there. Look for something a bit more sturdy than this cotton, but I have a buttload of it so it's not like I'll run out.

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Finally ready to drill down into the skeleton of the cart.

 

Wanted to get everything sketched well in before making more holes.

 

A couple of notes to Backstage Equipment:

  • You could make some additional $ by selling more heavy duty 5/16" hardware than the off-the-shelf offerings I know from experience look nice but will eventually give way. Oddly, fully threaded stainless hex bolts are not that easy to get.

    13895661343_eaabca83f5_d.jpg

    13896121544_85046035d3_d.jpg

    The replacement 1.5" x 5/16" bolts shown above feature stainless steel lock washers.
     
  • The top shelf and double-decker shelf holes don't quite match up, so had to Dremel extant holes so the connecting bolts don't support the weight of the double-decker shelf. Now, the bottom of the double-decker rests on the top shelf and is only held firmly in place with four bolts.

    Furthermore, had to drill one extra hole per side to affix the two shelves together since only one hole of the 3 pre-drilled per side actually matches up, and it wasn't logistically easy because of where the holes needed to go.

    13895800804_37a5296ccd_d.jpg

Taking a wee break before I return to evaluate what's been done this morning.

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I learned a long time ago to use all stainless steel hardware whenever possible --- and yes, difficult to find and usually double the cost or more. After one of my carts wound up with just about every nut, bolt and fitting suffering serious corrosion, I started using all stainless.

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I learned a long time ago to use all stainless steel hardware whenever possible --- and yes, difficult to find and usually double the cost or more. After one of my carts wound up with just about every nut, bolt and fitting suffering serious corrosion, I started using all stainless.

 

Right? The mods performed by Backstage all have stainless...and I had some around, but knew this time around starting fresh I wanted to do it correctly from the start with no (fewer) worries later.

 

None of the local brick n' mortars had 'em so went to amazonsupply.com and they have every darned thing it seems. With Prime, there was no shipping and free expedited shipping. Fine.

 

______________

 

Washed the old Mag Bag yesterday and re-installed it. Looking good. Now, need to wash the Comtek Portabrace case, too, since everything else looks so clean and tidy. Check.

 

Love that my drawers are no longer droopy in the back. I know...

 

During the course of writing the last post, and wanting to communicate with Backstage Equipment and use the proper name for future Googling, went to their web site and saw they've a new Mag World Catalog I'd not seen. Lots of new stuff and improvements to old aftermarket cart stuff. Worth a look if you've not looked lately. Their iPad holders look interesting.

 

http://backstageweb.com/Mag%20World%202013%20Catalog%20V2%20WEB.pdf

 

Wish I'd looked before I bought since there's an AC option for the Junior cart now...oh well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Whit Norris turned me on to the Rope Ratchet, a great alternative to the bungee or ratchet strap for securing cases and getting to them on the truck.

 

The usually-offered 1/4" seemed a bit muscular for holding the light weight stuff I need held on the follow cart:

 

14021278941_8d1d050d99_d.jpg

 

Found a 1/8" model that comes with carabiners on the ends that seems just right (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GJKHY6S/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1):

 

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When the time comes to replace the big 'uns, will go for the carabiner style.

 

This makes me just about finished with this season's cart tweaking.

 

Very happy with the results.

 

Will post pix once they're all neatened and whatnot.

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Whatnot complete.

 

Have velcro'd a CF card reader and its cable to the underside of the computer stand for easier access to same.

 

14060571252_d6fc6c641b_d.jpg

 

As with editing text, cart editing is always improved with a more objective view: the photograph. Cart left (below) looks more cable messy than I'd prefer, but the antenna mast is not fully deployed so there's that. Will have to re-evaluate this side of the cart for that issue. 

 

14060542861_7012fb9095_d.jpg

 

Pretty happy with the back of the cart, too, until I look at all the pictures, LOL. 

 

14084147273_2b407ac609_d.jpg

 

Imagine a backstop that will obscure from view the mess at the back of the mixer. This is -- after all -- where the sausage is made. Some black Coroplast? Noodling that.

 

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All in all, a productive winter, and much-improved result. Can't wait to try the digital sides in the field and see how the team like the robe hooks, rope ratchets, plumb sturdiness, additional AC outlets, and additional shelf real estate / rain protection afforded by the new follow cart. Not to mention the tidy foamed drawers.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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