What I bring with me....

Some of you are young and impressionable and may think what I do is possibly cool and you may want to run around and do cool lighting gigs too.

I must be busy, there is like at least three months between my posts... oh well.

My wife was out of town and I needed something to do so I organized my tool bag and gig case.

I take my tool bag to everywhere. It usually sits in my car when not in use... waiting for its next time to be useful.
Tools are sometimes hard to find at church so it usually stays close by when I am working on a project...
There is at least a 90% chance what I am going to need is in my bag - it makes me feel a bit more confident walking into a room.

Here are a few snazzy pictures:



And its beloved contents:



Yeah, mind blowing, I know!

The List:
>Hammer
>Long philips head screwdriver (great for reaching into Martin 518's
>Klein 10-in-1 screwdriver (if you don't have any tools, start with this one)
>SAE and Metric hex keys (a must if you are going to work on movers)
>Random box cutter thing
>Flash drive (with a few pdfs and show files)
>Locking pliers
>Diagonal pliers
>Needle Nose Pliers
>Linesman pliers
>Wire cutter/stripper
>electric tape
>white board tape
>Crescent wrench with safety (you better show up with this)
>5 pin to 3 pin dmx turnaround
>3 pin to 5 pin dmx turnaround
>Gerber multi tool
>Mini Mag
>(sharpies)
>Grease pen (for writing on gel)
(not pictured but here in spirit)
>Multi-Meter
>Polarity Checker (not pictured)

Thoughts on multi tools:

I will have my little Gerber multi tool on me at all times... that is how nerdy I am. On a show, its nice to have one on you...You maybe on a ladder or away from your bag and need something right there to make the party happen. Whether you buy a Gerber or a Leatherman its up to you, its a great product. Both companies guarantee their multi tools for life. I've sent mine in on more than one occasion with a broken plier and a broken knife. I got a new one in the mail a week later. I have always used Gerbers. I've lost 2 Gerbers in 7 years, which is pretty good I think. I dont feel bad losing a Gerber that I spent $30 on ebay as opposed to a $80 Leatherman Wave I bought new. Gerber's knives always seem kind of dull, Leathermans always seem to rigid. I once owned one of those cool "the pliers pop out with a flick of the wrist" versions of the Gerber... I didn't like it and sold it to a friend. The one I currently own is an older version of the Gerber Evo model.

I really miss my Legend 800, it is missing in action.... Christmas is coming up.

Whatever you decide in a multi tool make sure it at least has these:
>Pliers
>Flat head
>some form of good philips head that wont strip.
>a tweaker (great for older DMX switches)
>knife
>saw... (seriously, this has come in handy on more than one occasion)

Everything else is just icing on the cake...

So yeah.... Next blog I will talk about my super awesome gig case...

Trackspots!!!

I love these lights. I first started working with these lights back in 98 at the Murray Hill Theatre.

I always wanted my own set. Eventually I did, and had a great time with them, and made a lot of money with them. I've used them in small rooms and big rooms with no problems.

Around a year ago, I sold them to a church in Seattle with hopes of getting something a bit more modern. Long story short, I couldn't, I almost purchased a set of Martin Mania 600's but I couldn't find them at the right price and I as worried that Martin was going to randomly discontinue them and not offer parts.

I turned back to Trackspots. I had one left from my original lot and purchased one more from eBay.

Thanks to Craigslist, I was able to purchase 6 more Trackspots out of a club at an amazing price.

Well, I got them on Christmas eve and started tinkering with them after my family went to bed. Powered all of them up and started making a repair list:
1 blows fuses when it gets power (bad logic board)
5 needed new pan motors
2 had shutter related problems

Since the pan, color, gobo, and shutter motors were the same exact motor model - I stole all the motors out of the fixture with the bad logic board an was able to give each fixture a working pan motor. As for the shutter problems, one was missing a set screw the other needed the shutter to be hammered out. After my parts swapping party was over, I had 5 good working Trackspots with a pile of spare parts giving me a total of 7 moving lights to my name.

Each fixture needed a massive cleaning as they spent all 12 years of their life hanging in a smoke filled club.

I went to High End's forum and followed some pretty detailed cleaning instructions.
Once a day I during my Christmas vacation, I would take one fixture completely apart and gave it a massive cleaning outside.

Trackspot torn apart before cleaning:





After cleaning:




After cleaning I brought each fixture into my dining room and re assembled them:

My son thoroughly enjoyed this part:




Happy Trackspot!



After re-assembly, I let each fixture run on test mode in my laundry room(how cool is that, a test mode on a "cheap" fixture) for several hours. It's pretty funny, when the fixture heats up, it smells lemon fresh thanks to the scrubbing bubbles.



Overall it was a fun experience. Trackspots are old, but well designed, and even now you can get amazing tech support from High End almost 10 years after being discontinued.

Maybe next Christmas I will find some Technobeams out of a club for a good price.