My other workbench

[joshv8]

I dunno man, seems all this extra curriculum works taking time away from playing trains haha. They look great, fantastic effort.

[Phat Controller]

Very nice.....................but do they go upto 11?


Thanks
End2end

.............. 10.1 (they're digital!)

[Phat Controller]

Hi guys, I know I haven't been around much, and this is why (see below)

Work has been frantic, and I've been going in to give them a hand (even though I'm still tender and sore from my past surgery almost 2 years ago now)

I was also admitted into hospital about a month ago, my bowel had twisted, and blocked, due to adhesions in my abdomen (caused by the major surgery I had) anyways, I was in overnight for observation, and was discharged the next day. Since then I've been on a strict regime of non lifting/exertion so it doesn't happen again, that's why I get to do the things at work that don't require lifting, or pushing, or climbing etc etc, and why I get to do what you see below.

Going to work may seem idiotic to most of you, however, I live alone, and if I didn't get off my chubby fat arse and get out, I'd turn into a blubber blob on the sofa! Going into work is my therapy - social and physical. I am able to interact with my work mates and do what little I can to help around the warehouse, in the middle of Festival time.

The time I spend there is therapeutic for the pain I have in my feet, from the 6 months of intense chemotherapy to kill the cancer I had, the side effects being the nerves in my feet are shot!

The drugs/poison, in the chemo, attack good cells, as much as the bad cells, and unfortunately my feet, being full of nerve endings, copped it badly (it's not an unusual side effect, most chemo patients suffer from this complaint) I'm on medication to reduce the pain threshold, however it's taking it's time, and some days I just have to lay down with my feet up, and take the pain until it decides to subside on it's own.

I can walk around the warehouse, for a couple of hours, until the pain starts to get the better of me, then I go home to deal with it, but whilst I'm at work, I try to do as much as possible. It's also great to work on a project, and see it through to the end - hence the pride in my workmanship, and my selfish need to show you all what I've done, whilst I've been absent from the forum.


........... well these arrived the other day, from Melbourne to Sydney

$68.89 freight, for 4 of them, which I thought was rather good considering the bulk, and weight (37kg ea)

anyways, upon unwrapping .......

4 of the most clogged up dusty dirty sticky grilles I've ever seen!

once the grilles came off this is what I was faced with - on all four cabinets!!

20 odd years of dust, dirt, Red Bull, and whatever other detritus managed to get through I get all the lovely jobs to do!

After 3 days of intense cleaning, and my elbow grease exhausted ......

taa daaa!!! completely done, just like new!

grilles cleaned and polished with WD40 and ............

all done!

It's taken 3 days, and a lot of hard work, to get all four looking like new. My Boss is well chuffed (pun intended) which is why I get these loverly tasks (*sigh*)

[Bufferstop]

The before pictures look like some of the PC's that I've had the misfortune to have to open up. When something "just works" for years and years you know that when you do have to go in there it's not going to be nice.

[End2end]

mmmmmm BIG speakers. You've done a great job on them!
I'm playing on a Funktion One sound sytem at a venue in the middle of Brixton on friday night.
It's gonna be pretty loud

On the health side of things, I do hope you find some relief. It's blooming annoying when the mind wants to do tasks the body cannot achieve.
Thanks
End2end

[Phat Controller]

.......... well work has been getting me in to do some technical tasks.

The main theatre is getting its floor replaced with a concrete slab, the old original wooden floor was getting towards the end of it's life, and was "bouncing", with 1000 people jumping up and down on it. The old piers just weren't up to the task (it was a movie theatre before was converted into a live gig theatre, hence it didn't need a reinforced floor)

looking from the stage to the back of the theatre

Whilst all that was being done, the stage area had to be isolated from all the dust from excavating a 2.4m deep trench to lay the slab (there will be storage under the slab for over 2000 chairs). Behind the canvas screen to keep away the dust was the P.A that was winched down and placed on dollies for servicing - that's where I came in!

both sides of the PA stack on the stage floor getting serviced

All in all there were 90 individual speakers to go through and inspect . All of them had to be taken out of the cabinets and run seperately, to make sure they were within specs, then loaded back in their respective cabinets, and checked again! In the main Front Of House PA cabinets, there are 3 speakers in each speaker box, 1 x 15in main and 2 x 12in side mounted cancellation drivers (so minimum noise spill comes back onto stage and also so you can stand behind the speaker boxes and have a "normal" conversation without shouting! ) 11 x FOH cabinets and 4 x SUB boxes per side so 22 x FOH cabinets & 8 x SUB boxes to be done!!

It's taken quite a few days as you might imagine, and a lot of man hours to get it all done, it's great to be able to get my hands dirty doing what I love to do - sound production!

Needless to say the layout has taken a back seat whilst this has been going on, so I've been purchasing some second hand stock, and trying my hand at refurbishing wagons, and I actually took out my compressor to try my hand at airbrushing!

[Phat Controller]

A new PA has been installed and working very well. So while we monitor the feedback from our visiting techs, and our own soundies, I've been fossicking away in the warehouse keeping my hands busy, with lighting of all things!

I don't normally get into lighting, but as necessity strikes, I must attend to the problems at hand, and these moving heads have been taken out of one of our venues, for maintenance. As I'm not really doing much atm, I've been delegated to get my hands dirty, and look at these fixtures. [note the dust under the fan that just dropped off it as I took it out of the housing!]

Once they are open, its a matter of cleaning them. This requires a vacuum cleaner, a toothbrush, a bottle of methylated spirits, some paper tissues, and a can of WD40 (or similar) with a suitable rag.

As you can see, there are a lot of jammed in components (very similar to a loco under its body), so a deft touch is required (hence my able body has been enlisted).

Out of the five units (yes, I know its an odd number, but there isn't anymore space for as sixth on the trussing) I've managed to get them all going bar for one, that stubbornly refuses to go through it's test mode. I spent a good hour trying to get the pesky thing to do it's thing, but gave up, and I will try to get it to behave on DMX mode, with an appropriate lighting desk.

If that doesn't work, it will have to go to another dept, and get seen too, in depth, by "sorcerers of every thing lighting", that are way above my pay grade!

[Phat Controller]

I've been busy again on my other workbench preparing for a venue opening maybe...........sort of...........sometime.

Anyway it's been keeping me sane during this lockdown period and an excuse to get out of the house. Ok ok it's not technically essential work per say but I've got away with it so far!

These little beauties arrived on my benchtop, after we picked them up from Nth Syd and bought them back to base. $50.00 ea in roadcases, which is not a bad deal - but the previous owner did say "they will need looking at" - so we all all know what that means!

and sure enough when I opened one up ........................

Needless to say I've been at this for a while, unscrewing 982345 screws, to access fans and motherboards, sucking all the dust off the circuit boards, delving in with a toothbrush to clean the small fans, reassembling all the bits, then replace the bubbles (bulbs), cleaning the 4 internal lenses, gobos (shape wheels) and colour wheels with meths, and then check that everything is working as it should.

I tell you what, after all that, I go home filthier than those lights came in!!

[Phat Controller]

well I've not posted much on here lately. A combination of health and assisting at my workplace (mainly just being there so they don't have to keep locking the warehouse up) I keep myself busy by cleaning/fixing bits and pieces that I know they don't have time to do, such as these ..........

these lil demons arrived in a roadcase marked "F**KED!" so I lifted the lid and had a look to see if I could rescue them

As you can see there is a reason they wouldn't work for long and shut down!! *sigh* our lighting technicians need a word I think about cleaning their equipment when they have "maintenance days"!!!

This also came in the same day from a different Venue with a note saying they "didn't know what happened"

I did just by looking at it! Some genius dropped it from a height (more likely it was dropped off the stage - somehow)

so I took it out to see how bad it was ..................

its OK I can fix this (I think)

[Dad-1]

I do like to see things saved from Land-Fill !!
We throw away too much that was well made, but needs some love & care.
More power to your elbow.

Geoff T.

[Phat Controller]

I agree Geoff, however those speakers are way too valuable to end up in landfill!! and the moving lights are also a tad too pricey to throw away!! It just seems that our technical crew don't look after the Venue gear as well as they tend their own equipment. I bit of housekeeping can save a show.

[Phat Controller]

I've been spending some time "supervising" the renovation of our Flagship Theatre's ceiling.

The original 1910 plaster ceiling was literally falling to pieces, so the decision was made to use the covid19 "downtime" to pull all the old plasterwork down and replace it with modern plaster, but still in the original Art Deco theme.

black cavity is where the stage lights and follow spots will be spaced.

the stage and proscenium

the balcony will be extended along the "grey" area mid picture

view from on stage to the rear of the theatre