Bucket Bails Break Bones

The ubiquitous plastic bucket - it shows-up unannounced, hangs around like an unwanted house-guest, and finally spills it guts and gets thrown in the trash.

Aside from the obvious bad rigging (you did see that, didn't you?), plastic buckets have a serious weak point:  The metal bail that forms the carrying handle.  This is nothing but a piece of bent steel wire that hooks into the plastic rim of the bucket.  Given sufficient (over)loading, the plastic bucket can deform and let-go of the bail (literally tearing the plastic), and/or the metal bail can bend and lose it's grip on the bucket.  Either way - this thing is going down.

We just love to over-stuff our carry-alls, and when you add-up the weight of hand-tools, nuts & bolts, drills, and all that other crud you forget to clean-out, the weight can become significant.  This wouldn't be such a big deal if you were just carrying this across the stage or shop, but there are times we forget logic and tie a rope on thee a try to hoist them up to elevated work locations.  Not such a good idea - What was once just going to fall  a few inches onto your foot now becomes a bomb falling from overhead - maybe 20 feet, maybe 50 feet, depending where you are going with it.  Either way, this can be deadly should the handle fail.

Safe lifting of materials is usually best accomplished when the lifting system encompasses the load, this places the load on the lifting device and not on the object being lifted.

The folks at The Circus Company (I guess circuses use these things to haul food and water for the animals) have a simple, yet effective solution:  Build a load-rated sling designed to fit those 5-gallon buckets we are so fond of.

These slings are rated for 200 Pounds and are inexpensive (relative to the cost of a new noggin').  The handle is constructed of reinforced Nylon, and has an extra layer across the hoist point.  It's pretty snazzy, too!

Don't be a doofus and drop your load  - secure it!

More info at: www.thecircuscompany.com

Fly the friendly skys . . .

Boxes full of booty (no, not that kind of booty!)

As I perused the Stage Manager's exhibits at the theatre conference I found some other items of interest, too.  Most of the kits had some sort of First Aid section, and several had Flash Lights and/or Spare Batteries, and a few had Chemical Light Sticks stowed-away.  All good things to have if the lights go out.

However, what was really interesting was that all of the portable kits I saw were BLACK.  All black.  Barely a fleck of color anywhere.  It reminded me of the picture below:

"Polar bear in a snow storm"

Now I know that black is the color of choice for all things theatre, but this doesn't make any sense.  It's not like you don't want to be able to find your tool box.  It's not like your tool box is going to be flirting around the wings and might be seen by the audience.  And guess what?  If the lights go out - you wouldn't be able to find your flashlight or Calume light sticks!  A black box in a black backstage environment with the lights out is nothing but a trip hazard or shin-buster.

Not  black ? Sacrilege!  Keel-haul the scallywag! At the very minimum, place some photoluminescent marker tape around the perimeter so that you can find it when the lights go out.  A bit of highly reflective (i.e. retroreflective) marker tape along side the photoluminescent tape would be a good idea, too - this way if you shine even the weakest of flashlights in the general direction of the toolbox, it'll light-up like a fireworks display and you can grope your way toward it a bit easier.  There is a reason that Firefighters and Liferafts both have SOLAS* type marker tape on them - so they can be seen under the worst of lighting conditions.

*SOLAS - Save Our Lives At Sea - Solas type marker tape is commonly used on road signs and highway barrier marking because it does such a darn good job of blinding you with your own headlights.

So, how about some alternatives?  OK. Lets try these:

DuraTool D00403

DuraTool D00407

Stanley 2-in-1 Mobile Work Center

(a bit black, but nothin' a bit-o-tape won't fix either)

Stanley 3-in-1 Mobile Work Center