Labling Flightcases

[sam.henderson]

And the idea is that it doesn't dry wipe anyway. You want it to be permenant, if it was dry wipe then the writing would soon rub off in the truck or during the in.

 

Sam

[mac.calder]

I agree with the dry wipe is bad sentiment. When you have a truck load of things coming in which were supposedly all marked at the warehouse with location for drop, contents, case number etc, and they arive with nothing but a load of smudges on them, bump in time takes probably 3 times as long. Unloading a truck usually takes an hour if that, and a well planned bump-in has everything planned, including what goes where when.

 

When you dont have case numbers or what ever identification system you use, things go haywire. For example (semi recent show). Two cases from the top looked exactly the same with the lid off, they contain exactly the same items, except one also has a DMX splitter which was placed at the bottom of the case. The axis of the two movers which were going on LX1, OP side, have had their x-axis reversed using dip switches which were placed in the most ridiculous place (right where the bar goes when flying it). The other case is for Prompt Side FOH and has already been rigged. The people who 'installed' the FOH ones had not yet uncovered the splitter, however the bar has been flown out again. We had to pull the FOH ones down again, swap them over, etc etc etc. It added probably an extra 35 minutes to the bump in time.

 

This happened due to dry wipe.

[david.elsbury]

Yes, but even on a dry-erase board/flightcase label, sharpie or other PERMANANT marker should not come off. Unless it has had alcohol applied to it (meths, deodorant etc).

 

Perhaps your cases were not marked with the correct pens, Mac?

[mac.calder]

Perhaps your cases were not marked with the correct pens, Mac?

 

Who knows - I just unloaded them and helped with bump-in. I would assume they would use a decent marker.

[Simon Lewis]

Deodrent on it sorts that out.

 

Does no-one keep a bottle of propan-2-ol handy in their warehouse for wiping off sharpie markings?!

[bruce]

Does no-one keep a bottle of propan-2-ol handy in their warehouse for wiping off sharpie markings?!

 

Back in the old days we called it "IPA". But now that's a beer....

[bassman]

We have just bought some (relatively) cheap flightcase labels for our boxes which are Adam Hall I think. Bought them from Thomann and they seem pretty good at the moment especially if you are too tight (like me) to buy custom logo printed labels!

 

Tour label

 

I use contact cleaner to remove the permanent marker...

[Chappie]

I would have thought deodorant and contact cleaner to be expensive ways of cleaning labels. Get yourself 5 litres of premium (100% - no water) cellulose thinners. Just use in a ventilated room, some people can't deal with the smell.

[Simon Lewis]

Back in the old days we called it "IPA". But now that's a beer....

 

I suspect that India Pale Ale would have a similar effect ;-)

 

Many solvents will remove marker pen. Ethanol (IMS or industrial methylated spirit) will work, but needs a bit of rubbing. This is much better than standard meths that has a purple dye and a rather nasty addition of pyridine for odour.

 

Acetone pulls marker pen off very well, but will also attack plastics and it takes out the surface fat from skin quite easily. Nail varnish remover is mainly acetone and will work, but it has additives that can leave a residue.

 

IPA - Isopropyl alcohol (or propan 2-ol to you kiddywinkies bought up in the brave new world of IUPAC nomenclature) used to be quite freely available as tape head cleaner. It is still prevalent in some car de-icers. It is relatively non polar, needs quite a bit of rubbing to work and smells wonderful!

 

Methanol (also prevalent as a de-icer) works better than ethanol, but is easily absorbed by the skin and is quite toxic. There's usually one or two trainee doctors die each year when they mistake methanol for absolute alcohol....

 

Some of the chlorinated solvents are very effective, but most are toxic and are ozone depleters.

 

I have a particular favourite of di-isobutylketone which persists for ever (low evaporation rate) stinks the room out, and is useful (AFAIR) in solvent extraction of gold from aqueous biogeological surface films....

 

Simon

[pscandrett]

We[1] swear by Screwfix grafitti remover. We use standard sharpies, generally, on flightcase labels and anything else that's handy; that remover comes in a gel and removes it from virtually anything.

 

Only need a small bit from a laminate or flight case label; soak other materials and it shifts that (in general) too. We've tried loads of different brands and it's unbeatable. Ish. Thoroughly recommended.

 

HTH

 

[1] us technicians at www.message.org.uk/www.visitspace.net

[ThomJ]

Or you could use cigerette ash, lick finger and dip in ash tray then rub the offending label. I know this will upset non-smokers but it even works with permenant markers!!

 

If your going to use laminated paper why not run them through you printer first - eveybody has competers these days you can make you own funky and readable labels and change them at will, no need for the sharpie or marker.

 

Thom

 

still makes sence

[grumpy]

Personally, I would use Gaffa and Sharpie pens every time. Its quick, easy and can still look presentable to your client. For example I would always put the label on the bottom right hand of the case lid; looked good!

 

And its cheap!

[johnryan]

So how do you guys do it ?

 

I'm thinking of buying a brother label maker or something along those lines so I can identify flight cases.

 

Anyone got any really good ways, this is just so I can identify them, not hire or anything.

 

I've used different coloured adhesive sheets to identify content, but mainly case's position at the venue. Too much confusion and time is a fact when load-in crew doesn't know where things belong and have to ask people questions all the time and this way you will find your cases and equipment where it should be every night.

 

Depending on how many departments you have in a production, you will need that many color combinations...assuming you have three departments (sound, lights, video), here's an example:

 

White = sound

Green = lighting

Blue = video

 

White+Yellow = FOH sound (mixer, outboard racks etc)

White+orange = Stage sound (monitors, monitor mixer, racks, mics etc)

White+red = Stage back line (instruments, risers, props etc)

 

Green+yellow = FOH lighting control (mixers, follow pots, video etc)

Green+orange = rigged or flying lighting equipment (truss, pars, moving lights, lamps in general)

Green+red = lights placed on stage floor or not on overhead rigging systems

 

Blue+yellow = FOH video control (mixer, projectors ect)

Blue+orange = led walls, screens that attach to rigging etc

Blue+red = video equipment on stage floor (cameras, monitors for gobo, etc)

 

All this should naturally be labled with a Sharpie just to know what's inside.

 

It looks a bit too colorful in the beginning, but when your load in guys know the color schemes, setup time as well as load out can be very fast. Hopefully your crew will not be color-blind!?

 

John