So I've been working at the shop that chews people up for the last week. I have been working on this show on and off for 5 weeks now. One week on, one week off, because quite honestly, I would show up with an assault rifle if I worked there all the time. (well that is if I could get one in this uptight state...) At any rate, I was working on an automation effect for the last week. It wasn't an exotic effect, but it took a bit of thought.
More stupidity ensues...
Supposedly, the head of automation in this shop was working on the effect for 2 weeks before I started in. Somehow I don't think so, since I did everything except decide what would power the effect. I wish they had given me that choice too, but I'll get to that in a moment... Basically, the effect involves making a whole bunch of things rock back and forth at the same time. They're all about 4 feet apart, and they're on a vertical curve. So to tie them together, they decided to use 1/4" threaded rod. First problem. That threaded rod is about as strong as spaghetti in compression over a 4' distance, tension is fine. So I had to create a better solution for that, no big deal, I figured they just missed that concept...
Next thing was how they wanted to power them. They chose to use a servo motor since they could set position, and choose the direction the units would start rocking in. Not a bad idea really. I'm not a big servo fan personally, but they do work well for that type of thing. Here is were the real problem starts. The servo they got is really underrated for the amount of force needed. It can move the effect, but just barely, and that's no goot for theatre, when we need it to be solid all the time. Fine, get a bigger servo is the solution. In the mean time, I had to install the undersized units. Now, since I'm not a servo kinda guy, I really don't know much about them. My assumption based on the conversations with everyone was that the new units would drop in to the mounts I made for the smaller units pretty easily. I assumed that since they ordered the bigger units they might have checked to see that there was actually enough space in the scenery to install them. I finally assumed that the actuator arm I was using for the smaller units would either fit on the larger unit, or they would get a corresponding arm that would provide me with the same radial distance from the axis of the small servo. Naturally, none of those assumptions was good. Keep all this in mind for a moment.
The scenery that all this was installed on has been sitting on the shop floor for almost a month. Now, at best, we could have worked on the effect for perhaps the last two weeks. At the end of yesterday, I had to put it all in a truck to send to the theatre, so really there was a two week window in which to make the effect work. I was off in PA for the first week of that time, so why nothing happened during that time I can't say, so they put me on it with a week to go. Still not a bad situation, assuming that someone had thought this through at all. After mounting the pivots, I started on the tie rods of threaded rod. That didn't work, but they had me do the entire system with it any way. So I came up with a solution, and they bought me enough material the fix half of the problem the next day. Genius I tell ya... I moved on to the servos (didn't know they were undersized yet, but they had supposedly ordered a bigger one and fed-exed it just in case) and it took me several hours of work to get them installed properly in the first of two units. The second one was a bit easier since I had already found the pitfalls on the first unit. So after powering them up, everyone seems to agree that they need to be bigger. I'm thinking no problem, the new units will be in the next day, and I can make drop them in, or have to modify the mount a little, but no biggie... That was Weds... Thurs I fixed the rest of the threaded rods, and balanced the system out a little better, along with getting the units lined up nicely, and labeling everything. All that time (10 hours) I'm waiting for the new servos, which never came. Friday, I know I'm supposed to break everything down to put on the truck, but because I assumed the new servos would be a simple re-fit to the old plate, I'm not worried... Well the new servo came in at 2:30. By then I had taken the entire effect off the scenery, weighed it, and packed it on a truck. They had me the new unit, and it's like twice the size of the old unit, the actuator arms that it comes with are not only plastic rather than aircraft aluminum (can you say garbage?) but they have a different hub size, so I can't use the old one. Also none of the new ones are the same radial distance as the old ones. Its still not the end of the world since I figure I can just plot the axel of the old unit, and then re-engineer the mount to hold the new one. Sadly the genius brigade that is in charge decided to go with the smaller units, and they want me to make the mount work for these monsters simply as a backup plan. Well its not quite possible to get the axel of the big ones in the same spot as the small ones with out chewing in to the mounting points for the small unit. I got it close... They're within a 1/4" of where the small units sit. It was the end of the day, and I was frustrated with the idiocy, so I failed to mention that 1/4" at the axel will translate to 8" at the visible end of the effect. I did tell them about the 1/4" difference, I just didn't spell out the consequences for them. (hey, they're in charge, and are supposedly the experts, they should know these things... if not, they'll learn it in a hurry in a week or so when the little units burn out)
I left them on that sour note being very glad that I was done. I can accept all manor of problems with equipment, and shipping, and even perhaps not understanding all the different types of material. My real problem with this situation was that nobody in charge, nobody with any authority, actually thought about this, even a little. They handed me a few spare parts and said make it work. I love a challenge, but in order to overcome things like that, they need to let me do it my way. They need to order what I tell them to, when I tell them to... If they will not do the paperwork and research on the equipment before hand, they need to tell me that, and I'll do it on my off time at home, just so I won't be so damn frustrated when I need to make things happen in a hurry... I have seen this shop turn out amazing automated scenery for years, and have never been a part of that. Now after this, I can't even imagine the headache that must be the constant in the automation department. I also tend to be a little scared, since many of the automation projects there are incredibly powerful, and could shred a person in the blink of an eye... I think I'll have to really go over everything myself if I ever rent from them... I've lost almost all my faith in their ability at this point...