Here at Creative Conners we’ve always sold many of the parts that go into our machines- winch drums, gearmotors, encoders, etc… But we didn’t have those items on our website, so a lot of customers didn’t know they were available from us. Well, that’s been fixed. We just put up a new ‘Machine Parts‘ page that has all the machine parts you can purchase from us along with the price and availability.

So if you’re looking to make your own machine and need some parts, or if you’re looking to replace some worn-out parts of your gear, this is the place for you. And if you see something you like, just give us a call or email me at ian@creativeconners.com.

Last week we finished testing our new Curtain Call traveler winch and shipped the first two production units out to Geffen Playhouse. The truss and track was generously lent to us by Stage Machines. Here’s a video of the rig in action:

Big news today – We are extending our machinery line-up with the addition of the Curtain Call traveler winch. It’s a 1hp machine designed to mount directly to the batten or truss that holds your traveler track, and of course it’s powered by a Stagehand AC for plug-and-play compatibility with Spikemark. You can read all about it on the website by clicking here.

Email me at ian@creativeconners if you have any questions about Curtain Call. And if you subscribe to the LSA email news, keep an eye out for our ad.
 

Here’s the official press release:

Creative Conners Introduces New Curtain Call Traveler Winch

Creative Conners, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of its new Curtain Call machine, designed specifically for traveler tracks. Compact and tough, this latest addition to the Creative Conners stable of electric winches provides live performances with an affordable and elegant option for automating traveler curtains.

Curtain Call will join the Pushstick winch and Revolver turntable friction drive in the company’s line of machines, offering a comprehensive solution to theatres, schools and scene shops looking to automate all aspects of their scenery.

“Our customers have had a lot of success using our Pushstick winch to rig their travelers, but it was a little bit overkill. Curtain Call will do the same job, but it will be cheaper and smaller. Since it mounts to the batten, it won’t be on the floor freeing up valuable wing space,” says Gareth Conner, Founder and President of Creative Conners.

Curtain Call employs a 1-HP SEW Eurodrive gearmotor within a steel frame and uses a v-pulley loop to move the track haul line. The frame includes 1.5″ pipe for easy mounting with cheeseboroughs to either pipe battens or box truss. By mounting to the batten or truss, there won’t be any ropes or machines on the deck, and the traveler can be flown out.

Curtain Call comes ready to plug into a Stagehand motor controller allowing for seamless integration with Spikemark scenic-automation software from Creative Conners.

Creative Conners, Inc. is located in Warren, RI and makes scenic automation equipment for live performances. For more information, please visit www.creativeconners.com or contact us at (401) 289-2942 or by email: sales@creativeconners.

Spikemark, Pushstick, Revlover, and Curtain Call are trademarks of Creative Conners, Inc.

Our customers sometimes ask us what we recommend for a basic tool kit. We think about it, and then try to remember everything, and then recite a list off the top of our heads, which isn’t the best way to do it. So we decided to put our tool kits together, take some pictures and tell you a little about what we like. Because we like tools.

We’re starting today with Gareth’s setup. He describes this as the kit he would put together if he needed to work on either control or machinery, but didn’t know exactly what.

He’s got a great selection here. On the control side, he’s got the Fluke 117 multimeter, which has 2 nice features: The screen is backlit, so it’s great in a dark theater, and it also has an ammeter, for checking current. Also check out his probe assortment- they don’t take up a lot of room and they improve the quality of his life.

He also carries a full soldering kit with a mini Pana-Vise clamp. He’s tried to get by with the smaller (and cheaper) standalone irons, but when it comes to soldering encoder wires, a full setup is the way to go. It’s heavier, but Gareth decided over the years that the extra weight was worth it.

He’s got a couple of custom items, too. There’s a brake testing light, a couple of limit jumpers, a 24volt wall adapter for bypassing the Showstopper and even an Ethernet crossover adapter. With these, he can reduce the control down to the minimum to help troubleshoot.

In the lower right is a Gareth classic- the pipe-style vise grips. The ends work like regular grips and he can also grab pipe or (when it comes to that) machine shaft.

The orange bit case has a right angle driver with ratcheting 1/4″ & 5/16″ sockets so you can use with screw & allen bits or chuck up 1/4″ drive sockets. That little driver is a life saver when working in cramped machines where the last set screw is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Then there’s the usual assortment of wrenches, pliers, nippers, nut drivers, allen keys, and a flashlight.

Rounding out the kit is the red bin, which he keeps stocked with small mechanical parts like master links and keys.

That’s Gareth’s kit. But we want to know about what you guys keep around. Is there a special tool you can’t live without? We want to hear from you, and we want to see your setups. Take a picture, tell us what you got and email it to me at ian@creativeconners.com. If we get anything good, we’ll post it here. And who doesn’t like to look at tools?

We have a gently-used 2hp Pushstick rental winch that we are releasing into the wild. List price for a new 2hp Pushstick is $13,995, but you can add this beauty to your inventory for just $9,995! And if you want to pile-on the savings, you can get a Pushstick Starter Kit with this winch for $17,995 or our Pushstick Add-On Kit for $16,495. So if you’d like to give this great piece of gear a good home, call us at (401) 289-2942 or email me at ian@creativeconners.com.

This week we shipped a custom winch for Daedalus Design and Production for use in the new tour of Einstein On The Beach. The frame measures just 16” x 20” x 10” high and weighs only 80 lbs., which puts it well below our Pushstick winch. It was a fun project and it was nice to have a machine in the shop that one person could carry around!

This winch was designed with a yo-yo style drum, with the cable wrapping on top of itself (like a yo-yo) as opposed to the standard winch drum style where each wrap lays in it’s own groove. We chose the yo-yo style because the effect didn’t require much travel and a yo-yo drum can be made out of waterjet-cut parts and assembled in-house. The winch is required to move a 2000 lb. wagon along a track at a very slow speed, so we chose a 1 HP motor with a 50:1 gearbox.

Daedalus also asked us to build a double-scissor lift platform that got us back into the hydraulics swing. And as we’ve been discovering almost everyday for the last 4 months, having a full-sized shop and some extra people makes a big difference.