Power Drops

J

Jamin Lynch

Sophomore
Jan 11, 2011
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South Texas
Trying to improve and simplify the power situation for backline gear. Just wondering what some of you are using for power drop boxes for small to medium sized stages. I saw these on the Whirlwind website. They look really nice and easy but are a little expensive. I often need to run power in the front and back of the stage. Something that's expandable would be nice. Suggestions???

http://whirlwindusa.com/catalog/power-electrical-distribution/edison-boxes/pl1-420-wh

Thanks
 
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Re: Power Drops

I make essentially the same thing using weatherproof boxes, stainless plates, weathertight cord grips, powercons, and commercial grade receptacles. I'll see if I can come up with a picture. I don't do powercon in and out, since I figure that there will always have to be a feed cable, I just leave it attached. However, I do put on two powercon outlets so I can split the feed to wherever.
 
Re: Power Drops

I know you like to have pretty heavy-duty gear for everything, but this is the way I do it.

http://www.lexproducts.com/cs/enter...tertainment&productLineId=17&subCategoryId=98

I use these plus some simple triple taps and run this around the stage. I like to keep everything on edison plugs. It means I can find replacement parts at any hardware store if I'm away from home. No one has turned their nose up at using triple taps on a stringer yet.

Also, while Lex makes a very nice product, I did pick up the home despot equivalent once from a clearance sale so a lot of my stringers are the dreaded yellow. They are fully SO rated, though, and 12/3.
 
Re: Power Drops

Ken at OA Windsor made me a stage stringer that I've been very happy with. Six outlets spaced six feet apart on 12/3 SOOW with a 20 foot leader, works very well for the small and medium stages I do. Excellent quality and very durable.
stringer.JPG
 
Re: Power Drops

I have both the stage stringer from the Amp Shop and a bunch of drops I built with Windsor boxes. Doing it again, I would build the stringer from Windsor boxes. I prefer the rubber with no hanging edges.
 
Re: Power Drops

I picked up some powerblocks from Walmart for $5 or $6 each. They are a solid YELLOW plastic block with regular 15 amp edison prongs on one end and a single edison jack on the other end, along with 2 edison jacks on each side. There is a cable loop lock on each end to help prevent pull outs for stringing them together. You can always spray paint them black but the yellow is easier to find on a dark stage. I wrote my name on the bottom ;>) I saw a freind using them and asked where he found them. I replaced my not as safe duplex cord ends with heavy duty single cable recepticals and use these for multiple outlets.

Mike mcNany
 
Jay Barracato said:
I have both the stage stringer from the Amp Shop and a bunch of drops I built with Windsor boxes. Doing it again, I would build the stringer from Windsor boxes. I prefer the rubber with no hanging edges.
Click to expand...

The Windsor stuff looks very tempting. I'm sort of old school with Killark 2FS-2 quad boxes, Hubbell Kellems, Hubbell receptacles and 12/3 SOOW. If I did more live work stringers would be cool, but it's hard to beat a quad box with a decent lead in terms of versatility. I have some L14-30 boxes with loop-throughs when I need to get more power more places.


Posted via Tapatalk app - lower standards may apply.
 
Re: Power Drops

Bennett Prescott said:
I have been nothing but impressed with the Windsor stuff. I am always happy when I see a lot of their powercon in and through to 2x duplex Edison boxes.
Click to expand...

Funny, but good stage power makes me happy also. A lot of my shows are walkups on venues rigs with little or no time to really check things out. Seeing good drops in place gives me an overall confidence that the other little details have been seen to as well.

Even when I am just traveling with my stage rig I still carry four 25 foot quads, and a couple of 3 foot quads. I bet I am asked by venue people about the drops more often than any other part of my stage setup.
 
Re: Power Drops

Bennett Prescott said:
I have been nothing but impressed with the Windsor stuff. I am always happy when I see a lot of their powercon in and through to 2x duplex Edison boxes.
Click to expand...

I've yet to make the powercon transition - mostly because none of the companies and venues I work with have either, but also because I don't really have the need. All my now-outdated SOS is IEC input with a few exceptions, and all the venues I deal with have edisons, range plugs or Cam Locks. Sexy powercon stage stringers are...., well...... , sexy - but I've yet to see how they'll make me more money unfortunately. It also means more redundant cabling for me(powercon-powercon and edison-powercon for wall power crap, plus powercon-iec for the SOS or more drops -YUCK!!!). My stage boxes are based on some surplus military tent power boxes which have a perpendicular split to the quad box and a female edison on a short lead (I've swapped most the quad boxes and female outputs compared to the one in the photo, as well as removed the cover - not perfect but it works). The rest are all regular Killark quads. For the code police, no the stage boxes are not SOOW - they are milspec. Never been an issue and I always have plenty of quads with SOOW if it ever were an issue.

IMG_0345.jpg
 
Re: Power Drops

Mike McNany said:
I picked up some powerblocks from Walmart for $5 or $6 each. They are a solid YELLOW plastic block with regular 15 amp edison prongs on one end and a single edison jack on the other end, along with 2 edison jacks on each side. There is a cable loop lock on each end to help prevent pull outs for stringing them together. You can always spray paint them black but the yellow is easier to find on a dark stage. I wrote my name on the bottom ;>) I saw a freind using them and asked where he found them. I replaced my not as safe duplex cord ends with heavy duty single cable recepticals and use these for multiple outlets.

Mike mcNany
Click to expand...

These are also available in dark green.
 
Re: Power Drops

We have those exact power drops our C power and "tradeshow" power. They even have the same olive drab webbing ties. They usually get used when we have a bunch of shows going on the same day.

Those lids sure snap down hard on your fingers!

I never really liked the fact that the pass through was in the middle, with the molded split. It is a bit ugly, and makes packing them more of a pain. However I was forced to use these on a festival this summer and I found it worked pretty well for downstage power. 1 box every 10 feet, with 5' of slack to get it where it needs to be. Occasionally I had to add a quad box to get far enough upstage, but most of the pedal boards were easily served by these boxes. Upstage I still prefer a 5 wire stringer.
 
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