Boom Set Up and Take Down plus Safety Tips

Never used a boom before.Was hoping experienced users of boom arms could talk about how to properly load and take down a boom with monolight and counter weight? Additional safety tips appreciated.

Like many years, many years ago when boom cymbal stands hit the market, we educated so that are nice expensive Zildjian would not topple over. If no counter weight, the cymbal must have one of the three legs directly underneath it. Otherwise an inappropriate cymbal crash if you not what I mean. The weight of the cymbal will pull towards the ground. With a counter weight, a little more than that. Depending on the weight of your counterweight will determine whether to put the leg under the counterweight or the light and modifier. As you set it up gently tap to see where the weight is heavier and put leg under the heavier.
Counter weights are subjective.
Ideally they are not.

Yes, leg positioning is a big consideration that many overlook.

Set up the rig with the stand at its lowest setting. Position it close to the spot you think it is needed. Then carefully extend the risers.

I try to extend each riser a similar amount as most stands have less back and forth sway that way.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Balance the boom. Just like being on the teeter-totter on the playground. Balance the boom.

Loosen the mount enough to allow it to move, and then either adjust the counterweight by weight or position until they boom is close to equally balanced.

When the boom is balanced, the issue of where the legs fall becomes nearly a moot point and the entire affair is much, much safer and much easier to handle.

To do this, you may need a real boom, rather than just a grip arm, so that you have enough length on each side to play with.

+1 to the other advice above.

I try to limit the counter-weight to 100% of the Light/Mod combo (payload) weight. This limits the offset from the stand to 50% of the boom's length, but keeps the all-up weight reasonable. Of course that's there to be broken when necessary.

Use a safety line or wire, always. Trads go with wire, I use 50 cm Dyneema strops.

Casters on the strong steel generous footprint stand - nearly always (assuming it's safe, naturally).

When either loading or unloading heavy (4-6 Kg) items onto a boom (& assuming that the stand is perfectly vertical), consider first having the boom clamped as nearly five degrees off vertical as possible - hook/counterweight down. At a stroke, this minimizes the moment/torque produced by any added load. (When not using locked-on weights, the five degrees also ensures that the free-to-twist hook stays in the correct orientation.) When loading, start with the counterweight (locked-on is preferred because they don't swing) and then add the light. Even though it will be initially out of balance, the reduced torque/moments will avoid any drama. Extend the boom as needed. Subsequently, with a good strong hand grip on the boom near the counterweight and having loosened both the balance and pivot controls, it's easy to deploy the boom at the desired angle and achieve perfect balance, all in one movement and with the boom under full control. Re-tighten both controls. My 2p. (Edit: Technique limited by studio height. A typical 'payload' for me on my steel boom is 5 Kg - 11 lbs.)

Safety first when using a boom.

To start, know your support goal. For me, the goal is placing a 20-lb load anywhere in space up to 9' of elevation with an offset of at least 4'. This is pretty ambitious as the total weight rises quickly, so I use a Junior rig with wheels. Additional gear includes the counterweight of 30 lbs and an assortment of steel safety cables.

silvermesa1 wrote in post #18669438
Never used a boom before.Was hoping experienced users of boom arms could talk about how to properly load and take down a boom with monolight and counter weight? Additional safety tips appreciated.

As others have mentioned properly counter balance your boom, when unlocked it shouldn't tip either way. I personally think it best policy to take no chances, even if the boom is properly counter balanced point the leg in the direction you least want it to go as it's less likely to go over one of the legs.

Righty tighty is a useful tip, it basically means your fixture should be arranged so that if it falls the tension on the locks/grips should increase helping to prevent drops.

Once you reach a certain point it isn't really possible to do it safely on your own, get someone to help take down or put up the boom, one of the best investments I ever made was buying a wind up stand as it means the equipment takes all the strain when raising or lowering the equipment but if that's not an option, just get help. Before that I was having to unlock with one hand while holding the whole setup with the other and it doesn't have to be that heavy for it to be a struggle, in hindsight it was stupid and dangerous and something I never want to repeat.

A wind up stand is out of the budget of most beginners but you should try and get the right equipment for the job, i.e. a cheap lightweight stand is probably the worst stand for a boom, a heavy stand with a large footprint is going to be much more stable etc.

Pay attention to the load capacity of your boom, cheap lightweight telescopic booms usually have very limited max loads at max extension.

Nice suggestions of wind up stands. As when ever I do it by myself, I don't feel safe moving the stand up or lowering it. So I end up booming less.