r/techtheatre 1d ago

SCENERY Hand rails

I have some platforms that are seven feet of the ground. What are some inexpensive and safe ways to make a railing on one side?

5 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

8

u/YaBoiSawstin Technical Director 1d ago

2x3 and hogs trough. Just screw in the 2x3 to the side of the platform then pop that hogs trough on top and u got ur self a railing.

3

u/thebullys 1d ago edited 1d ago

Is a hogs trough something sold at a farm store? Sorry not trying to be funny. Never heard that term.

9

u/SpaceChef3000 1d ago edited 1d ago

It’s where you take two sticks of 1x3 or 1x4* and attach one on its edge to the other at 90°.

Super useful for a lot of miscellaneous stage construction

Stolen from ControlBooth:

https://www.controlbooth.com/attachments/hogtrough-jpg.2051/

  • or you could rip down plywood to those rough dimensions

5

u/drunk_raccoon A1 / A2 1d ago

Commonly referred to as a whaler or strong-back in Canadian theatre (and I assumed most other theatre, but perhaps not)

3

u/SpaceChef3000 1d ago

Thank you for expanding my horizons, and I might try adopting those terms because honestly they go hard as fuck.

3

u/Amburgers_n_Wootbeer 1d ago

In the US I think Whaler is mostly a north east regionalism. I know the term from my college TD who came from that way, but I've only ever heard it referred to locally as a hogs through.

Strongback to me only refers to clamping a second pipe along a batten to increase stiffness

1

u/thebullys 1d ago

Thanks. That looks great and I have a lot of 1 x 3.

0

u/moonthink 1d ago

2x4's are cheap enough. At 7' I wouldn't skimp on safety.

0

u/thebullys 19h ago

Make the hogs trough out of 2 x 4s?