Ubiquitous (is a fun word); it describes the stinger. It is
the set electrician’s most used piece of equipment.
I don’t know where the name came from. It sounds cool. It implys to me that it is something that can sting you; you can get a shock from it.
I assume it is another one of those old Hollywood names for equipment, like the C-47 (a clothespin). I assume, too, that the source and meaning of the name is forgotten.
You hear different versions of where C-47 came from; it was a studio’s inventory name, it was a studio’s bin number for clothespins, etc., but none are convincing. It’s probably the same with stinger.
I am surprised by how often I see bad stingers from rental companies: the cable is not a SJO-type; the jacket is torn; the plugs are loose or damaged; missing ground prong; reversed neutral and hot; and every set electricians’ peeve; tie-lines missing, damaged, or too short. It creates needless work for set electricians and makes the rental house look bad.
Here is a good looking stinger from yesterday’s April 1st post:
I don’t know where the name came from. It sounds cool. It implys to me that it is something that can sting you; you can get a shock from it.
I assume it is another one of those old Hollywood names for equipment, like the C-47 (a clothespin). I assume, too, that the source and meaning of the name is forgotten.
You hear different versions of where C-47 came from; it was a studio’s inventory name, it was a studio’s bin number for clothespins, etc., but none are convincing. It’s probably the same with stinger.
I am surprised by how often I see bad stingers from rental companies: the cable is not a SJO-type; the jacket is torn; the plugs are loose or damaged; missing ground prong; reversed neutral and hot; and every set electricians’ peeve; tie-lines missing, damaged, or too short. It creates needless work for set electricians and makes the rental house look bad.
Here is a good looking stinger from yesterday’s April 1st post:
 |
| Here's a good stinger: SJO jacket in excellent condition, heavy-duty plugs, nice long tie-line, and even a heat-shrink label. |
If you had any question about yesterday’s post, plugging-in the ends will, of course, not damage the cable. It can be a good thing, since this protects the pins on the plugs.
I don’t think any set electrician normally plugs-in the ends. I do it sometimes when the plugs end up opposite of the tie lines. It’s just a way to keep the loose ends together.
A related post from last year about stingers:
https://electricgrip.blogspot.com/2019/11/wherver-there-is-outlet-you-can-plug.html
PS: With bates cables, I will often loosely plug the ends together. It is a way to protect the pins from damage.
The pins on bates cable are easily bent: which causes a bad connection; which leads to "what is that smell?"; which leads to finding a melting bates plug; which leads me to telling the DP "I need to shut a light down and re-patch it", which leads the DP to wonder, "does this gaffer know what he is doing?"
PPS: When I was a young man in this business (not long after dinosaurs were roaming the earth) most stingers were made with SO-type cable. SO-type cable is made for heavy service. You often see it hanging from ceiling boxes to power equipment in factories. Unfortunately it is like twice the diameter of SJO-type cable. You can imagine how bulky these things were. SJO cable is much better for what we do.