New toys

After I showed off our new stand in the last post, folks are wondering what it is.

It's a spring-assisted Ultimate Support stand with a leveling leg for uneven surfaces.  Check it out here: http://www.ultimatesupport.com/products/speaker-lighting-stands/air-powered-series/ts-110bl.html
We have attached a platform from one of our Workroom Valets so we can raise shades that are longer than the ceiling height of our workroom.  With the optional extension, it can raise to nearly 12'.   The shade above was too long to hang in the workroom, so we took it outside.
In the workroom, we can hang shades up to about 81" long with our double rows of assorted clamps mounted under a shelf John built; or we can use a Workroom Valet.   Click on Workroom Valet to download the brochure.   

But hanging shades isn't the first reason we got the Ultimate Support stand.  What we really originally wanted it for was to use our new Dewalt self-leveling laser in rooms with high ceilings.  The laser marks a level red line around the perimeter of the room to mark for hardware placement.  Check it out here: https://www.toolnut.com/DeWalt_DW089K_Self_Leveling_3_Beam_Line_Laser_p/dw089k.htm?gclid=CMDCz87vzMYCFdcXHwodp2MEKAhttps://www.toolnut.com/DeWalt_DW089K_Self_Leveling_3_Beam_Line_Laser_p/dw089k.htm?gclid=CMDCz87vzMYCFdcXHwodp2MEKA

We first used this on the U-shaped room with continuous iron poles totaling 461".  You can see the sort of crazy weights that John rigged up- the laser at the top was so lightweight that lowering the spring-assisted stand was not easy (the stand is meant for speakers and it's assumed that there will be weight up there).  I'm going to guess that the red line saved us an hour and a half of climbing up and down ladders!

The next job we used it for, we improvised an extension with a piece of wood pole- yeah, we still hadn't ordered the extension.  In this room we needed to measure up about 110" around the perimeter of the room.   You can see the red line in the middle of the Greek Key trim on the soffit.  The trim was already there, and it was essential that we confirm that it was truly level, before drilling holes in it for the hardware. 

Well, there you have it, a few of our new toys!