Mechanical Design for the Stage

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Cable Drums

Grooved Cable Drums

Grooved cable drums are extremely common on stage because they are an essential component of all winches, the most common piece of stage machinery. In essence, a grooved cable drum is a section of thick-walled pipe whose outer surface has been cut with a continuous spiral groove into which a wire rope will wrap. The groove supports and protects the wire rope, keeps its speed relative to drum rotation predictable and repeatable, and works against the snags and snarls a cable overwrapping itself can cause. Ungrooved drums, which are much easier to make, offer none of these advantages and are therefore inappropriate for use on stage. The following information describes the design of a grooved cable drum for typical ...