I am a 1st step Crane apprentice, but came into the union as an apprentice dirt donkey. So I got 5 weeks of dirt training, but missed out on crane training. I am coming up on 1000 hours working as an oiler (110 ton Linkbelt 218 conventional crawler). I have been pretty lucky to get decent seat time on our link belt 80/80 (80 ton rough terrain hydro) and our 22 ton boom truck. I have been pumping the 2 operators I work with for all the info I can, but feel I need to round out my knowledge before going into my branch change board interview (scheduled for Dec 18)...and starting the certification process. I was looking @ the NCCCO website and thought of their books, but @ $40 a pop ($ kinda tight) I figured I better ask what you all suggest for reading material. Thanks in advance.
Does your apprenticeship not provide your NCCCO training? We run our own NCCCO classes at our training site so all the reading material for the written tests are provided. As an oiler, first and foremost, get your rigging and signaling. Best guys in the seat chased hook before they ever turned a key. Seat time is great but working in the blind and rigging is stuff you'll want to know when you eventually take a seat. For pocket guides, Crosby Group has a pretty handy little pocket reference card that's pretty slick.
want some fun reading try reading osha's new laws pertaining to cranes. Also read through the steel erection part of osha guidelines that pertains to Ironworkers. Enjoy there will be a test afterwards!
Basspro: there is a whole bunch of operators manuals for PAT-Hirschmann LMI systems (in most Link Belt, Grove, Demag, etc) that may be helpful to you here: http://www.bodetechnicalservices.com/crane-technical-support/crane-manual Also service and troubleshooting manuals here: http://www.bodetechnicalservices.com/crane-technical-support/crane-service-manual They may be a bit advanced for where you are now, but depending on how much you get into the maintenance side versus just being an operator it may be helpful in the future. Good luck and keep learning !
Basspro, Sorry I didn't reply to your question about training books. I just replied to a thread asking some questions about cranes and included link to the best book out there.Can't remember the price,had mine a while. This book is bible in local 150's training and certification. Its always good when I here about someone seeking knowledge.