Tell the dumbest things you've seen on the job. I've got a young kid (OK, I'm old, he's 27 y.o. or so.) hired as a gopher. He's really not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but, he works hard. Took him with me yesterday to set the 100T crane up to lift a couple of propane tanks. I backed into the site, close to where I wanted to be, and scoped the situation out. Landing point was out the passenger side of the crane, so, pointed out to the gopher where I wanted to stop the crane, where the center of the turntable needed to be, and where the outriggers needed to set. OK, understand? Sure do boss. "OK, watch me" were my instructions as I climbed back into the cab. I started backing up, and I could see him standing there flat footed, "watching me". As I got closer, he kept "watching me". Not the first handsignal of any kind. He just kept "watching me". I finally did the best I could, and got out to see if I was in the right spot. There he was...still "watching me". :Banghead I suppose he would have "watched me" back over a pickup truck, if it would have been one there. I need to give more explicit instructions I suppose.
Damn bro, that's just dang funny. I mean, how often do you hire someone that actually does "exactly" what you said. Bah ha ha ha hahaha
I was pouring concrete on a high rise and when I got the first bucket of a 300 yard slab pour into place the new guy on the bucket said over the radio 'Alrighty operator that's good right there, go ahead and dump it.' Brain donor!
Might as well hit the load spin button too. :laugh
Funny you said that Hoister. At NASA the 'very old' overhead crane that picked and set the Space Shuttles and their external fuel tanks and solid rocket boosters had a spin feature. It could be dialed in to a specific degree, or minutes or even seconds in a 360 arc, and at any speed down to almost not moving at all. It took 2 operators to run it too, one for hoist and rotation and one for bridge and trolley. NASA wasn't taking many chances with the crane work on their precious bird.
A little off topic. But where did the rotation take place? The carriage rotated?
Between the load block's sheave clusters and the hook itself. If you look close at this shot and you'll see a hint of the device. http://s1029.photobucket.com/albums...al Corp projects/?action=view¤t=258.jpg
Interesting. I have gotten requests to spin a load doing little jobs for smaller contractors though. I always say they didn't order that option on that crane. Just one of the many dumb things you deal with in the rental business.
That right there is funny. Or the carpenters that ask you to move one end of the truss over 2". Or the guy giving you signals ..trying to say boom down, but, motioning you over. I've been tempted to get down out of the cab and come there...like he asked.
How about the guy's that No idea about cranes or boom trucks . Had one a while back that asked how much boom I had . I told him "67 feet" . He said "Good its only 60 feet over there" I ask " what does it weigh " He said "10,000 pounds " I say "We have to get a lot closer for me to be able to pick that up" He was upset and asked "Why , Isn't that a 12 ton boom ?"
My sister worked dispatch for a clay company. Woman called her to order to two truck loads of a certain type of clay. Then asked if she could get both loads on one truck. Errr. no, I'm sorry hun, it'll take two trucks.
Here's your Sign !!! , LOL
Couple years ago, worked on a project where they were tearing out and old feedmill system...had to take down a buncha' pipes, distributors, platforms ect... once we had all of that stuff down the foreman said, "last thing, pick up that grain bin, swing'er around to your other side and tip it down in the parking lot, weighs about 10,000lbs".....( bin was about 10ft wide, 20ft long, and 40'ft tall, AND had dividers inside for 8-10 separate bins inside, to top it off it was on 6 legs about 5-6ft off the ground. and who knows how much old feed that was stuck inside weighed ) I'm thinkin' ok, yeah right, that things gotta weigh at the very LEAST 25,000-30,000lbs...figured owell get the other stuff down and worry bout that when we get to it....got all the other stuff down and last thing i got was this big'ol bin.....told the guy, i think that thing weighs alot more than 10,000....AHH! that thing is for sure 10,000 he goes, that steel is alot thinner than you think!....we went on arguing bout weight, for had to been a half hour, ( at the time i was 21, guy "tried" taking advantage of the young pup on the job assuming i hadn't a clue what i was doing and i would just give in ) i called a good friend i knew from another company that did the same kinda work, told him the story/dimensions ect....said,"yea, they say it weighs 10,000"....well, after he stopped laughin' he agreed with me and said he thought as well, around the 30,000lb range..... (crane i had was a 90ton Link Belt HTC 8690, at the radius i was at, i was good for roughly 20,000).....i told the foreman that i couldn't handle that kinda weight and wasn't gonna chance it, risk is far bigger than the reward, i'll bring in our 165ton the following day.....after he got done throwin' tools and cussin' me out, the president of his company called and proceeded with chewin' me out as well bout the weight and how certain he was that it was 10,000.......said FINE, if you say it weighs 10,000, i'll put up to 15,000 on it and if it doesn't move even a fraction of an inch i'm unhookin' and outta here and come back with a bigger crane....hooked'er up, they cut loose a couple of the legs (made them weld pieces of steel on either side of each leg if for some reason it decided to slide/fall off the legs just incase) put 10,000 on'er....nothin....15,000.....nothin.....took a chance put 'round 19,000 on....didn't budge......said well she aint movin' ill bring the 165 in tomorrow im not doing it with this one.....then more tools flew....unhooked'er, packed up the 90ton and went home......next morning, brought out our 165ton 2010 Grove GMK 5165....got'er all set up, hooked on'er.....20,000....nothin......30,000....nothin yet......40,000....still nothin.....45,000......ah, she picked......foreman came over....How much it weigh?!?!..:cool2...bout filled his britches when i told'em it weighed roughly 46,000......guy didnt say a word to me the rest of the time i was there.....haha....as much as i wanted to jump all over him and rub it in i didnt, figured he already had his years worth of embarrassment that day.......haha...couple days later president of the company called me to apologize.......:duh:duh
You made a good call. Its all fun and games till you flip a rig over.
The gubberment loves those damn things. I been in several military hangers that had those installed on the hooks in the overheads. Never could figure out what the hell they did a good old fashioned bearing swivel hook wouldn't?
I was doing a shutdown on a Liebherr 996, and had some fitters from a labor hire company for the shutdown. Walking the machine to shutdown pad I swung it around a couple of times maybe. Anyhow, I set it up and shut it down, get off machine and one of the labor hire fitters asks me " how do you stop all those hydraulic hoses from getting tangled up in the middle when you swing it around? " And I had this guy for a week long shut. Moron.
Hey Zed : Good question if you never saw a juice crane before, shows he was thinking at least, I assume you told him all about it and he was a better worker for it after the week. shippy
Have to be careful what you say to non crane people . Few years back while lifting a stack in place a brand new engineer was watching and asked the oiler why the guys had to turn it by hand . Oiler popped off with " The spinner is broke , We just haven't had time to fix it." He in turned called the office and wanted to know why they sent out defective equipment . Boss said it took 20 minutes to nicely explain that he had just been "had" .
Shipman: I did actually try to teach this guy something, and instead of replying with a stupid comment I told him about the Rotary Joint and how it worked. What i didn't like was the fact that this guy was talking himself up big time before the shut. Trouble was we had a good crew of experienced guys there, who heard his question and they all just shook their heads... most guys I know who are any good, don't brag about how good they are, they just hook in and do the job. I love it when a guy can say to me " I'm not an expert, but I'll try my best". Rather than a guy who tells me he knows everything, then fails miserably.
Whenever I want to impress people on the job site, I tell them, "That's the way we did it on that big job down in Texas.". Of Course, I've never worked in Texas, but, it sounds impressive.
I always try to make a good impression. By trying to be the best operator that anyone has ever had the pleasure of working with in any and all circumstances. And sometimes that also means doing nothing. Saying 'No, we won't do it like that. It's not safe, not legal, not wise and not going to happen under my hook! We can do it this way and get it done safely or stand around and talk about it until then.' Some folks like it and some don't. Oh well it matters not as long as it gets done right. Once we decide to make the lift then it's back to my first sentences, and let's get'er done!
Zed: Guys like that eventually get their comeuppance. You tried. Shippy
Those sort of comments get put up on the notice board! Around here these sort of guys end up with supervisor jobs because the managers dont want to loose the guys that know the job off the tools, then they wonder why everyone walks when they have a clown for a supervisor
Once upon a time I took a job operating a boom truck. Started work. The Iron worker that was rigging jumped up on the deck while we were waiting and asked "do you always operate boom trucks?" I replied no. He then asked what type of cranes do I usually operate. (wait for it) I replied I usually operate cranes with seats!
Come on guys not everyone is a sharp tack. I got a new soldier in, in the winter. His first day at work after in-processing we had about 12" of fresh snow. I walked him down to the tank line past about 20 other soldiers shoveling snow, unlocked the CONEX, handed him a snow shovel......the kids looks at me an says.....what do I do with this SGT??? Rick
I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago. Had a guy going but I straightened him out and he finally had a laugh.