Working the National 1300A

[Natman]

I never did get a handle on the people building this place, in a very small rural town, not a high dollar neighborhood by any means. They were mid 30's in age, and took forever to pay me, THAT I clearly remember! The threat of a lien works really well on heavily financed/mortgaged properties, I'm not sure on a place that was being built with cash, and don't want to find out. The lending instituion is the best friend of a contractor trying to get paid and making noises about filing a lien I've found, about a half dozen times in over 20 years. I only have gone all the way twice, the others just the threat got me paid.

 

[Natman]

Argon concentrators I think they called these, the work being done by a special crew all the way from Arizona. All they do is travel around the West doing gas supply work. Lot's of stainless steel and another metal I hadn't heard of, that is so expensive a few sticks on the pickup rack can cost over 30K. The tanks in back were double walled, with a vacuum between them, not active/pressurized while the work was done, I asked. This all explains why an argon mix tank refill costs so much!

 

[DMiller]

Little unit in foreground is a Vaporizer, takes a liquid COLD Supplied concentrated gas that is semi liquid turns into full gas with atmospheric ambient heat, simple passive system we had on our N2 and O2 systems at the Nuke. Alloy probably Monel.
Think SS Coffee or beverage containers we have all had for work, Vacuum allows the Cold to remain COLD as no air with any heat to cause liquid boil off/heat ups of these gases or cool downs for our coffee.

 

[crane operator]

Somebody forgot to put their beams out....

Its was probably the "don't block the driveway" nonsense. It always irritates me when they want you to bring in crane, counterweight truck, semi with a chiller unit, but "we need access for the customers- so you can't block anything." WELL here's a news flash, we're blocking a whole bunch of this area, because it ain't a VW we're putting in here.

 

[DMiller]

Hillmann Crane in St Peters once had a Woman walk up and request the crane be moved from the sidewalk area where it was, she was totally serious as noted her Dog preferred that area to do her business and needed the crane out of its way. Old man Hillmann reflected on that as I replaced a leaking rotary joint, he snickered, 'told her to carry the dog elsewhere to make poo!"

 

[HATCHEQUIP]

Bet you suffered keeping that belly laugh in until she got away

 

[Natman]

I had to short jack that side to keep their driveway open for their own trucks, only after I asked what the vaporizers (you got it right DMILLER, monel also) weighed, not much. Everytime I do so, short jack one side, I appreciate not having the A frame types like on my previous 3 BTC boom trucks. I have a shed move Monday morning, on a 2 lane road, I'll block one lane only, making the lift shortjacked directly over the rear (18' radius from the road, just over their backyard fence) possible, otherwise I'd be picking a 8'x16' shed from a 66' radius, doable, but I'd be set up on a steep narrow driveway with my pads on their lawn, and swinging the shed over the house. I'll do that if I have to but with that nice level city street right there....., I suppose I should get permission from the city, but I've found flagging with the proper official looking traffic stands and putting my flashers on pretty much lets me briefly park where I want, 30 mph limit on the street, wide shoulder, good viz, and I'll have my spreader bar rigged, pads on, should take 15 minutes max.
Late yesterday I get a hurryup call to unload a excavator's 24 K counterweight, no problem I told them BUT I have to be right close to the trailer, simply lift it up and hold while the truck pulls away, and set it right down. That'll work they said. I get there, rig my 15 ton load block, and the guy on the phone, the trucker and I all agree on where to set up, we rig it, and just as I'm starting to winch up, a front office guy comes out and says "actually, we need it on that loading dock" and that's about 45' away and not going to happen, classic! The trucker and I looked at each other, disgustingly, it being 5:00 Friday by then, the two Kamatsu guys talked it over some more, and I ended up setting it down as originally told, all good.

 

[crane operator]

I got curious, so I've got a camera/ display set up on the way. I'll let you know how it works. The camera's are magnetic mount, solar panel and batteries, supposedly go to sleep when you shut off the main monitor. We'll see....

 

[Natman]

One thing to watch for...., I think I mentioned before that once when working totally blind, watching a sheeted gable move towards the end wall, everything going good, my boom bottom contacted the framing on a 2 story home, didn't even scratch the paint luckily. It's a bit of a learning curve on how to divide your attention between the LMI, the monitor, and looking out the window as usual! Getting your visual cues from the screen rather than directly thru your eyeballs is the same but different, but once you get some time on it it's business as usual, but better, you can do precision work. I just did a couple HVAC jobs, for crews that know they don't need to have a guy stand at the roof edge while giving me bad directions (like telling me to extend when all I need to do is boom down more, or the opposite) it's fun to lower the hook dead nuts over the center of the units, watch them rig it, and then cable up, all without seeing anyone first hand, BUT still seeing them better but thru the screen.

 

[Natman]

I did two shed moves yesterday, just lucky on the timing as they were unrelated, so I had all the needed rigging out already. Had some wind and a very tight area on the second one to deal with.