Impact's "Things Done at Work"

Squirt booms do that, not like Lattice booms where most pressure in straight down those masts.

You ought to ride a Lineman 80' Scissor Boom man lift, they use Fiberglass Tubes for the Mast, swing and sway, bow like a Recurve nocked up for a shot!! The 110' "Elevator" models were a blast as went Over Center at Full Up!!! ALL and ANY Slack all revealed itself to the guy in the Basket!! EYE Opening butthole puckering!

Impact said:

Tension or compression?

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That has to be a dam big trout on the end of that fishing line

DMiller said:

Squirt booms do that, not like Lattice booms where most pressure in straight down those masts.

You ought to ride a Lineman 80' Scissor Boom man lift, they use Fiberglass Tubes for the Mast, swing and sway, bow like a Recurve nocked up for a shot!! The 110' "Elevator" models were a blast as went Over Center at Full Up!!! ALL and ANY Slack all revealed itself to the guy in the Basket!! EYE Opening butthole puckering!

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Err no thanks

Was a mechanic for Union Electric
When replaced the rotary bearing and chain on the bigger Altec units it was the guy that assembled it that tested it!!

110’ elevators were NO fun
They as conventional cranes had anemometers to gauge wind speeds
Over 6mph and it would first warn then lock out all up travels.

DMiller said:

When replaced the rotary bearing and chain on the bigger Altec units it was the guy that assembled it that tested it!!

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That is the method the Army used to fix problems with the parachute packers in WW2. All done packing chutes for the day? I'll pick one you packed and we are going for a jump.

This is a later version of what I am referring to:


The tube sections are engineered fiberglass mast for Dielectric integrity, use two hydraulic cylinders on a link affair we called a chain to rotate/extend the upper booms.

I have never been afraid of heights. Climbed all my life, although I'm too old to be good at it any more. But scariest thing I ever done is get in our 120' JLG man lift!

DMiller said:

This is a later version of what I am referring to:

The tube sections are engineered fiberglass mast for Dielectric integrity, use two hydraulic cylinders on a link affair we called a chain to rotate/extend the upper booms.

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Must be water sloshing out of the bucket , thought the guy might be squirting with a high pucker factor until i saw that no one was in the bucket

Basket has the supplied cover water collector over it
That entire assembly can stand straight up
Are controls at truck and in basket as to how being operated
Line crews would take basic 60 and 80 footers run them over-center to get maximum reach of them sideways.
Fiberglass sections are not truly fastener afixed to the steel pieces
The use of two part epoxy injected into the space between was typical
Would pop and bang as shrank and lost adhesion
Would buy 8-10 lincoln grease gun mix epoxy fill a gun where used lube fitting to re-inject and re attach them
Usually at around the five year mark.
Guns were junk when done.

Highest Ive been is 60 feet to the tail of a 777, using an 80 ft JLG. I once had a 60 ft JLG topped out inspecting a 767 tail and that was no fun. Now we have 125 ft JLG with the extending axles and to that machine 60 ft is nothing.

We had our 165 ton set up on a job a few years ago. 197’ of boom out with the jib on..72’ I think. We were only working 100’ high or so but had a really long reach up and over. At lunch time a buddy and his friend stopped by to meet me for lunch. My buddy calls asking where was I. Look up. Myself and the crew were in a man basket headed down. My buddy was freaked but his friend was intrigued. All he talked about over lunch was how fun it looked. So after lunch had the operator drop the basket to give us both a lift up. We passed the crew at 100’ and kept going up. I was talking to the operator on the radio. The guy was gripping the side rails until his fingers turned white. His arm was touching mine..125’ 150’ 200’ 250’..up until it two blocked at about 275’ high. His arm was shaking bad...I radioed down for the operator to swing us 360 around the lot...The guy said NO...please No, lets go down. Haha ok.

Spoke with the guy that repaired the plant Cooling Tower lights, took an hour and a half to climb the ladder works to the top. Took LOTS of breaks!! I stood atop the Turbine Building as had to do fire extinguisher checks up there in Stairway Ports 140'. and ALL Stairs to get there. Been to the top of the dome i the can(Round or Reactor Building) at the plant, touched the pivot for the inspection basket the crane pushed around, 180' to top inside. and the tallest Elevator truck I over centered in the basket was a 110' unit, impressive when can no longer tell if truck is still running(Noise goes away)!!

At the big crane show in Vegas 6 (?) years ago, they had some man lifts with 300' of up. Pretty sure I have that right, they had a schedule listed as to when they would give rides, I wanted to watch others, no way for me, I'll stick with an airplane to get that high.

I won a raffle for trip to the top of the Mackinac Bridge, deck is 200 feet above water, top of the tower is 552. So you take a 2 man elevator (with 3 of us in it, me my daughter and the bridge guy) up 300 feet and climb vertical ladder about 30 feet with a couple resting landings. I do not like heights but it was on my bucket list
I'd seen photos, the top of the tower cross "beam" is 15 feet wide with the 1950's 2 or 3 tube railing. Shouldn't be a problem staying in the middle. Bridge guy goes 1st to open the hatch, I'm second, daughter last. I get to the top of the ladder and figure the hatch will be in the middle. Nope, I'm facing south and the edge of the "beam" is about a foot from the hatch. I climbed up about waist high to the bean and realize I'm 550 feet above the water, 350 feet above the roadway. Did I mention, there is no tie off on the top? My breath is taken away and I'm almost paralyzed. He can't really help me out with the hatch lid right behind me and I'm up against the"rail". I can't reach the mid level tube. I can't lean forward to leverage myself up.
I finally get my breathing back LOL, get enough leverage to lean sideways and rotate enough to lay my upper torso on the beam and wiggle my body onto the"beam". My daughter pops right up and out. I stay sitting right in the middle and really enjoy the view. My daughter and the bridge guy are visiting and leaning on the railing.
He's one of the bridge workers and we are both civil engineers. He says I really should take you back down but I'm really enjoying talking with you 2 engineers so you tell me when you want to go down. It was supposed to be 20 minutes but we spent about 45. He was telling us about when they took the covering off the cables and did a in depth wire inspection as well as all the different tasks keeping the bridge maintained.
2 years ago my daughter won a silent auction to the top of the International Bridge in Sault St Marie. "Trip" for up to 6. So myself, daughter, SIL SIL's father and my nephew. That one 220 feet up and you end up ver the Locks. They are all concerned about me since I don't like heights.I have to admit I was concerned I might bail. But you are tied off to a railing at all times and it's a gradual (but steep) "walk" up the top of one of the 2 built up trusses. Maybe 18 inches wide.
Bridge guy first, SIL father next since heights don't bother him, SIL, daughter, me, nephew and bridge guy. Nephew goes last since he's young and nimble to get around me if I bail out. It really doesn't bother me I'm tied off and I don't look down past the beam. I realize my nephew isn't behind me. Bridge guy says he took 2 steps on the girder and quit. It was really neat up there, had a ship go into the locks below us.
Although I do not like heights at all, I am thrilled that i could make both these "trips"

Had a girlfriend many years ago whos father used to help paint the mighty Mac.....would take a week or 2 of his vacation time every summer to go there and dangle in a chair with a paint gun.

No thank you very much.

Ed

Spooks me just reading about it.

Well i just learned im not the only wimp afraid of heights

Tyler d4c said:

Well i just learned im not the only wimp afraid of heights

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Yea I was looking for my fall protection a couple times reading this thread and my office is in basement!

Often wonder about the time back in 1968 when working on assembling the tower that holds up the surge pile belt at the quarry and the guys hooking the support cables for the conveyor needed a hammer to drive in some pins. They called down and asked me to hand them a hammer. So I grabbed the hammer and climbed the lattice boom of the Bucyrus Erie crane to the top, believe it had 100 feet of boom on it for that part of the project. Only "fall protection" we had back then was two hands and two feet!

Now days if you want to pick the basket of a manlift a foot off the ground to move it two feet they expect you to have the lanyard connected!

Tyler d4c said:

Well i just learned im not the only wimp afraid of heights

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Being afraid of heights is a reminder of our arboreal ancestors. Falling out of a tree at great heights or even a low branch into the jaws of a tiger is anti survival. Those not so afflicted are missing an essential survival mechanism

Raildudes dad,

Thanks for taking the time to share that. It was a cool read.

I'm an arborist so I end up at heights. I'm also our crane operator so a lot of the time I'm in the crane. I climbed to around 85 ft Tuesday into the top of a large pine tree. Has to take the tops on rope. Nothing quite like taking the ride of catching a top. The tree was probably moving 3 feet or more there I was tied in.