Just some work pics

[crane operator]

Well thursday we got to have a little fun. This is a water tank replacement I originally looked at 2 years ago. I actually thought someone else did it a year ago, and I was kind of glad because I didn't want to do the job anyways. No such luck.

They called this winter again, and had the tank bought, and wanted to install it in march or so. They weren't quite ready then, so we put it off, and have actually been scheduling it every week or two for the past few months. I told them we weren't going up that hill if it had rained, and its rained about every week since then. This week worked out.

Rt crane to set the tank, two 10k forklifts to carry the tank a 1/4 mile to the crane.

No place close to drop the lowboy, so I got to road the RT a ways down there. I told the rental house to drop the forklifts where I unloaded the crane, but their delivery driver "I go down all kinds of bad roads, blah blah blah." Whatever buddy. He got hung up with his trailer dropping the first one and had to use the forklift to spin his trailer around, I get the call "where can I drop this other forklift? I got the one down there but I'm not going down there again."

 

[crane operator]

Took the crane up the hill first and played tetertotter and got it set up first. I held off on all the rain days because its kind of steep where the roads meet and I was worried about not being able to get up the hill. Walked right up it.

Then we went back down below, and unloaded the tank off the delivery driver.

 

[crane operator]

Up the hill and around a couple corners with the tank. Had to go get a pole to push up on the one telephone line, not quite enough clearance.

 

[crane operator]

Stood upright and in place, then just getting everything back down the hill and hauled away. Ended up being a full day at it, but didn't have to get a wrecker to pull anything up the hill.

I think the original tank they set from the other side, and just bulldozed a path through the trees to get it set. 40 years ago they didn't care about the trees, they had a tank to set. We had to be a little more careful.

 

[crane operator]

Back down the hill and headed home.

 

[crane operator]

Prefab wall panels, this is the second story on top of the first story we set a while back.

 

[crane operator]

 

[crane operator]

 

[crane operator]

 

[DMiller]

You sure get your share of Pains in the butt!!!

 

[crane operator]

Well, I'm usually a pretty mellow kind of person, but today I kind of had a moment. As you can see, I'm boomed down pretty tight to the building, right by that opening. Where do you think the fireproofing guys decided they wanted to work this morning? That's right, right beside that opening, absolutely covering #2 section side and top of the boom with fireproofing spray in about 2 minutes time, when it came drifting out of the opening.

The whole time the fireproofer is spraying, I'm on the horn and yelling, in addition to the guys I'm working with. English isn't the fireproofers first language, except for their foreman. He comes over and kind of says its no big deal- its just grey fuzzy stuff. He takes another look at me, and starts backpedaling and talking about how it won't stick on- it sticks to the I-beams they are spraying it on, so I don't know why he thinks it won't stick on the boom.

Ever see a lift that they've used spraying fireproofing? They are a grey mess. If he thinks it won't stick, how about we just pull your pickup down here and we cover it with that c#&p. He doesn't care- it ain't his crane. Anyways- (I'm getting all stirred up again about it).

85' Manlift- garden hose- and a bunch of rags. I went up in the lift and cleaned it all off. No way to get at it except for a manlift. Can't suck boom in without smearing it all into the wear pads and everything. Wait till the fireproofers get a back charge for the crane time cleaning it all up.

 

[DMiller]

Can feel for you
Had similar run in at a UE headquarters with a basket truck fiberglass and dielectric coded boom
Jerks at a chemical plant spraying some kind of insulation got the shat all over it
They paid for two days of polishing and removal then the retest for dielectric safe margin.
Arms were sore two weeks

 

[Welder Dave]

Friend of mine got a bunch of paint overspray on his brand new Triumph Daytona T595 sport bike because the painters left the man door outside the parking lot open when they were spray painting inside the shop. Of course the company denied it was their fault but I think when he showed them pictures and started talking about court they decided to do the right thing and paid to get it fixed. Apparently body shops can remove overspray without having to repaint everything.

Sounds like the guy fireproofing isn't too bright. Doesn't speak English but can't he see there's a very expensive crane boom right where he's spraying? Should they even be working in the vicinity of the crane boom? You should charge them double time for having to clean everything.

 

[CM1995]

Unfortunately this type of madness happens all the time on the jobs I'm on too. The building trades see all equipment as a piece of rental equipment to use and abuse.

We've had to threaten burying them alive on the site before to get them to understand that this is OUR equipment that puts food on OUR table. Even the no speak the English workers understand that.

Crane Op stick to your guns on the back charge. I don't know what Missouri lien laws are but what I've found out here in AL is the threat of a lien to the owner gets GC's to writing checks like a politician spending tax dollars.

 

[AzIron]

I went after the layout crew of a concrete company one day with a shovel they left 2 full paint cand on the pad I didn't see ran over them in the backhoe boy does that ruin your day fortunately I was there for the concrete company so I charged them for stopping to clean up to this day the helper on that crew wont talk or look at me

 

[crane operator]

Well the fireproofers got to give my international truck a bath this morning. I showed up to the job, and they evidently got it yesterday afternoon.

I didn't even talk to them about it, I just told the general contractor that they better get it cleaned up. They washed it all up first thing this morning. I should park the ford flatbed winch truck where they could get it, because it needs a bath too.

 

[DMiller]

HOLY CRAP!! Are they even getting any INSIDE the Building??

 

[crane operator]

Are they even getting any INSIDE the Building?

Maybe they get paid by the pound they apply, not the square footage.

 

[crane operator]

Gather round children, time for a walk down crane operator's memory lane.

I grew up building grain bins in central Iowa. At one time the company was owned by my father and a business partner, I worked both for them and the former owner before them (they both worked for the company before they bought it). 8 or so years after I left there, my dad and his business partner sold out, and the guy that bought them out, is selling out.

Dad called me and sent me the listing of the online auction of some of the remnants, its really hard for him, and he hasn't owned it for 15 years or so. But he spent a majority of his working life there, and its where I grew up working. Anyways, memory lane time.

Item #1 The hobart gas welder that I learned to weld with. Fine heat control by throttle. Learned what points are and what they do. On wisconsin!

Learned if you run out of gas for the torch, you can crank up a stick welder enough to cut something off. Learned to back a 5' long welder behind a 20' wheelbase crew cab, long bed, utility box 1 ton truck (You can just see that little round muffler above the tailgate, but its offset- just thought you all should know). Learned how to reweld the tongue of the welder after learning how not to back it up.

Notice the jack on the tongue, that's right, its just a piece of pipe with two holes, up and down. And it aint balanced either, its tongue heavy. Really tongue heavy.

And oh the joys of pouring gas out of a metal gas can, spilling it all over that square lid, and watching it run toward the hot exhaust. All while Whitey (real name Duane- which I learned 3 years later when I saw his paycheck) stood back smoking a cigarette and laughing at me- "You're going to die young kid!"

I haven't talked to dad if its run recently, but I bet I could get it running. It looks like it has the same tires on it.



Item #2 A ancient stand grinder, that was old way back when I was working there. Its welded up out of some kind of old pickup axle- one of my coworkers claimed it was a model T. No guards, no shields, and it ain't stopping. I know there are dents in the wall behind it, where it grabbed whatever I had in my hands and it wanted it more than I did.

It would take quite a while to wind down after shutting it off. There's probably still DNA from my hands in the wire wheel. Be careful around machinery kids, it can hurt you. Its a wonder I'm still here.



Item #3 Manual tire changer. We sold lots of portable augers, and bought used pickup tires from the local coop tire shop (back when all pickups ran 15 and 16" tires), and mounted them on the ag rims. Of course being used tires, 1/2 of them had a nail or something in them, so you got to remount some of them multiple times.

The tire machine was much older than me, but I didn't wear it out, I don't think anyone could wear one out. That bar leaning up to the left has no paint on it due to lots of hands struggling on some old stiff wall sidewall pickup tire. Michelin's were the best to mount- soft flexible sidewalls.



Item #4 A old wells metal bandsaw

We made up a lot of standard equipment in the winter, and I cut pipe and pipe and pipe on that old saw. Smooth hand wheel. Cuts fast with a new blade, cuts crooked if you don't have it adjusted right. Learned how to adjust guide wheels to make a saw blade run and cut straight. The length stop cast piece is cracked from where its been tightened down too hard on the stop arm (I know nothing about that event).

I know every one of those items was purchased by the owner before my dad, probably in the late 60's or early 70's, and probably already used when he bought it. I used the equipment in the late 80's to mid 90's. It was all serviceable then, and in fact, each one of them is probably simple enough that you could get any one of them to do the same job today, that they were doing in the late 60's. I think very little of the harbor freight chinesium stuff of today will be serviceable in 2080.

Don't any of you bid on the old welder at the auction either- I need more projects around my place! I'd love to have the old saw and the tire changer, but I don't know how I would justify the grinder to a safety inspector.

 

[Tugger2]

I have the same welder fits nice in the back of my pickup with the toolbox and fuel tank. I was burning rod with it today sounds like an old flathead ford v8.Hope you can win it back.