Crane Op did you get see the Kommie track loader at the big house
Sorry, I didn't see it there. I didn't spend a lot of time walking around. The general contractor had a "supervisor" that was being a pain. I rolled up in the crane, and nothing was right.
#1- I evidently brought too small of a crane. Super says "it weighs 8,700lbs and there's no way you can pick that". I looked at what we were setting, looked at the ironworker (who is my customer- I wasn't working for the general) and said "there's no way that weighs 8,500lbs. It looks like 5,500 at the most to me". The ironworker looks at me all crosseyed, and catches me beside the crane " this super is impossible, and its all his way, I can hear the ice cracking under your feet". I come back around the crane and tell the super - "I'll set up, I think I'll be good for around 9,000lbs, we'll pick it up and see what it weighs, and if I don't have enough crane here, we'll go back to the shop and get more crane." Super grunts and walks around in circles muttering, while I set up crane.
#2 Super declares that we need a spreader bar. problem A- The gazebo top is a circle, full of steel frames- where's it going to go? Spreader bars are for things that can crush, I can't see any way this thing squishes. Problem B - he's worried I don't have enough crane, and now he wants me to lift a spreader bar too? Problem C - They have their own spreader bar, a homemade cobbled together piece of junk, with no ratings and no tags- If I'd have shown up with something like that- they would have run me off the site, but because its theirs- its good enough to lift with. Here's a picture of their spreader bar, and that's as close as I got to picking it up.
#3 Super wants to choke all the ironworkers brand new nylons on the frame. As soon as they start to tighten on the water jet cut steel, I know its going to cut those nylons all up. So I dig out some green roundups, we basket those through the water jet holes and throw some softeners in between, and voila- no cutting of nylons. I've not made friends at all with the super, but I'm happy and the ironworkers are ready to set some steel.
So finally we're all rigged up, I pick up the frame and its just under 5,000lbs. Swing it over the legs and the welders get to work, I think the super would have been more happy if we hadn't got anything done. Some guys want everything to be complicated and a "big project".
