I had no idea they came this tall. And assembled by 3 guys in 1 day? Amazing!
VIDEO
Registered Member
I had no idea they came this tall. And assembled by 3 guys in 1 day? Amazing!
VIDEO
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
Charter Member
I have never seen one that high---and looking at that thing gives me a major pucker
In a former life I spent time in the cab of a crane----and I didn't like it one bit! I can best describe it as long periods of absolute boredom interspersed with periods of near terror. Things have gotten much better with load cells and computerized information readouts---but when I was doing it we were operating by the seat of our pants and load graphs on the cab walls. The worst was handling a big load on a windy day that you could not see---a good gust of wind could change the entire dynamic.
Even with much improved safety devices, the damn things still fall over
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
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I don't know how they keep it counterbalanced...And a windy day could be disastrous......Ben
The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...
Charter Member
Look closely and you will see the counter weights on the back---also they have outriggers coming out from the cats to further stabilize it. That does not negate your comment---the amount of wind force a stick like that can be subject to is huge!Originally Posted by Truckman
I don't know how they keep it counterbalanced...And a windy day could be disastrous...
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
Registered Member
The best example of a complete breakdown of crane protocol is "big blue" coming dowm. Here is the wiki page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Blue_Crane_collapse
There is an embedded YouTube video in there, but I can't figure out how to post links to youtube on an ipad.
Cranes were very recently the most dangerous piece of equipment on a construction site (not talking about statistical stuff like electrical and falls from height) I believe they have been overtaken by manlifts, which kill many young men every year.
On edit: i wish the wiki page had more detail on this accident, but Im sure its in the footnotes. One detail I seem to remember is that the normal operator refused to make the pick. They were behind schedule and management put someone else in the seat. It was 100% preventable and was caused by a cascade of bad decisions that can ultimately be characterized by an utter failure of leadership. It is a famous case study of what can go wrong.
Last edited by CactusCurt; 03-01-2020 at 08:24 PM.
"Back after 5 years. I thought you had died.
don"
Splitting my time between the montane and the mesas
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Registered Member
Atcher service, Curt...There is an embedded YouTube video in there, but I can't figure out how to post links to youtube on an ipad....Ben
The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...
Registered Member
I have had the distinction of having to explain to a very pissed off private client what I was going to do to keep another crane from turning over on a project. Luckily nobody was hurt. $500k down the toilet (well, after some arithmetic with the insurance company)
My personal favorite crane story was the one where the dealer dropped one of our 100 ton link belts off of the ship into the ocean while unloading it in Hooston. The salesman was very apologetic and bought us a fancy azz meal at a wonderful place somewhere around downtown Houston that I wish I could remember the name of. Boys and their toys.
"Back after 5 years. I thought you had died.
don"
Splitting my time between the montane and the mesas
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Charter Member
I flipped from Rod-busting to rigging on the Daniel engineering complex in Greenville SC for about a year. The Crane's operators quit picking up our steel because our foreman kept putting helpers out to run the lifts and they didn't have a clue how to signal the Crane when he was blind. I was the best at it so I got tranferred so to speak. I was in no way a Journeyman but I was good up top. Glad I didn't have to put a crane together.
This is your mind on drugs!
Charter Member
The moments of force with that long of a boom must be terrific and multiply greatly as the angle drops. I never thought about sophisticated instruments to help operators until Dave mentioned it, but that sounds so rational now.
...............
“You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution
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