Is it safe to hook my harness into this loop?

[america2]

Please see this attached image of a metal fastener bolted into the side of my building which has a cable connected to it. The other side of the cable connects to the electrcial lines next to the building. It looks like the purpose of this cable is just to prevent the electrical lines from blowing too much in heavy wind, but I don't want to hook my harness into the fastener until I'm sure I won't get electrocuted by current from the cable. When I run my non-contact voltage tester over the metal fastener, it shows no voltage. But when I touch it to the wire for the cable which is wrapped around the fastener, it makes an intermittent beep, indicating low voltage. I didn't try touching it to those twisted wires which seem to be inside the cable. I'm thinking maybe it's ghost voltage, but on the other hand if it's not I could fall off a 2 story ladder so this is serious. Does anyone have any thoughts on the safety of making use of this fastener to hook my harness into as I work on the building?

 

[mbrooke]

Is this on a job?


I wouldn't hook anything else to it. From the looks of it I don't think its right even for supporting the cable.

 

[Eddy Current]

No

 

[ActionDave]

Forget about getting shocked. If you tie your lanyard into that and take a fall it's gonna bust loose and you gonna die or get hurt when you hit the sidewalk.

 

[infinity]

Tie in points for fall protection equipment need to be rated for a minimum of 5000#'s. That one is not even close.

 

[kwired]

Tie in points for fall protection equipment need to be rated for a minimum of 5000#'s. That one is not even close.

That "loop" may very well hold 5000# but the anchors holding it to the building likely will not. Also possible you couldn't attach much of anything to the building and count on it to hold 5000#.

This is a topic in another thread, it was mentioned that you must have a 5000# attachment in a scissor or boom lift, yet the lift could never support 5000#. I don't claim to be an expert in the rules for this, but I believe the 5000# rating has more to do with the construction and durability of the attachment point itself then what it may ultimately be attached to.

 

[Barbqranch]

I believe the 5000# rating is mostly to protect against the shock load when you reach the end of your tether. A lift won't have to handle that much shock, since it will flex and spread out the time needed to stop the fall.

 

[RichB]

5k# is not deadweight but the load applied when an object reaches the limits of the fall protection--I believe---as far as tying off to it--oh hell no--it is not "man rated", like a lift tie off point==we just went thru this on some of our stuff with osha

 

[kwired]

I believe the 5000# rating is mostly to protect against the shock load when you reach the end of your tether. A lift won't have to handle that much shock, since it will flex and spread out the time needed to stop the fall.

Right, now the "loop" in the OP may possibly be able to take that - though it likely wasn't evaluated for such purpose, but even if it were, what about the anchors used and the surface being attached to? Put a proper rated loop there and the building surface still may not take that kind of shock load even if the anchoring method can.

 

[america2]

Is it safe to hook my harness into this loop?

OK thanks. I think I'll hire someone with experience doing this kind of thing and I'll see what he does. If it involves swinging his leg around the ladder, jumping on the steeply sloped parapet and then jumping on to the flat roof, I'll pay him to do that until I can have stairs to the roof built inside the building. Just to know for the future, do you guys think there was any voltage in that cable tying the electric line to the building or it is ghost voltage? Since the mounting bracket that the line is tied to had no voltage I'm going to guess it was a false positive. I am attaching a photo of the full cable.

 

[iwire]

5k# is not deadweight but the load app. ed when an object reaches the limits of the fall protection--I believe---as far as tying off to it--oh hell no--it is not "man rated", like a lift tie off point==we just went thru this on some of our stuff with osha

Go look at the wording in the OSHA section

It says the point must support 5000 pounds or be engineered no mention of other factors

 

[K8MHZ]

OK thanks. I think I'll hire someone with experience doing this kind of thing and I'll see what he does. If it involves swinging his leg around the ladder, jumping on the steeply sloped parapet and then jumping on to the flat roof, I'll pay him to do that until I can have stairs to the roof built inside the building. Just to know for the future, do you guys think there was any voltage in that cable tying the electric line to the building or it is ghost voltage? Since the mounting bracket that the line is tied to had no voltage I'm going to guess it was a false positive. I am attaching a photo of the full cable.

Are those service drop conductors?

If so, what about 230.24, clearances above roofs?

 

[mbrooke]

FWIW it looks like nails are holding it in.

 

[starbolin]

OK thanks. I think I'll hire someone with experience doing this kind of thing and I'll see what he does. If it involves swinging his leg around the ladder, jumping on the steeply sloped parapet and then jumping on to the flat roof, I'll pay him to do that until I can have stairs to the roof built inside the building. Just to know for the future, do you guys think there was any voltage in that cable tying the electric line to the building or it is ghost voltage? Since the mounting bracket that the line is tied to had no voltage I'm going to guess it was a false positive. I am attaching a photo of the full cable.

Is is a current carrying conductor? No. There is not an electrical connection on the other end. It appears to be a guy wire connected to the pole guy.

Is it energized? Your non-contact voltage sensor is telling you not. - Would I trust the reading on the non-contact tester? Not on my life. I would trust a #6 wire down to a rod or a plate. - Is the guy wire or fitting earthed? No. Maybe back at the last pole. Maybe not. - Would I worry about accidentally touching the cable or fitting? Yes, a little. ( I'm getting short-timer's-twitch. I've been playing around live circuits for 40 years and there are a few other ways I would rather depart this earth. ) - Would I touch it with a gloved hand? Um.. probably. - Would I tie myself to it? No. - For the whole shift? Most definitely not! A fault or a lighting strike elsewhere could energize the wire. Driver hits a pole or a truck takes out an overhead suddenly you are just so much carbon between the cable and the ladder.

 

[GoldDigger]

FWIW it looks like nails are holding it in.

Even at high magnification, I cannot be sure whether I am looking at very robust nail heads or very badly rounded hex heads on lag screws.
Since the wall behind is brick, either the lag screws are going into expansion anchors or the nails are going into wood plugs and expanding them.
If they really are nails, I can see the loop holding against a vertical force, but not against an outward pull, even that from cable attached to it.
Makes me nervous just looking at it.

 

[RichB]

Go look at the wording in the OSHA section

It says the point must support 5000 pounds or be engineered no mention of other factors

AAAHHHH--You're correct--I was going from memory on second hand info--thus the "I believe", cuz it sounded good to me

Good reminder to self--check your info first!!

Thanks!

 

[K8MHZ]

Even at high magnification, I cannot be sure whether I am looking at very robust nail heads or very badly rounded hex heads on lag screws.
Since the wall behind is brick, either the lag screws are going into expansion anchors or the nails are going into wood plugs and expanding them.
If they really are nails, I can see the loop holding against a vertical force, but not against an outward pull, even that from cable attached to it.
Makes me nervous just looking at it.

They look like some kind of a blind rivet, to me.

Just because something may be able to support 1000 lbs. of force perpendicular to the attachment (away from the wall) does not mean it can support the same amount of force 90 degrees from perpendicular (straight down).

 

[kwired]

Are those service drop conductors?

If so, what about 230.24, clearances above roofs?

looks to me like a messenger wire with some kind of communications cable supported from it.

 

[meternerd]

I know this is not the "safety" forum, but since we got started...I just bought a "roofing harness kit" to repair a bunch of backed out screws on my metal roof. Harness is OSHA approved and has a tether with a "shock absorber" built in. The safety D ring is rated 5000# only when attached to the roof with 15 screws or nails on each side (lays over the ridge of the roof). And that's a sideways load, not straight out. The service support in your pic isn't even close, and probably would never be allowed today. A little snow load or tree branch and down comes the service.

 

[ggunn]

AAAHHHH--You're correct--I was going from memory on second hand info--thus the "I believe", cuz it sounded good to me

Good reminder to self--check your info first!!

Thanks!

My understanding is that the minimum dead load of 5000# is there to take into account the transient load which would be applied to the tie point by a falling body of much less than 5000# hitting the end of a tether.