That's a bit out of line -don't you think?
I agree with Celtic. I've seen some near disasters when pulling cable improperly. Workers could be seriously injured or worse if the setup is incorrect. That's not to mention the lost labor required to fix a panel or pullbox that's has ripped of the wall. Or my favorite the conduit being pulled right through into the steel panel back box.
I volunteered for some night OT to help with a long pull of 750 CU, the foreman on the job told me run the puller which he himself had set up. My first thought was This panel is coming off the wall. I brought it up to him and he was unconcerned, out of respect I shut up and ran the machine till we pulled a large distribution panel off the block wall it was mounted to. :roll:
Seen that as well, a 4" EMT connector and all pulled through the top of an I-Line panel which are pretty thick tubs.
I have not had this happen but I do fear it.
Reversing wouldn't help in an overlap case - instead of winding the rope as intended onto the capstan, now you would be buring the wire end under the "free" end...creating another issue. On this 1st screw up, we had 13 wraps on the capstan - the whole damn drum!Originally posted by iwire:
I have not had this happen but I do fear it.
What happened:
As we progressed with the pull, and marveled at the "contraption's" boom knuckle being able to be directed through a "cube's" door into the RGC comming up from below...and commented on how great it was "that we didn't need to bolt the contraption down"...we got "double wound".
Someone was simply not paying attention. The tugger was setup behind the switchgear in an area 30" wide. As the 30" would not accomadate a "straight pull", the tugger was placed at an angle to the access door with about 14' feet of pipe (7' from tugger to knuckle, 7' from knuckle to slip in coupler). The operator did NOT have the winch in sight. On the capstan, is a "rope ramp" (greenlee term) that guides the rope onto the capstan. The rope ramp can be turned to match the angle the contraption is placed in - "can be turned", should probably be changed to "must be turned" ~ this was the flaw. This and the operator not being able to SEE the overlap occurring and simply releasing some force on his end until things settled down.
Ok, so now we have a few thousand pounds of force on the overlapped rope on the capstan.
Simply peeling the rope from the operators position is not an option - there is a few thousands pounds of overlap preventing it.
Trying to a get a little bit of slack from the wire end is not going to happen - few thousands pounds of overlap PLUS the wire.
Breaking down the knuckle is also a no-go....I wouldn't even attept to release a pin that is under pressure while standing anywhere near that knuckle.
Pretty much screwed...LOL...but we have to fix it...somehow.
How we opened the pickle jar:
Another tugger.
Yup, be attached(chained) a Super tugger to the boom arm (winch to knuckle). Then we attached that rope to the rope under pressure using a crosby(or 4). We only needed to stretch the 1st rope - and keep it stretched - just enough to release the pressure.
We knew what we were doing could be very dangerous to life and limb.
We were able to unwind the rope quite easily once the force was released from the wire end...for this we were very happy!...but NOT statisfied, knowing it would probably happen again
Originally posted by celtic:
The 20A caps get turned into 15A with the twist of the wrist and a pair of lieman's....or someone makes an "adaptor cord". Neither of which is "right" - but "...we know what we are doing, so just stand back kid...".
Freudian slip?
