Yeah - stuff that thing in a hole!

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e57

e57

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Location
San Francisco, CA
Got off from my current employer and realized my former employer was going to try to jamb a service in a building I had called my 'baby' all last year - in today... Figured - I would go watch if for anything moral support.... (I sized, clarified spec's etc.)

Look on in horror and awe with me... (I originally thought a crane after the scaffold was down would be the preffered method - but this one worked...)

Bear in mind I have no control over this operation at this point.... Just a spectator.
What on earth are they doing:
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There it goes - upside-down...
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will that thing reach?!
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It does!!! (<3' ) 'We'll drag it in off the forks...'
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Yes - stuffed a 2'x80+" cabinet through a 3'x72" finished door 45' away and ~30' up... My original plan was to wait for the scaffold to come down, and use a crane... But maybe that is why I don't work for these guys any longer???
 
billsnuff

billsnuff

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Location
East of 480sparky
in pic 3, is that guy playing on the monkey bars.......

wait, there's people on and under that scaffold.......really

and that load is extended how many feet and within 3-6 inches of the scaffold leg............

nothing wrong here, just another day.

I think it coulda been planned safer......JMSHO
 
George Stolz

George Stolz

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Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
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Service Manager
I don't really get the problem either. :-?

I have seen situations where equipment had to be lowered into the basement with a crane before they poured the first floor - I'd hate to be the guy in thirty years or so to have to change it out! If these guys can get the equipment in place after key elements of the structure are in place, I'd say they're ahead of the curve. :)
 
W

wireguru

Senior Member
I bet the manufacturers instructions for that gear have very specific methods of lifting outlined, which do not include this. I would be concerned about the cabinet being tweaked, possibly breaking insulators holding the busses.
 
e57

e57

Senior Member
Location
San Francisco, CA
Not saying there was a "problem" - but it was planned differently. The scaffold was supossed to be down, and crane to drop it on a poured walkway near the door. This was expedited in to get the POCO moving on putting in the vault for it down in the sidewalk below. This is an example of 'git er done'....
billsnuff said:
I think it coulda been planned safer......JMSHO
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Yes - could have. It did not quite make it to where it could have - it was several feet short of getting it to the door, and away from the fall of the 45 degree hill that you can hardly get a foot hold on. One wrong move by the operater, or the guys trying to pull it off the forks in mid air and the last picture could have been really bad. That said the operator was very good - and well controlled being at the outer reach of the machine and partly through the scaffold. (Note the 5 guys who were working on that side have moved off to the other side...) That said there were a few seconds there where I swear you could have slid a peice of paper under the rear wheels... And this was much better than the 'ancient Egyptian' method the plumbers used to get the boiler up there - 1 of 7 of them resulted in a minor injury. (pushed it up the hill by hand...)

wireguru said:
I bet the manufacturers instructions for that gear have very specific methods of lifting outlined, which do not include this. I would be concerned about the cabinet being tweaked, possibly breaking insulators holding the busses.
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I looked - nothing about up-right shipping or handing on the gear - but yeah I was thinking exactly the same. And a confused hand signal nearly drove this thing into the ground while they were flipping it. Either way - it made it up without any apparent damage.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
George Stolz said:
I have seen situations where equipment had to be lowered into the basement with a crane before they poured the first floor - I'd hate to be the guy in thirty years or so to have to change it out!
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I once went into an attic that had an HVAC air handler that was taken apart and reassembled in the attic, so they didn't have to enlarge the scuttle hole.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
e57 said:
And this was much better than the 'ancient Egyptian' method the plumbers used to get the boiler up there - 1 of 7 of them resulted in a minor injury. (pushed it up the hill by hand...)
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I would have added a block-and-tackle to pull it up the hill.
 
cadpoint

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
No cloggs (safety shoes)

No Hard Hat's, Safety Glasses, No glooves

No roped off work area, no flag man (well not shown)

No Spotter, (well not shown) Wait is that You the Spotter? :grin:
 
growler

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
e57 said:
Not saying there was a "problem" - but it was planned differently. The scaffold was supossed to be down, and crane to drop it on a poured walkway near the door. This was expedited in to get the POCO moving on putting in the vault for it down in the sidewalk below. This is an example of 'git er done'....Yes - could have. It did not quite make it to where it could have - it was several feet short of getting it to the door, and away from the fall of the 45 degree hill that you can hardly get a foot hold on. One wrong move by the operater, or the guys trying to pull it off the forks in mid air and the last picture could have been really bad.
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I think you are right this way a risky operation. A few feet closer or if they had a solid walkway to set the gear on at the top of the hill and things would not have been as dangerous.

Nothing wrong with useing a lift but they were pushing their luck just a little.

I have to admit that I have done things that were more dangerous to "get er done" but I was younger and dumber at the time. Seen a few people killed and several injured and now it just doesn't seem worth it.
 
e57

e57

Senior Member
Location
San Francisco, CA
LarryFine said:
I would have added a block-and-tackle to pull it up the hill.
Click to expand...
In the case of the Egyptian plumbers boiler move... Block was the guy holding the boiler back when it slipped, and Tackle was the guy who tackled Block out of the way when the boiler slipped... :roll: Yeah - they had a small guy at the top of the hill holding a clothes line as the safety method... That guy had rope burns and one guy got hit by the boiler and limped for a few days....

growler said:
I think you are right this way a risky operation. A few feet closer or if they had a solid walkway to set the gear on at the top of the hill and things would not have been as dangerous.

Nothing wrong with useing a lift but they were pushing their luck just a little.

I have to admit that I have done things that were more dangerous to "get er done" but I was younger and dumber at the time. Seen a few people killed and several injured and now it just doesn't seem worth it.
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Exactly - Luck was being pushed to the outer limits IMO, that company has not had great luck anyway, and are now a 1/4 the size they were last year, and once that job is trimmed I thing they will no longer be around...

Sure the back of the forks are only 5-6' off the ground where they are pulling it off the forks, (I yelled at a guy who climbed out on the lift to try to push it off.) but if you fell from that onto the grade below you'll tumbling down the rest of the hill. Possibly with a 800A cabinet following you. ;) Sure nothing happened and they got it in there, but one slip could have been a disaster.

That said - If I were still on the job - and forced to do this while the scaffold was still up (which should have been down months ago) I very well could have gotten the wincing GC next to me (who took the pic's BTW) to build me a temporary platform to set the gear on and then move it in. (Making it less like trying to pass a refrigerator through a window...)
 
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