Cranes, the overhead type

[ampaterry]

That brings back memories -
I was an electrician at Keystone Steel and Wire in Bartonville, IL from 1970 to 1980, and worked on a lot of cranes like these. Darned things would NEVER break down near a ladder, though, and I always ended up having to climb an I-beam to reach the catwalk on them. And yes, they usually broke over the top of one of the muffle ovens and it was hot as hades up there.
I was NEVER tempted to jump off of one though -

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by ampaterry

That brings back memories -
I was an electrician at Keystone Steel and Wire in Bartonville, IL from 1970 to 1980, and worked on a lot of cranes like these. Darned things would NEVER break down near a ladder, though, and I always ended up having to climb an I-beam to reach the catwalk on them. And yes, they usually broke over the top of one of the muffle ovens and it was hot as hades up there.
I was NEVER tempted to jump off of one though -

Yeah they never broke down sitting still at the ladder! That would be too easy.

And some people don't believe an outdoor crane can actually either freeze to the rails or the gearboxes would freeze solid and we'd light fires under them to get them loose but try not start a big fire.

Also they could snap a 4 x 4 with the power shoes that ride on the power rails or blow down the track in heavy winds...but they do.

We had 3 outdoor bays which fed the rolling mills with mainly billet stock. The farthest out bays had 2 magnet cranes. When the cranemen left the cranes, especially in bad or cold weather they were supposed to leave those big magnets down as anchors...but they'd forget and we'd have to go chase them down, climb over the hot rails or sides without any safety hookup because you were going onto another crane and jump down.

Young man's work, but it was a thrill!

[ampaterry]

Ten four on the "young men's work"!
Lord, I think about some of the work I did back then and my orifices pucker today -

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by ampaterry

Ten four on the "young men's work"!
Lord, I think about some of the work I did back then and my orifices pucker today -

Yeah you wonder if there were somekind of blind luck or other intervention at times.

When I was 18, been there maybe 3 weeks I was helping (watching?) a motor inspector put a big, heavy man cooling fan with billet supports on it on top of an OH furnace blowing DOWN to blow the tons of dirt and graphite away so the furnace roof won't get too heavy and sink in.

Problem was the craneman, and they were GOOD, could not see us up there, just flashlight signals in the dark. Well we had it almost set and it suddenly flipped over catching the MI Dan, knocked his helmet off (melted instantly), he was going down.

I just reached down and grabbed him by the arm, yanked him back on the catwalk, one shot. That close to a fatal right before my eyes.

When we got our nerves back, reset the fan without a word.

Then I'll never forget what he said, "oh s*it, I need a new helmet". He was shook, I was stunned.

Yeah we made good money, hot, dirty & dangerous. When I went to class all these punk-azz college students used to say "gee, you're so lucky, all that dough". I'd say you want to see lucky? I'll get you a labor job app, they're hiring right now. They wouldn't last 4 hours....saw that a LOT, they'd just quit.

[mjp28]

Hey wooley,

How high is that first crane from the ground? Looks pretty high above the building structure.

What's the highest or biggest one you've been around?

[woolleyworm]

Originally Posted by mjp28

Hey wooley,

How high is that first crane from the ground? Looks pretty high above the building structure.

What's the highest or biggest one you've been around?

140' lift on the gantry. Biggest lift is probably 550' gate crane at a hydro plant.

[Country101]

I want to say our two main cranes over the turbines are 125 or 150 ton rigs. When they go tmoving, you can feel the building move sometimes. Kinda freaky. Had me worried that there was something wrong with me before I figured out what it was. There's no way anybody would be able to fall from ours unless it was thier last day at work. Becuase the way safety is out here, if they did something that stupid, it would be thier last day. Gotta have a procedure and PPE to blow your nose around here.

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by woolleyworm

140' lift on the gantry. Biggest lift is probably 550' gate crane at a hydro plant.

That's serious climbing!

If you've never been up in a crane 140' is like a 14 story building....without walls, just you and the sky.

550', that's up there, looking down at the birds,

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by Country101

I want to say our two main cranes over the turbines are 125 or 150 ton rigs. When they go tmoving, you can feel the building move sometimes. Kinda freaky. Had me worried that there was something wrong with me before I figured out what it was. There's no way anybody would be able to fall from ours unless it was thier last day at work. Becuase the way safety is out here, if they did something that stupid, it would be thier last day. Gotta have a procedure and PPE to blow your nose around here.

You've got that right, you're instantly retired and better have your legal affairs in order.

The big ones can be scary at times, need qualified operators to run them and maintenance people to keep them running.

When I started in 1969 some of the "old timers" told me stories passed down about the original old steam powered cranes and steam shovels....no way I would want to be around those things!

[overkillpaintball]