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Old foreman told me I was spoiling the load line and I pushed back until it made sense
Had a job last summer in Wilmington where I was rigging a 12 ton heat exchanger and I kept getting the load line too short so the hook would twist on every lift. The foreman walked over and said I was spoiling the line wrong, that I needed to let the first layer lay flat across the drum not cross threaded like I was doing. I argued with him for a solid 10 minutes because I read online that cross winding gives better stability. He finally made me stop and respool it his way with a helper walking the line. That next lift the hook stayed dead steady and I saved about 20 minutes of fighting the spin on every pick. Has anyone else had to unlearn something they picked up from forums or YouTube that an old hand straight up told you was wrong?
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grace50811d ago
Man that Wilmington heat exchanger job sounds like a real headache lol. I had almost the exact same thing happen to me when I was learning to run a crane on a dock in Charleston. I kept winding the cable the way some YouTube guy showed me and the old operator told me I was gonna snap the line if I kept doing it. I argued back for a good 15 minutes cause I was dead sure I was right from watching videos. He finally made me redo it his way and I felt so dumb when the drum ran smooth and quiet. Its wild how much you can pick up wrong info online and think you know better than guys who have been doing this stuff for 30 years. That old foreman sounds like he saved you a lot of frustration.
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jana_fox5011d ago
You saying "I felt so dumb when the drum ran smooth and quiet" - that's exactly the problem right there lol. You're acting like smooth and quiet is always the goal, but in heavy rigging sometimes you need that extra friction from cross winding to keep the cable from slipping under load. I've seen it lock up way better on steep angles. That old foreman might have been right for your one specific job but YouTube guys ain't always wrong either. Some of those crane channels are run by guys with 40 years in the field who trained operators for big offshore outfits. Just cause somebody's old and loud doesn't mean they know the one right way for every situation.
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