Northwest Indiana Gun Owners # 25 good morning all.

[tv1217]

At work and it appears the lake is trying to jump onto land. It's also raining inside the building.

 

[CTC B4Z]

That was 2 hours ago and no update..?


He's surely perished

 

[CTC B4Z]

Has anyone laid fresh flowers on the BK memorial lately?

 

[cg21]

Has anyone laid fresh flowers on the BK memorial lately?

I just throw my bk wrappers out the window right there

 

[tv1217]

I'm at work and contrary to popular opinion, crane operators actually do work.

 

[marvin02]

I'm at work and contrary to popular opinion, crane operators actually do work.

Those levers don't pull themselves.

You still got electro-mechanical controls or have they moved to joysticks? AC or DC?

 

[actaeon277]

Those levers don't pull themselves.

You still got electro-mechanical controls or have they moved to joysticks? AC or DC?

Most, but not all, of the mill cranes are ANCIENT.
So, DC.

Sometimes it seems repairing is more expensive than replacing.

On the other hand, they do pretty heavy lifts.
And most are elec/mech joysticks

 

[marvin02]

Most, but not all, of the mill cranes are ANCIENT.
So, DC.

Sometimes it seems repairing is more expensive than replacing.

On the other hand, they do pretty heavy lifts.
And most are elec/mech joysticks

IIRC one old building was 50 volts DC.

Some of the cranes I ran had no single power shut off. The electric supply board looked like something from a Frankenstein movie with knife switches for each crane function. You couldn't kill power to the hot rails to shut it down because there were multiple cranes using the same hot rails.

Interesting article about crane upgrades at Cleveland Cliffs:

DC to AC Crane Transition

Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor gained value in the DC- to a Morgan AC-crane transition. Learn more about this crane upgrade.

www.morganengineering.com

Even when I left in 2003 they were moving to more AC cranes.

 

[actaeon277]

I think the last death by electricity, was on a crane with multiple shut offs.
The guy had been transferred from a different part of the mill, and unfamiliar with the cranes he was on.

Part of the "let's save money by bringing in people from other areas and not training them".

 

[marvin02]

Part of the "let's save money by bringing in people from other areas and not training them".

It was always a fight to get a department/area specific safety briefing.

I remember being sent to a department where the dept. safety orientation was 4 hours. We got there 5 minutes before the line went down for a 2 hour down time window and when we asked for the safety orientation they just loaded us back on bus. Great planning.

Midnight turn in the summer. We spent the night washing trucks and cleaning up tools.

 

[actaeon277]

It was always a fight to get a department/area specific safety briefing.

I remember being sent to a department where the dept. safety orientation was 4 hours. We got there 5 minutes before the line went down for a 2 hour down time window and when we asked for the safety orientation they just loaded us back on bus. Great planning.

Midnight turn in the summer. We spent the night washing trucks and cleaning up tools.

At safety briefs, they DEMAND that you push for safety and get the briefs, and paperwork.
But on the job, they yell that you're just trying to get out of work, and you're lazy and don't want to work.


I was given a ECP (Energy Control Procedure. How to shut down equipment for those that don't know).
I was supposed to review it and make sure it's okay.
(okay, over 30 years, I had been given a LOT of ECPs to review).
Anyway, I made a dozen changes to it and handed it back.
Then got called in and asked why I was trying to be such a pain.
They wanted me to just okay it.

I yelled that it's been updated over a decade, and no changes had been made.
I told them it still had the shut down for coke oven gas in there, and we had been using natural gas for decades.
When they said "so?"..
I told them the shut off device for the gas was different. It wasn't just the name of the gas.
One used a blank. One used a valve.
The location of the shutoff was over 10 foot different.
The electrical isolation boxes used to be mounted on a wall, that no longer existed.
And was on the opposite side of the device.

And since a new guy should be able to follow the procedure to isolate something, it DAMN WELL BETTER BE RIGHT.
And maybe they should be asking how a procedure got decades out of date.
Well, we know the answer to that.
LAZINESS.

If you don't want me to do a job right, don't give it to me to do.

 

[tv1217]

The controls are sticks I would call them levers more than joysticks. You pull them to go one direction and push to go the opposite direction. There are separate controllers for each function(trolley, hoist, bridge and in some cases, aux hoist). They also have variable frequency drives on most of our cranes which makes them slower than they originally were and removed the ability to plug them(now you just have to let go of the controller and it coasts to a stop)
This is one of those Good Idea Fairy "improvements" that Act always used to talk about. Oh and all those drives have their own Air Conditioning units to cool them(they're computers basically) and those AC units regularly crap out because the company bought ones that are supposed to be used for like server rooms or electric panels that are stationary and ground level.

The last STEELWORKER death working on a crane was a young guy from crane repair on one of the cranes in the department I work but a few years before I got there. I don't know the details but my understanding is it was a LOTO error. Last summer, however, a contractor died up on one of our cranes from the heat.

 

[mmpsteve]

My dad helped build a lot of those cranes (or maybe just the superstructure). Lifetime ironworker, Calumet Construction.

.

 

[CheeseRat]

The controls are sticks I would call them levers more than joysticks. You pull them to go one direction and push to go the opposite direction. There are separate controllers for each function(trolley, hoist, bridge and in some cases, aux hoist). They also have variable frequency drives on most of our cranes which makes them slower than they originally were and removed the ability to plug them(now you just have to let go of the controller and it coasts to a stop)
This is one of those Good Idea Fairy "improvements" that Act always used to talk about. Oh and all those drives have their own Air Conditioning units to cool them(they're computers basically) and those AC units regularly crap out because the company bought ones that are supposed to be used for like server rooms or electric panels that are stationary and ground level.

The last STEELWORKER death working on a crane was a young guy from crane repair on one of the cranes in the department I work but a few years before I got there. I don't know the details but my understanding is it was a LOTO error. Last summer, however, a contractor died up on one of our cranes from the heat.

Coasting to a stop sounds horrible. Pretty decent brake for the bridge? Trolley stop quick? Worked on cranes for many years (electrical) till about 5 years ago. Only here and there in the last five. Most all were 250 VDC. Really don’t like, mostly cause I’m not that well versed, AC cranes.
Not sure if it was the fatality, but I remember hearing about an issue with a trolley rail loto. 2 trolley rails are fed from the line side, (instead of load side that gets pulled with the knife), of the Pringle, for power to cab radio and air conditioning.

 

[actaeon277]

Met up with CrookCountyGo.
Poor guy.
I think I talked too much.

 

[actaeon277]

And how can I find my Minutes from May, June, and July, and then misplace my August and September Minutes?
WTF

 

[jedi]

And how can I find my Minutes from May, June, and July, and then misplace my August and September Minutes?
WTF

Cause u r ooooolllldddddd.

 

[Max Volume]

And how can I find my Minutes from May, June, and July, and then misplace my August and September Minutes?
WTF

How can I lay my keys down and not be able to find them 5 minutes later?

 

[melensdad]

Met up with CrookCountyGo.
Poor guy.
I think I talked too much.

But I suspect you didn't hug him.

So that makes the meet up much better than any encounter with Jedi.

 

[actaeon277]

But I suspect you didn't hug him.

So that makes the meet up much better than any encounter with Jedi.

true.
not much of a hugger.