| Author | Message | ||
     Tootal |
Hey Maximum, if you're still out there I saw this and thought of you, enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/embed/qJHlXe_RnYo | ||
| Reepicheep |
Cool! | ||
| Ourdee |
Very nice that was. | ||
| Court |
Fun work ! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Was that you getting the galvanized steel wedgie Court? | ||
| S1owner |
Here you go this is the line going up by me. I am the supervisor of the warehouse that supplies them all this material http://www.capx2020.com/Gallery/movies/implosives- helicopter.html | ||
| Torquehd |
That is freaking cool! I love their alignment technique - steel cables are flexible over a 10' span, but the closer it gets, the tighter they get until they're almost as stiff as a bolt. Brilliant. I can't remember what the VIC (vehicle internal comms) is called in an aircraft, but once upon a time, I plugged my Peltors in (CH47), and it was pretty unnerving to listen to the pilots. They almost reminded me of lower enlisted, one of the guys was talking about what kind of truck he wanted to buy while flying into a potentially hot LZ. Then later, "man, I didn't realize that wall was that close, I thought I was further over on the concrete!" S1owner.... Rope Access in combination with explosives? Sign me up! (Message edited by torquehd on February 05, 2016) | ||
| S1owner |
Technicvly implosives! They implode and weld the lines together we supplied those also. It is pretty cool watching them do work. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Implosive welding and splicing? Brilliant! They ought to make little firecracker versions for smaller wires. Not so much because it is really necessary, more just because it would be cool as heck to use them. Like a powder actuated nail gun, just fun! | ||
| Court |
>>>>It is pretty cool watching them do work. It's the reason I refuse to retire. I will finish the current 2 year project by June 1 and have 3 more lined up over the next 3 years. Here's some fun stuff from October. P.S. - It's not all fun and games. I've just flown back from sunny Southern California to this blizzard this morning to prepare a plan to replace 6 of those splices, on an emergency basis, that x-rays revealed were not properly installed. I've also done 2 incident investigations in the last year. (Message edited by court on February 05, 2016) | ||
| S1owner |
No not all fun and games. Highly dangerous skilled work part of the fun watching is the high level of skill it takes to do this work well lineman work in general! Look up a lineman mivie from Hubbel think it might be lineman warriors not sure but it gives a good look at how all these people put their life at risk everyday. They have a better chance if injury or death then most inner city cops on patrol. i know that we lost 4 lineman on this line alone! Much respect for the work court! We will be doing the material for the next line on the west side of Dakotas from SF towards canada starting this year has taken 3 yrs to get from Wisconsin to North and South Dakota. | ||
| Court |
Cool . . . . I may be involved in some of the material also. On the last one a company called (large company from the northern midwest) did it and they didn't exactly set the world on fire in terms of accurately getting the right material. My group does very high end material acquisition and validation. Needless to say . . . on a job with 150 Linemen scattered over 187 miles (our next project) the last thing you need is to open shipping cases and find the wrong parts have been ordered. 14 week delays are expensive. | ||
| S1owner |
Court that is where I work I run the warehouse though. All the minor material comes through me. The job trailers etc. The ips kitting into the crates was my guys not ordering but everything from recieving to getting it to the field is my end. The implode ( which my end has nothing to do with) from my understanding was a nightmare but the person that ran it will not be the same for reasons stated above. If you get up in this area again get ahold of me we can have dinner and visit s little! Stop by the office I can show you around | ||
| Court |
I may be in the area sometime. The material on this last job was so screwed up that it created the best sales tool that me and my little band of Elves have ever had. The Logistics firm was SUPPOSED to validate everything. They didn't and the result was a screaming mess. This of ordering a throw out bearing and getting a hub cap. Yoke plates were the wrong strength, the bolt spacing was wrong and things like the compression dead-end bodies had a couple digits transposed and instead of compression dead-ends for 1590MCM Lapwing we got crates and crates of static tangent supports for 336MCM. It was the responsibly of the contractor but our team had an oversight role and, as a result, we were able to catch things well in advance and have them reorder. But they paid tens of thousands in restocking and shipping to get the stuff they should have had in the first place. I don't need to tell you that such a delay on a major transmission project, when we are working 7 days a week, 14 hours a day (like we did June through November) is huge. My team basically "takes" the responsibility for guaranteeing that the material will fit. Sounds easy but it requires tons of detail work. Today, for instance. . . . I get back from San Diego and discover that the fittings for the Lapp insulators we're needing for an upcoming critical outage has all shipped with 5" B.C. rather than 7". We caught it this morning (the contractor and vendor should have) and it looks like I can get them by June . . .but imagine what would have happened if I'd taken a major PJM grid line out of service, placing NYC in a contingency and THEN found I had parts that didn't fit. I love this stuff ! :-) (Message edited by court on February 05, 2016) | ||
| Tootal |
Well it sounds like everybody has these issues lately. I really believe it's the laziness of people and lousy work ethics. We constantly run into this in my job also. The company is always changing vendors to save a penny but they don't know what they are ordering and end up with something we can't use. I loved it when they got some cheap gaskets for a liquid ammonia pump. I refused to use them and was given a direct order to do so. I told them to put it writing so when we killed a bunch of people I could cover my A$$. Needless to say they got the right one. | ||
| Court |
I used to gripe about how inefficient and incompetent some of the construction projects were . . . . then I found out they'd happily pay $3,000/day for a solution . . . I stopped telling them how stupid they were and how smart they were for getting me to solve their problems. :-) I love solutions.  | ||
| S1owner |
I would hesitate on saying incompitent etc. I have 12 warehouse and 5 drivers we pump out 10 million a month in inventory with less then a 3 % error rate. And most of our errors are traced ti vendor shotages and vendor mis shipments. The case above Court spoke if with a 14 week delay the venor shut their plant down with out telling anyone no communication. Us being the supplier we take full responsibility even know it was out of our control. But thats why people do business with us we will take responsibility. The other thing about us is less then 3% errors 10 mil a month and we have a 24 hr turnaround so the customer orders by 3pm today it is on there dock tomorrow. Not to mention everyone of my guys can not only tell you the part number they can give you the specs and tell you what it goes with how it is used and what else is needed to install. We are also fully trained to be in live active high voltage substations. So forgive me if I take a little offense to those comments!!! Court when we were supplying that line we were also supplying the south lines on each side of the state and all our nornal customers so I think we did pretty goid. | ||
| Court |
No offense was intended. I was just surprised that the contractor didn't closely examine the materials, and make certain they fit and were proper, before ordering. I think they sent in an order and the warehouse shipped, as well they should have, precisely what was ordered. The fact that they sent 7/8" bolts to go into 11/16" holes was NOT the fault of the vendor. What my team does it to take every single nut. bolt, connector and part and confirm they there are: 1) what was intended 2) compatible 3) the proper one In addition, the contractor tried to save a couple bucks on splice kits. As a result, and after close examination of the x-rays of the splices, they will be out replacing 6 splices before our next outage. I'm not certain how much they saved on them, but the road building, just to gain access where they need to do the replacement, will cost at least $500,000. As I am sure you know . . . parts matter. I'm not pointing the finger at anyone other than the contractor here. I actually included in the contract requirements that they "dry fit" (mock up each assembly) prior to ordering. They snowed some of my superiors with their tales of how big they were and convinced them it wasn't necessary. All things considered . . . they did an ok job but they pissed away tons of bucks necessarily. The great news for me is that suddenly there is a real demand for our services on the upcoming Northern Pass and Live Line Structure Replacement projects. P.S. - we also started a bit of a business on the side doing critical lifts in difficult places. If anyone has any interest in working in a work camp in the Amazon . . drop me a note. We will have the only sky cranes in Brazil and access has had this major project held up for a couple years. Financing details, the last part of the puzzle, are being put together now but the sky cranes are ready and I expect financing by May. | ||
| Ourdee |
Court, It looks like I'm available after January 2017. Passport good till 2022. | ||
| S1owner |
Thanks Court some misunderstandings on my part. The dry fit I agree we actually ask them to do the same thing. We have a large area we assemble and hang the product its not perfect but it works. And they do so e of the parts but obviosly not all! | ||
| Aesquire |
The Skycrane guys astound me, every time. Nothing but respect for high iron guys too. Funny, I don't really enjoy towers. Not irrational fear of heights, just moments of "whoa". Flying, though, completely different. Height is just a distance in 3d space. Flying gliders there is a caution about running out of angles to a landing field, but that's trained. Same thing with Cessna's and helicopters. You are always looking for the place you will land when the engine stops. I went to college with a guy that worked his way through school by painting towers. He was also a hard core base jumper and on occasion could get a jump when finished painting. | ||
| Court |
We MAY be pulling off something very cool with a Skycrane that's never been done . . . a night pull over a major roadway. In the brainstorming phase now . . plan has to be developed down the the most minute detail and signed off on by about 10 agencies and to comply with guidelines for certification and surveillance of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 133. At this point one thing appears certain . . . if this thing goes I may be the largest single purchaser of those kids light sticks for a day or two. :-) Seriously, they make commercial military grade ones but somehow we'll need to mark the wire, weighs, towers, dollies and other various physical obstructions. We'll use a Sikorsky S64 Skycrane Like I say . . . . I love this stuff . . . no 2 days are ever the same. | ||
| S1owner |
If you ever need a capible hand on the ground I would help and I gly for free! | ||
| Court |
Hahahaha . . the other opportunity that I am still in talks over . . . but have no intention of doing . . . . is a 6 month consulting gig in Algiers. It'll be a new 220kV line from Constantine to Oran Algeria. The down side of that is you have to be heavily armed and have 4 Blackwater folks with you. The area is in contention between "Men who write in Blood", the "Caliphate for Prayer and Combat" Al Qaeda and Isis. It involves lots of bribes and some quick, on your feet, thinking. But, since they have so much money and their infrastructure is in the tank they have cut a deal with the USDOS to give preferential treatment to American contractors. It's always an interesting business. | ||
| Prior |
Court, I dig the chopper photo, especially the Deere dozer in the background. Glad you're keeping busy! Prior |
