Grumpy old buggers thread

[Tombie]

Sad when something so simple claims a life.

We have a “3 points of contact at all times” mantra.
And “ladders are for access, not work”

[rick130]

Yep.
Pretty much if there's no fixed ladder access point I walk away these days
I'm too old to be falling off a roof and the young blokes are too young, regardless of me describing the first year, oops, he's a second year now as 'a disposable'
And my boss backs me.

I thought I'd lose few jobs around here to cowboy operators as I've quoted a scissor and they use a ladder, but im not risking my blokes.
Interestingly enough I picked up the maintenance contract at one nursing home even though I've insisted on using a 4wd scissor for a number of highwall splits in their units.

And my boss back in Coffs thinks along the same lines, insisting recently I go back to the workshop and get the harness/working at heights kit before accessing a Carpark CO exhaust fan/stack on a shopping centre roof we were quoting on replacing.
I needed to get within 3m of the edge to measure up.

We've all had too many near misses, and I like the ex-GP driver Gerhard Berger's missive we are all issued with a limited cheque book and every time you have a near miss you've written out a cheque to the angels.
The problem is we don't know how many cheques are in the book, there may be none left.

[4bee]

Too right Rick. Olde Geezers don't bounce like the future geezers, always assuming they can last the distance that is.





3 m? Christ one could take off in an A380 in that space. Could do it blindfolded in the good ole days too.

In fact there needs to be legislation,if there is mechanical equipment on the roof of a commercial building,then fixed roof access should be mandatory.And a walkway going to each piece of equipment.

About 20 odd years back I was asked to service 3 swampies at a hills Abattoirs, I thought the decking roof felt a tad "bouncy" & when I went into the office to get the book signed I found I had been working over the top of the working de- gutting eviscerating machinery. If DJ had gone through the shonky roof I could have found myself in some-one's Sunday roast, Minced 'cos you can bet your life they wouldn't have tossed me in the Scraps Bin but flogged me off as Premium something.

To top it off I would have gone through the blast freezer so **** that for a game of soldiers.

Ah Happy days.

[scarry]

He was carrying some gear down to the ground (tools mainly), he balanced himself badly going down a ladder from a 2 storey roof, lost his balance & went arse over tit backwards, landed heavy & smashed the back of his head in. After a couple of years in "Rehab" without regaining consciousness he eventually died.

Unfortunately something similar happened to a Fridgie in Brisbane not long ago.He died on the spot.

One issue in our game is having installers that never do repairs.They just don't understand that units need maintenance and repairs.
I see them mounted at ridiculous heights,where with a bit of thought the units could have been mounted at low level,or even at ground level.
We also still come across roof mounted cold room units with no isolater.

Or units run in 2.5mm cable,having 25A or 32A breakers.

And it goes on and on.

[Old Farang]

Hmm, not sure how some of you girls hold down a job:

safety first.jpg

[4bee]

We also still come across roof mounted cold room units with no isolater

JEEEZUZ Paul, I thought that may have been an SA thing.
You then spend a million hours going back & forth & up & down trying to (A) locate the associated switchboard & B The correct unmarked Circuit Breaker for your unit 40 miles away down dark & dingy unmarked corridors/fire traps.

This all appeared to happen before economical CB or HF handhelds which would have made it a lot easier for two blokes.

[scarry]

JEEEZUZ

This all appeared to happen before economical CB or HF handhelds which would have made it a lot easier for two blokes.

They don't get much use these days either,except out at the property.

Mobiles phones are the go,unlimited calls and TXT's.

And the boys even have these bluetooth electronic gauges with temp probes and clamps,so from the cold room,they know all the system pressures and temps,superheats,even if the unit is way up on the roof.Using their phones.

I haven't got a set,just use the old Imperial Eastman gauges,they do me.

oh,and feel the pipes for temps,a bit of spit on the discharge to see how hot it is...

[Bigbjorn]

Hmm, not sure how some of you girls hold down a job:

safety first.jpg

I have a good friend who has a large sparky business. Another friend lives on 40 acres and has a property pole to which the authority has run supply and the meters etc. From there the supply goes to the house and another overhead supply runs across country to a machine shop. There is an intermediate pole on the run to the machine shop. 40 acre friend went down to use his milling machine and found no power. The cross arm had rotted and broken off taking the overhead wires with it. Calls sparky friend who sends out a man and van who quickly diagnoses the problem and tells 40 acres he needs a new cross arm. Sparky 'phones and tells 40 acres he needs to clean the undergrowth and overgrown trees so workers can access the pole. also tells him he needs to hire a cherry picker as sparkies don't climb ladders on broken ground. 40 acres is most indignant and asks if the workers are afraid to ladder their panty hose. As far as I know the machine shop is still without power.

[DiscoMick]

The wife of a friend climbed a ladder to ceiling height at work, fell off, landed backwards on a concrete floor, breaking her neck, and died in minutes.

[Fatso]

2 bag.jpg