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Dropped radial drill

Demon69

Titanium
Joined
Mar 3, 2013
Location
Area 69.
Just seen this on the tube. I really like Brians way of going about things so gutted for him, happy hes ok.

 
I really like Brians way of going about things

I do too. Now that im working on my own, seeing how much he's done by himself is pretty amazing.

But that video just goes to show fast it can all go wrong.

And I'm gerting ready to move two machines that weight the same when I need to replace the cable on my crane.

Pretty impressive how it cracked 16"+ concrete.....
 
I feel for the the guy but you can't take chances with heavy machinery. He was very lucky not to be seriously hurt or killed. On a bad day the swinging hook block could have taken his head off ! Flying wire rope could smack you straight in the face ! Good job he was fully clear of the trailer, half on and half off and the drill would have gone over completely. That drill looked to be up beyond the SWL of the crane looking at that video. Especially with corroded wire ropes. Wire ropes don't give you a warning - they just go.

In the UK the insurance company crane inspector comes every 12 months and inspects every inch of the wire ropes as well as the rest of the crane. Lifting equipment - chains, soft slings etc, every 6 months. Same again, he inspects every link.

We had a 10 ton " Yale " chain block come back off a job. It was cleaned down and put back on the rack waiting for the next job. The insurance inspector comes along and finds that some idiot had been careless with the oxy-acetylene cutting torch and had cut half way through one of the links in the load chain ! Least I hope it was only carelessness !

Incidentally although it had no bearing on the accident that's not the recommended way to rig a radial arm drill.


One bit of good advice there - NEVER stand under a suspended load.

Another bit of advice -when you've only just taken the weight go and get a coffee. If the load is still where it was when you left it when you get back you can carry on. Having said that that drill may have gone through the trailer even from an inch away.
Regards Tyrone.
 
It he was going to drop it, it happened at a good time, only thing that would have been better is if it were closer to the floor. It could have been much worse, half off the trailer, over the trailer, or when he was moving it horizontally and standing right beside it on the floor.

I also applaud him for posting this video. Most people would never post their screw ups like this but it's good for people to see.
 
I agree that his sharing this accident was good for everyone.

Am I correct in assuming his bridge crane was totally hand operated?
He had two or three heavy chain falls and then the block that came crashing down.



Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
We had a 10 ton " Yale " chain block come back off a job. It was cleaned down and put back on the rack waiting for the next job. The insurance inspector comes along and finds that some idiot had been careless with the oxy-acetylene cutting torch and had cut half way through one of the links in the load chain ! Least I hope it was only carelessness !

I don't care if it was carelessness, malevolence, AoG, or a micrometeorite, the person who held that torch handle would have been fired with great gusto if s/he was in my employ. That's manslaughter at best, mass murder at worst...
 
It appears to me the crane was totally manual.

We always move radial drills with forks under the base. You have to make for sure the drill can't spin on the column though, as it can spin around and fall off the forks.

I have seen instructions that showed rigging at the 4 corners of the base.
 
Shit happens, and then many will do the "you should have done stuff" which is easy once the failure occurred and arm chair quarterbacking.
Notably these types do not get things done but are great at pointing out other's mistakes.

If this is your worse day ever consider yourself very lucky.
Bob
 
Tyrone, what is the prefered way to rig a decent sized radial like this?

Lucky7

Over the years I've moved probably over a dozen radial arm drills from the 4'-6" to the 8'-0". Normally they were " Asquith " machines but I have moved a couple of " Archdale " drills.

The method that " Asquith " recommended in the machine handbook for their drills was to pick the machine up from the tee slots in the base. They used two custom made " D " shaped lifting lugs that bolted to over long tee nuts located in the tee slots. They brought the lifting slings down either side of the arm and into the lugs. The lifting lugs were positioned on the base so the column end of the drill was slightly heavier than the other end. You could do this accurately by moving the drilling head along the arm. Another soft sling was choke hitched around the top of the column to prevent the column falling over.
When you took the weight the column should fall over backwards lengthwise slightly, into the soft sling. The whole drill would be down at the column end by about 2" or 3" when you had the lift set correctly.

When the lugs came with the drill I used them, especially on the 8 ft machines, but I had my own variation on the " D " shaped lifting lugs. I had lengths of 2-1/2" square black bar about 10" long drilled for 4 X 3/4" cap head screws to fasten to the overlong tee nuts. The bars were drilled and tapped to receive 1-1/4" eye bolts. The lifting slings went into shackles in the eye bolts.

Obviously it takes a little time and effort to set the lift up this way but it's better to be safe than sorry. Lifting around the arm is a no-no in my book.

Regards Tyrone.
 
I don't care if it was carelessness, malevolence, AoG, or a micrometeorite, the person who held that torch handle would have been fired with great gusto if s/he was in my employ. That's manslaughter at best, mass murder at worst...

A few weeks had gone by before the inspector spotted the damaged link. We had our suspicions as to which welder was responsible but we never did manage to prove it.

Regards Tyrone.
 
I don't know if there would have been less machine damage lifting from the base on the tslots per Tyrone's method or the sling how he had it. The sudden stop caused all the damage..., perhaps if the arm had been up a bit and allowed it to expend some energy turning down it could have been lessened but I have seen books showing rigging radials more or less how Brian had his. Tyron's method would be a bit more adjustable for better balance and level hang.

My only experience moving radials we jacked em up and forked under- with a gentle touch on the controls . Last month we rearranged 2 radial drills, a little Carlton and a 20k lb Fosdick Hydraulic- both forked.
In the end it all moves way faster when it goes wrong than you can move, only thing I would have done different in his setup was get it on the floor as fast as possible, seemed like it hung quite a while off the trailer edge.
 
A few weeks had gone by before the inspector spotted the damaged link. We had our suspicions as to which welder was responsible but we never did manage to prove it.

Regards Tyrone.

It is all important to be able to place the blame on a person.
You always need somebody to throw under the buss when the system fails.
(Does not apply if you are a Jap company, different thinking there)
 
I don't know if there would have been less machine damage lifting from the base on the tslots per Tyrone's method or the sling how he had it. The sudden stop caused all the damage..., perhaps if the arm had been up a bit and allowed it to expend some energy turning down it could have been lessened but I have seen books showing rigging radials more or less how Brian had his. Tyron's method would be a bit more adjustable for better balance and level hang.

My only experience moving radials we jacked em up and forked under- with a gentle touch on the controls . Last month we rearranged 2 radial drills, a little Carlton and a 20k lb Fosdick Hydraulic- both forked.
In the end it all moves way faster when it goes wrong than you can move, only thing I would have done different in his setup was get it on the floor as fast as possible, seemed like it hung quite a while off the trailer edge.


When the wire ropes fail it doesn't really matter how you have it rigged. The end result would have probably been the same if the guy had rigged the drill using the " Asquith " method.

Regards Tyrone.
 
The main take away for me I think is that its not always possible to properly inspect a wire from the outside. What does that drill weigh? Around 8 - 10 ton odd? His hoist is running 6 lines of what looks to be bigger than 1/2 cable. I think im right in saying each line will see around 1/6th of the total load which shows how much capacity has been lost to internal corrosion. Will be buying a new bit of wire for mi winch thats for sure :o

I got a feeling those bent rods and broken motor mount wont be the only bits that need fixing, reckon there might be the odd crack and broken out bolt holes thatll be needing attention to, at least :(. Saying that, after watching the video again, goto agree that it failed at probably one of the best times, and Brian being Brian, hes only gona learn from it. Best day at the shop ever!

Interesting pdf on wire rope, theres a bit on internal corrosion the end of page 8.
 
This is why the big mean government requires you to load test to 125% of rated capacity for a new crane install and annual inspections after that.
 
I saw somebody one time drop a 50,000 lb die just like that from about twice as high up. The brake is what let go on that one.

Overhead cranes seem to be the most overlooked machine in the shop. It's up there in the ceiling, out of sight, out of mind, and nobody pays much attention until something like this happens.

I haven't kept up with the guy's YouTube channel but I take it he bought the crane used and this was the first big lift. Either the cable was really old, left out in the weather, not lubed, or a combination of all. I probably would have used the cable too if it passed a visual inspection, I think I'll pay more attention from now on.

On wire rope like this, you can usually take a loose piece of it and slap it on a concrete floor. That tends to shake any inner rust loose and you'll see small rust particles on the floor.

I'm also curious what the weight of the drill was, what size the wire rope was, and how many parts he had in the line. If everything was sized correctly, that wire rope would have to loose 80% of it's strength since new to fail. You would have thought that would have been visually evident.

I'm not trying to condemn the guy, I'm just trying to find out exactly what happened so it won't happen to anybody else.
 
The main take away for me I think is that its not always possible to properly inspect a wire from the outside. What does that drill weigh? Around 8 - 10 ton odd? His hoist is running 6 lines of what looks to be bigger than 1/2 cable. I think im right in saying each line will see around 1/6th of the total load which shows how much capacity has been lost to internal corrosion. Will be buying a new bit of wire for mi winch thats for sure :o

I got a feeling those bent rods and broken motor mount wont be the only bits that need fixing, reckon there might be the odd crack and broken out bolt holes thatll be needing attention to, at least :(. Saying that, after watching the video again, goto agree that it failed at probably one of the best times, and Brian being Brian, hes only gona learn from it. Best day at the shop ever!

Interesting pdf on wire rope, theres a bit on internal corrosion the end of page 8.


I was assuming four falls of wire rope on that hook block.

One place I worked at one of the welders ran the hook block on a ten ton crane right up to the top. The upper limit switch failed, the hoist kept winding, burst the ropes, dropping the load and hook block. When the hook block hit the ground one of the cast iron end covers flew off and flew down the shop like a Frisby ! You should have seen the dent it made in the roller shutter door 20 yards away.

Regards Tyrone.
 








 
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