Material Movement

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Eddie702

Licensed Electrician
Location
Western Massachusetts
Occupation
Electrician
And you're not supposed to run slings through a hook. The hook can act as a pulley and bad things can happen even with a balanced load if one corner gets hung up.
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
And you're not supposed to run slings through a hook. The hook can act as a pulley and bad things can happen even with a balanced load if one corner gets hung up.
You're correct, 4 individual slings with a shackle would have been better but given the narrow footprint and equipment height of over 8' there was little to no chance of the pulley effect you mentioned tipping the load.
 

SceneryDriver

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Electrical and Automation Designer
Wow nice. I’d think there be some “training” to know what your doing there.
Here's a few various photos of our lifting set up done solely by electricians The first one is 3 chain falls used to move two scissor lifts from one floor to another. The last two are lifting a switchboard up from one level to a generator room that was only accessible by stairs. (Yes I know about the lack of fall protection)

View attachment 2560700 View attachment 2560701 View attachment 2560702

Rigging is a large part of what I do; entertainment automation and rigging are closely linked. I've flown everything from a single actor playing Peter Pan to dozens of tons for rock & roll lighting and sound rigs. There are about 20 things I see wrong in these photos, and it scares me. I'm glad no one got hurt and that the gear was raised safely, but multiple things in these photos are plain wrong, and could easily get someone hurt badly.

I mean this with no disrespect: electricians are not riggers, and shouldn't be doing rigging without proper training. I've said this before on this forum with regards to electricians hanging heavy chandeliers and light fixtures.

A colleague of mine has a saying: "If at first you don't succeed... rigging is not for you." There's no such thing as a circuit breaker in rigging - the load will fall and gravity is unforgiving. If you're lucky, only the gear gets damaged and no one gets hurt. I've been involved with the aftermath of several rigging failures over my career, trying to figure out what went wrong when a load fell. So far, I've never investigated anything where someone was injured, but it's probably only a matter of time. I'm in NJ - please feel free to DM me if/when you have to do another set of lifts like what's in the photos. Happy to help, and even train others how to rig safely.


SceneryDriver
 
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