Cranes!!!

[IamMe]

So i was looking outside my window and i can see a lot of construction and building of houses where i live, and i was thinking what do the people in the little box up in cranes do and what do you call that job. Also how much do they earn because im not sure if they get paid very well because the job doesn't look so hard.

 

[High Tower]

Erm.........crane driver

 

[Rockingit]

I don't know, but I've always been under the impression that crane/lifting operatives actually get paid quite well as its a highly skilled job and not for the faint hearted. I'd have also thought it's fairly difficult to get into.

 

[IamMe]

Yes it is actually a well paid job, i was looking at indeed.com and you could see they get from £15 to £20 an hour. I was also looking at training courses on the CITB website and i saw courses that teach you about mobile and tower cranes. It will cost you £2740 and its for a duration of 9 days, thats really expensive

 

[Guest111]

I went up one of those tower cranes once,and they don't half move in a high wind,the driver told me he'd been sick once or twice especially after a night on the beer.

 

[IamMe]

How was it going up there phil?

 

[Pete999]

Blimey a electrical trainee crane driver, seriously that's a very responsible job people's lives in your hands, bit like our really

 

[Guest111]

How was it going up there phil?

in truth bloody awful,200 foot up on a ladder in the middle of the tower and all the while the thing was moving in the wind.What didn't help was the fact that there was a wooden boxing around it for part of the way and as it moved you could see the box coming towards you then moving away.

 

[IamMe]

That's sound frightening

 

[Plonker 3]

Just watch some YouTube clips, it makes my stomach turn just watching them.

 

[Guest111]

Yes I was a bit green at the time,then when you get up there you've not only got the side to side movement but a bit of up and down as it lifts heavy loads.A bit like being on a ship in bad weather,and ships and me don't exactly go together either.lol

 

[IamMe]

But why should the crane move about, should it not move around so much and how does the crane driver deal with this everyday.

 

[Robotstar5]

I watched a programme showing some one learning to drive one and the biggest issue seemed to be controlling the swing of the load when it's dangling on a couple of hundred feet of cable.

 

[Geordie Spark]

I like cranes

 

[snowhead]

But why should the crane move about, should it not move around so much and how does the crane driver deal with this everyday.

They couldn't build it strong enough not to move around.

Skyscrapers move at the top.

 

[davesparks]

But why should the crane move about, should it not move around so much and how does the crane driver deal with this everyday.

Why wouldn't it move about? It's a tall thin structure, of course it's going to bend a bit, like a long length of strong timber will bend easily when a short length won't.
If it was built so rigid that it doesn't bend a bit then it would likely just snap!

 

[Resu]

But why should the crane move about, should it not move around so much and how does the crane driver deal with this everyday.

What's with all the weird questions? I'm sure there's a crane forum somewhere on the interwebs!

 

[snowhead]

What's with all the weird questions? I'm sure there's a crane forum somewhere on the interwebs!

That'll be this then; Lifting World ? Index page

 

[Harni]

They are designed to move about in the wind. if they were rigid, in high winds eventually they would just snap like a twig. Build them with some play in the joint and they can move with the wind and absorb shock better.

 

[Guest111]

I read somewhere in a book on buildings that Blackpool tower moves 7 feet from vertical in a high wind,you can feel it move when your up top.Anyway I was talking to one of the staff and a group of people were stood listening,some looked nervous when I mentioned the amount of movement.The staff member was quick to deny this,trying to ease peoples worries, "in that case I'll go down then,because we all know rigid objects snap eventually" I said.Some of the faces were a picture.