Home Forums General Discussion Safety Talk Recent Fatality/Rerope Safety Practices

I just learned of the recent fatality of a young man working as an elevator helper. My thoughts and sorrow go out to all those who knew and cared about him. Our business is a dangerous one but the dangers can be countered by certain practices. It is my understanding that his life was lost during an elevator recable job. This struck home to me because my helper and I have a recable job scheduled for next week. I was hoping to get a dialog going where we could state one or two things we've learned through the years that make for a safe and smooth recable job. I was taught as a helper after hoisting the car to get your new runby to always leave one cable attached and to trip the governor during the cable job. Please do not post any comments in regards to the fatality. This post is about moving forward. Thanks

Set the car in the safeties and wrap a couple of slings from the cross head and rail brackets for extra measure

set safeties, steel choker around cross head and rail bracket, change one rope at a time so there is always several still holding the car

In the way back, we landed the counterweights on some type of blocking or rail clamps sufficient to hold the weight. Hung the car off of the machine beams, then hoisted it up to account for rope stretch( back then it was 9" for every one hundred feet of rope, or 6" if using pre-stretched rope. Always set the safties. If you could land the counterweights high enough, the car top was at the top floor level. This was for straight over traction. For 2 to 1 you had to hang the car high enough to access the shackles. Which of course had to be poured with molten babbitt. With the advent of the wedge shackles, things became looser and guys started to improvise, doing one rope at a time, then going back in with a rope clamp to hang the car and shorten the cables at least once and maybe more, depending on the rise. The wedge shackles changed everything, the tried and true went by the wayside for quicker and easier. Safety of the crews also sometimes goes out the window. I am not denigrating the wedge type, just saying, take some time to stay safe.

Setting safeties and slinging car to rail brackets or over head steel. We used to use 2 4x4s to land the counterweight to account for the stretch. When it comes to safety, 2 is 1 and 1 is none, meaning if you don't have a backup, you flat out have nothing.

My condolences to the loved ones of this person,

I would also to acknowledge everyone who participates in furthering this industry.

Thank you

For me, I can’t image doing anything else!

BEST JOB EVER!

JKH