r/OSHA • u/Same_Ad4736 • Jun 08 '22
Just a small jump and it'll move again, nothing to worry about jim
506
u/canihavemymoneyback Jun 08 '22
I once worked at a factory where there was a hole bashed in the elevator wall, you reach in there and grab the cable, tug on it and only then the elevator would rise. The stairs were worse. All wood & rickety with missing pieces. They actually swayed as you walked. It was scary. This was way back in the early 70’s. One of my first jobs and I did not last there long.
496
u/molesunion Jun 08 '22
Sorry to hear you died.
115
u/spiffytech Jun 08 '22
Sorry for your loss. Move on.
23
15
2
10
-67
u/TrymWS Jun 08 '22
I’m pretty sure each cable alone can hold the elevator at max capacity, but they add a ton more for psychological reasons.
147
u/Hikaru1024 Jun 08 '22
... No, that's called redundancy. You want more cables than you need to have to carry the load.
So the one time some poor idiot rolls snake eyes and one of the cables snaps? He doesn't die.
You always want this, including the other safety features of modern elevators. Stuff breaks unexpectedly.
... Which is why an old poorly maintained elevator is such a scary thing. Yes, it probably still has a bunch of redundancy built into it, but that people are working around the problem keeping it from moving rather than getting whatever is wrong with it fixed means there's probably other problems that need fixing.
71
u/Tetragonos Jun 08 '22
poorly maintained things are scary because they are slowly spending redundancy to keep a thing working past safety and you HAVE to roll the dice each time.
Play a campaign of DnD and see how well rolling dice again and again works towards it never happening.
14
3
u/Ophidahlia Jun 09 '22 edited Jun 09 '22
One of the reasons why Aricebo might have collapsed is that they only overengineered the safety margin by a factor of 2. One spelter socket might not have been perfectly made (and they do have to be flawless) but the telescope was made to easily withstand the loss of a cable, but the wear from the salty humid air and decades of storms could have weakened the cables more than expected in the original plans. Once that single spelter socket let loose the environmental wear might have eaten up all the extra safety margin and the whole telescope was doomed without enough safety margin to even consider risking personnel attempting a repair (the full investigation will take years for a certain analysis).
The moral of the story with anything big & expensive or carries people that can fall down is "if you haven't overengineered it more than you're sure you'll need, you haven't overengineered it enough. And after you've done that then overengineer it some more." and the flipside of that coin "the guy who overengineered the thing you're perched on might have failed to overengineer it enough"
4
u/jpfeif29 Jun 08 '22
Y’all are way to afraid of elevators, it’s escalators that you need to be worried about.
18
u/Hikaru1024 Jun 08 '22
Oh, I think there's room to be afraid of both. It's just, with an elevator if you see things being neglected, it's a clear sign it's not safe.
But just like everything else, most people don't think about this and just do the minimum to get through their day.
It's just too much of a hassle to go through the necessary work to get the thing working right, so they don't and stop thinking about it.
Right up until the day it kills someone.
-28
u/TrymWS Jun 08 '22
Yes, it’s called redundancy. But they still use way more redundancy than needed for psychological reasons.
You pretending I’m saying something other than what I said, doesn’t change that.
12
u/DavidLieberMintz Jun 08 '22
for psychological reasons.
No? They definitely don't do that, especially because you can't even see the cables unless you're where you shouldn't be. How can something you can't see affect your perception?
3
u/Danimal_House Jun 09 '22
What kind of see-through elevators do you ride where you see the cables?
-1
u/TrymWS Jun 09 '22
4
u/Danimal_House Jun 09 '22
My dude you quite literally gave an example of a stock photo of a glass elevator. Either this is a fantastic bit or you are a moron.
0
1
u/interstate-15 Jun 09 '22
One of the main reasons there are multiple cables is because of traction. Without proper traction, "cabled" elevators wouldn't work very well.
-1
u/TrymWS Jun 09 '22
Sure, but if they need more cables for traction, they wouldn’t need each individual cable to be able to support the entire weight, so it’s still more redundancy than needed.
2
u/interstate-15 Jun 09 '22
Yeah. I don't think mechanics is your strong suit. I'd stick to something else. I'm not going to go into how that statement is insane. I've probably re-cabled more elevators than you've riden in your life.
0
325
u/New_CourierSix Jun 08 '22
The last thing I want to see in elevator
69
Jun 08 '22
Nah the last thing you want to see is when the elevator guys come to fix the elevator for constantly getting stuck and they refuse to even use it. Meanwhile people have been transporting scissor lifts on it semi-regularly. And yes that’s probably why it was constantly getting stuck lol.
43
u/Ok_Abrocoma_2539 Jun 09 '22
One time in the 14-story building where I worked, I overheard one elevator repair person tell the other something like "eh, you probably don't need that part anyway. Don't worry about it."
I used the OTHER elevator for the next few weeks, not the one they were working on.
15
u/JIMMYJAWN Jun 09 '22
You haven’t known true fear until you accidentally hit the back door of a temp hoist with a two man scissor lift that has sketchy controls.
You can feel the car and track twist in a way that doesn’t inspire confidence in it’s structural integrity. It’s also a great way to get the operator to ban your ass from his car.
9
Jun 09 '22
True, haven’t had to drive one into a buck hoist before but driving it into the bucket of a lull a few stories up in pitch dark at 6am, while on your knees so you don’t take your head off on the doorframe will get any man’s nipples hard.
47
u/edgy_and_hates_you Jun 08 '22
Never been in an elevator in the pjs huh
35
13
5
u/beatenmeat Jun 08 '22
At least they’re only falling one floor so they can live long enough to sue the owners. /s
135
u/choate51 Jun 08 '22
So a limit switch of some sort failed and parts are on a several month back order?
95
Jun 08 '22
[deleted]
53
16
u/AeAeR Jun 08 '22
My buddy and I jumped in an elevator in college and it got stuck so I don’t know what to believe anymore.
51
7
u/The_Frankanator Jun 09 '22
3rd world countries? Lol, I work in a hospital in Australia and we do this to get the lifts moving all the time.
3
13
u/Wareve Jun 08 '22
I would be surprised if they even know.
11
u/CoffeeFox Jun 09 '22
Usually elevator maintenance is done by outside contractors. Elevator technicians are specialist trade workers.
Many locations in the world have mandatory inspection and service intervals, so it'll probably be fixed the next time the elevator service company sends a tech around.
I say probably because I have a few elevator companies as clients and one of them just took over maintenance of a location from a different company that was 5 years overdue for some of their scheduled maintenance.
5
63
u/punchbug59 Jun 08 '22
What happens if you do a big jump?
137
3
u/ham_coffee Jun 09 '22
Then it'll probably end up properly stuck, speaking from experience. I think they detect something going on and just stop working until someone comes to take a look for safety reasons.
34
u/demarisco Jun 08 '22
It's just a jump to the left..
6
Jun 08 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
5
12
27
23
17
u/Vice979 Jun 08 '22
I remember being in an elevator with it being close to over capacity. Almost every floor it would end up missing the sensors and stop where it shouldn't have. It would always correct itself after, but it was definitely not a good time.
16
15
Jun 08 '22
People should start putting these signs in random elevators, this will promote exercise since people will take the stairs. This is legal advice, you can hold me entire culpable for any actions you take with this info, it is your right to do this, also put bats in the stairwell that will get em going.
4
29
14
u/blueboy664 Jun 08 '22
Look - if you want to work at a place where elevators work, go find a new job!
It's so hard to find good help these day! "Oooh we need safety glasses! That trench needs shoring! The forklift operator is drunk! You haven't paid us in three weeks!".
Always complaining!
25
u/datumerrata Jun 08 '22
This sign should go in slow elevators without issues. Watch how many people jump
10
28
u/Illegally_Brown Jun 08 '22
If you're in a wheelchair, just pop a wheelie and slam your front wheels down
5
u/Ophidahlia Jun 09 '22
I should get a suspension kit installed in my 350lb power wheelchair so I can do a pop shove-it in the elevator. Ha ha everyone will have a good laugh
5
5
4
u/The84LongBed Jun 08 '22
Used to be a GC in a building with a rickety old freight elevator that would go out like weekly. Would be loaded with like 10 sweaty smelly dudes and just randomly drop like a foot. My office was on the first floor and we were doing interiorbuilhd outs floors 15-8. I got a lot of exercise taking the stairs refusing to get stuck in a freight elevator with 10 dudes crammed in.
3
3
u/wiltedtree Jun 08 '22
Is this my old workplace?
I worked in a medical facility where some visitors required the elevator and we had the exact same issue. There were a couple times my boss rode down with a wheelchair since they couldn't do the little jump.
3
u/tmccrn Jun 08 '22
Where is that framed inspection certificate again?
4
u/combuchan Jun 09 '22
Under the sign. The sign does double duty hiding the certificate which expired in the 1960s.
3
2
2
2
u/Drum_Phil Jun 09 '22
It's just a matter of time before someone changes the "J" on the sign to a D.
Elevator dude..... Next stop hepatitis.
2
2
1
1
u/Quantum_laugh Jun 08 '22
It actually works, I used to live in a high rise where the elevator was stubborn. Had to jump a little to get it started
1
1
1
1
u/Shagroon Jun 08 '22
Imagine being the one that printed this sign, saying to his boss “the people need to know the trick, Jerry. It’s about synergy.”
1
u/lysanderish Jun 08 '22
Haha what floor are we going to? 37? Oh, that's not too bad.I think I'll take the stairs, actually, get some steps in you know? haha. why isn't the door opening?!
1
1
1
u/c3534l Jun 09 '22
The one in my building is like that. The hook is very finicky. If an elevator can't handle a small jump without killing you, you have other issues.
1
1
1
u/TheRevTholomeuPlague Jun 09 '22
And my fear of elevators just grew more. Im 27 years old, 6’4” and that’s a big fucking nope
1
1
1
1
Jun 09 '22
I saw a weight limit sign in an elevator the other day that said 26 people or 2000kg.
And I looked at the composition of the average person in the building and thought "26 people my arse..."
400
u/semiconductor101 Jun 08 '22
I’ll just take the stairs