what up there?

jeffcat

Well-known Member
Running around getting parts and what do I see??? Do YOU want to work there??? NOOOOOO thanks. Couple hundred feet high, I get the willies! They are close to finis up doing welds on a new tower.
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Looks like fun. I helped the company my Dad works for put a telemetry (radio) tower on top of a water tower a few years ago. Best we could calculate we were working right at 230 feet up. The fun part was that the ledge we had to walk at the top was less than a foot wide. Thankfully there was a good place to tie off the safety harness to.

About three weeks ago I went to SC to do some line boring on a portal crane (used to unload log trucks at a paper plant). The holes held the carriage to the rest of the crane and were about 100 feet up. The fun part there was riding a man lift up that high. It look like a big machine when your on the ground, but didn't look nearly as big, or big enough, when you were at the top.
 
They got the fall protection harnesses, and once you get used to it, it's just a day at the office. BUT not for me. My hands lock up once I'm about 20' ooff the ground, too scared.
 
I saw one of those going up years ago. It was a raw November day and the guys were lying on their backs welding the underbelly. NO Thanks, I'd rather milk cows.
 
They are very well paid, never ever close to home, basically live on the road. They are also fully certified and every single inch that they weld is x-rayed and if it isn't perfect it is ground out and rewelded. I have a friend that does this, He is from Tennessee, works for Pitt Des Moines (PDM) here in Iowa, lives in a camper trailer he pulls from job site to job site. Whiskey, women, and souped up Ford diesel pickups is his lifestyle.
 
In preparation for the Thunder Over Louisville, Louisville Fire Department took on a challenge of placing red flags on the top of cranes working on the new Kentucky/Indiana bridge. The cranes are only 300' tall! The show must go on. Thunder Over Louisville has a big air show leading up to one big fireworks show after dark this Saturday.

http://www.whas11.com/story/news/local/2015/04/15/louisville-fire-dept-marks-cranes-saves-thunder-over-louisville-air-show/25860181/
 
I know a guy who retired from that company. I think it was them - from Des Moines.
As you say, 45 years of traveling and living in a camper.
He made good money, invested it wisely and is worth several million now.
 
When I was a welder one of my best customers did clean water treatment plants. I never welded any towers but did plenty of welding on the filter tanks. I did scrap an old stainless tower once tho. The company they hired to scrap it mistakenly thought it was steel then when they got there they couldn't cut it with their torches. I spent a week with the plasma cutter cutting that tower and the filter tanks apart.
 
We had a flashlight shaped Pitt-Des Moines on this job, I reviewed the submittal package, sent in for approval by NYS, was interesting to see one go up from the initial submission to finish coat of paint. I never realized that the bottom of the structure, its hollow and useable space in there. One of the outside design firms still has an aerial photo on their site, the tank is on the lower left.
Correctional Facility
 
Not really afraid of heights and have worked inside the railing but hanging over the side don't think I could get used to it. Usually by lunchtime your sick of being scared and start to relax .Still does not look right .
 
The guy at the top seems to like to hold onto that railing.

... I would too.

The difference is you'd have to pry my hand off with a crow bar.
 
Here's another thing. How do you suppose workers get up on top for servicing after the water tower is done? One day we were in a restaurant close to one of those type of towers. A worker was on top and there was no ladder in sight. After a while he lifted a hatch in the center and disappeared. It occurred to me that there has to be a pipe with a ladder up thru the center. Uggggg, claustrophia thinking you're surrounded by that much water while climbing up or down!!!
 
There was a time when I would have done it. I'm 60 now so I think not. I will work on a second story roof though. That's more than my 30 year old son will do.
 
One of our neighbor kids was a water tower welder. Worked on new towers and also repaired old ones. Travelled all over the country. Paid real good. Gone all the time. His wife ran off with someone else while he was gone.
 
(quoted from post at 18:00:22 04/17/15) One of our neighbor kids was a water tower welder. Worked on new towers and also repaired old ones. Travelled all over the country. [b:62e749950a] Paid real good. Gone all the time. His wife ran off with someone else while he was gone.[/b:62e749950a]
an't blame the wife.
What good is it to be married and living like a nun.LOL

Back in my youth I used to climb tower silos on the outside.
No cage, just a bunch of re-bar rungs.:shock:
They could not pay me enough to do that today :shock:
 
There is not enough money to be made for me to do something like that. I couldn't work anyway, if I was up there, too busy holding on to whatever I could grab.
No, I don't like roof work either but I do occasionally get on mine just for the view. Wondered how hard it would be to install a grab bar on the side of the dormer...
 

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