The old dock worker who taught me smooth starts

I was setting up a 50 ton Grove at a shipyard in Norfolk about 5 years ago. An older guy, probably in his late 60s, walked over and just watched me for a minute without saying anything. He asked if he could show me a trick for feathering the boom controls on a tight lift. He had me use my thumb and middle finger instead of my whole hand on the lever, and it changed how smoothly I could start a swing. Has anyone else picked up a weird little tip like that from an unexpected person on site?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_ray21d ago

Hold up, that thumb and middle finger thing is actually a solid tip for fine control, but you kinda got it backwards. It's more for feathering the swing or boom on a slow, delicate lift, not for starting a tight lift from a dead stop. For that, you'd use your whole hand with a light grip and work the detent. I've picked up a few weird ones over the years though, like using a piece of duct tape on the boom angle indicator to mark your sweet spot for repeat picks. Always comes from the old heads who've been running iron since before we were born.

riley_west21d ago

Man, that duct tape trick is gold... I've seen old timers do that with a little piece of colored electrical tape too. They'll put it right on the window edge lining up with the boom angle so they can glance at it without even taking their eyes off the load. Another one I picked up was tapping the side of the joystick housing with your index finger while you're feathering - gives you that extra little vibration feedback so you don't overshoot when you're trying to set a beam down on the money...