My apprentice called me out for skipping rail alignment checks

Honestly I've been doing elevators for 18 years and never thought twice about eyeballing the rail alignment. Last week my apprentice pulled out a laser level and showed me I was off by almost 3/16ths on the car guide rails. That kid made me feel like a hack in front of the building super. Has anyone else had a younger guy show them up with new school tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire_wells871mo ago

Did you really not see that coming? Old school eyeballing worked fine in the old days, but now the tolerances are tighter. That apprentice actually did you a solid by showing you the mistake before it became a bigger problem. I'd rather look like a hack in front of one super than have to redo the whole rail job later. Take the lesson and move on.

bennett.noah1mo ago

18 stairs on that last job and I was off by almost a half inch on the bottom run. @claire_wells87 I get what you're saying about tighter tolerances, but sometimes the old way works fine. The kid was right on a technicality, but that rail still fit.