20
That 1996 job at the Seagram Building changed how I do leveling forever
I was working on an old Otis setup at the Seagram Building in NYC, mustve been around 96. The guide rails were so far out of plumb I spent a whole day just shimming, got to the top and realized the car would never run smooth. After that I started doing a plumb line check on every single rail before I even touch a bracket, saves me so much headache. Anyone else had a job that made you completely change your approach?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
willow4071mo ago
Buddy of mine had a similar moment on a low rise in Newark. He was the kind of guy who eyeballed everything, never pulled out a plumb line. This old hydraulic stack had rails that looked straight to him but after the car was hung it had a wobble that drove the owner nuts. He spent three weekends chasing it, shimming and re shimming until he finally dropped a line and found the bottom of the rail was a quarter inch off. Now he wont touch a bracket without checking the full run first and he jokes that Newark cured him of being lazy.
7
morgan_ramirez1mo ago
Newark will humble anyone who gets too cocky with their eyeballing no doubt about it.
1
Hang on, quarter inch off at the bottom? That's wild. I gotta say it, that story actually gives me chills because a quarter inch doesn't sound like much but on a full run it can throw everything into a nightmare. If he had just eyeballed the bottom and thought it looked close enough, that wobble would have only gotten worse over time. It's scary how one small mistake at the start can mess up an entire install. That Newark job sounds like it taught him a lesson the hard way but at least he learned it.
2