Amishplumber
Active Member
Hi all,
So, I've recently gotten my first taste of working with a hemp rigging system. As someone who has worked with mostly counterweight systems and occasionally hoists, frankly, it scares the sh*t out of me! Is there any way to safely operate such a system? The building superintendent showed me around the system and showed me how to untie the lift lines for the pin rail and raise and lower things. All seemed simple and safe enough when the linesets are properly weighted, but of course I don't want to leave it alone, I want to strike some things and hang others.
My real question is, how do you safely load a batten with such a system? There is no loading rail! Do I really just load up the batten, have 3 guys pull it up by hand, tie it off and then clip some sandbags on?! That seems like a horrible idea.
Also, a few of the battens are not level. How do I fix that? Each lineset has some sort of black clamp box that holds the 3 lift lines even with each other and has a place to clip on sand bags (would love to know what that thing is called) but I can only access it when the pipe is all the way out. Do I really have to empty the batten, lift it all the way and then manually adjust while having some one next to me manually hold the lift lines?
Any general pointers as well as checks I can do make this ancient system as safe as possible are much appreciated. I realize its ancient, but I figure there must be a safe way to use it if it was the norm for many years.
To my younger eyes this thing seems like a death trap, but I'm hoping that thats only because I've only been taught proper procedures on newer systems.
Thanks in advance!
So, I've recently gotten my first taste of working with a hemp rigging system. As someone who has worked with mostly counterweight systems and occasionally hoists, frankly, it scares the sh*t out of me! Is there any way to safely operate such a system? The building superintendent showed me around the system and showed me how to untie the lift lines for the pin rail and raise and lower things. All seemed simple and safe enough when the linesets are properly weighted, but of course I don't want to leave it alone, I want to strike some things and hang others.
My real question is, how do you safely load a batten with such a system? There is no loading rail! Do I really just load up the batten, have 3 guys pull it up by hand, tie it off and then clip some sandbags on?! That seems like a horrible idea.
Also, a few of the battens are not level. How do I fix that? Each lineset has some sort of black clamp box that holds the 3 lift lines even with each other and has a place to clip on sand bags (would love to know what that thing is called) but I can only access it when the pipe is all the way out. Do I really have to empty the batten, lift it all the way and then manually adjust while having some one next to me manually hold the lift lines?
Any general pointers as well as checks I can do make this ancient system as safe as possible are much appreciated. I realize its ancient, but I figure there must be a safe way to use it if it was the norm for many years.
To my younger eyes this thing seems like a death trap, but I'm hoping that thats only because I've only been taught proper procedures on newer systems.
Thanks in advance!