August Hunicke Videos

I was surprised the aroma of tree/crane work didn't get more hits either. Maybe to ripe for the picking.

Aroma? What did I miss?

Exactly Cory!!!

The danger with stuff hitting the boom is the fact that the boom is highly loaded when it happens. On a hydraulic crane the boom acts as a cantilever, which is much weaker than say a lattice boom that's completely in compression. Both types are very fragile when loaded though. For example, take a beer can and lightly step on it, or put a small log on it. You can actually put a surprising amount of weight on it, because the sides are straight and all of the load is transferred. Then while you have weight on it, take a twig (don't use your finger) and gently push in the side slightly. The whole thing collapses instantly.

Any dents, gouges, etc are called stress risers, because the steel is stressed in that area. Most all of steel failures (or any other material) is due to stress risers, because that is the weakest link of the structure. So even if the damage occurred when the boom was lightly stressed, a subsequent pick later could cause the failure. A stress riser will be flexed more because when you deform materials it hardens them, so over time the area will become more and more brittle, until it finally pops. Entire offshore drilling rigs have been brought down by something as simple as welding a ladder to a main support structure incorrectly. The small weld cooled super fast, leading to different grain structure in the steel (more brittle), and over time the flexing of the support caused it to tear right at the weld, bringing down the whole rig.

Edit: this is the reason you see brand new excavators and such at auctions, they factor in the depreciation of new equipment on certain jobs to when the job is done, everything is sold off. That way there's no headaches later.

Yeah, what he said!

But yeah, when loaded, hitting/touching the boom with the load reeks of no bueno. 'Stress riser" I gotta remember that.

Steven Wright is wild!

Good explanation, Kyle. Things built to be strong in one direction are often weak in a different direction...a concept that martial artists use to disrupt balance in an enemy.

August Hunicke said:

I think some raise concerns about potential contact to the boom with blunt force.
Braille controls. Interesting. Maybe I could give them each a different smell too LOL.

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I think the different smells will come with some use.

You don't need Braille your hands will have those levers memorized in no time.

Monkey, Beaver...

Aug, my children are getting a lot of mileage out of the whole Monkey Beaver creature, esp. after seeing the climbing harness in the new Vermeer Sherrill catalog. Previously, I had showed them footage of elephants in other countries being used for utility purposes -- fire mitigation, packing loads, carrying logs. So now they equate your Vermeer CTX-100 to an elephant. And it gave rise to the newly added Monkey-Beaver-Elephant creature.


Now you have a crane, so I guess that will be the Giraffe to add to your little zoo!

I'd sure give that saddle a shot if I was still swinging around.

Looking smooth

Monkey Beaver Elephant . . . I like it, sounds like a good groundsman.

More Crane work

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I'd be so in love with that crane! We'd always (usually) load the logs on the crane deck as we'd go, save having to do all that later.

I hope he touched up his gaffs after 3:10, lol!

Nice indeed. I'd love it too, Butch . Very smooth lifts, Aug.

I just hate to see anyone work on the ground wearing gaffs. I have sung this song many a time . It's stupid, and asking for trouble.

Meh - it's like one handing a top handle saw. If you're careful and know what you're doing - NBD.

Sure, and unless you've seen the results firsthand when the shtf from what might be an unlikely incident, it's easy to be complacent, and trust your skill and experience to protect you. I get that.

I just wish every climber could have seen either of those two on-the-ground gaff accidents, as I did. It would change your mind, I promise.

I've gaffed myself twice, never on the ground. My biggest fear is dulling them, not hurting myself.

MasterBlaster said:

I've gaffed myself twice, never on the ground. My biggest fear is dulling them, not hurting myself.

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+1

August Hunicke said:

Monkey Beaver Elephant . . . I like it, sounds like a good groundsman.

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I missed this but I like it too

Looking good August.

Now that Ive seen the vid, yeah take off them spurs! Too many rocks everywhere.

Great vid! Nice trick laying down the 6x6 to make landing a vertical pick easier.

Where do you get trippy music like that? It worked well. Not like I'm trying to find that album but it fit well imo.

The sequential pieces at 11.12 where cool. Your editing is high level.

Thanks for posting.

10-4 on the chunking sequence. Well done. The light/dark wedge pounding looked like inside a mine at first.

Looks like you got a new monitor screen/membrane...looks good.

Didn't really focus on the gaffs still on when I watched the vid. Now that I watch it - yeah I would pull them off first.

But, as a boss, if I had a guy so passionate about getting a stem cut for me while I am waiting on the crane that he didn't feel he wanted to take the time to pull them or his harness before the next climb I would be thinking about what I could do for him.

Any of your guys using Bashlin long or short gaffs August? I might see what I can work up in the way of a metal gaff protector. Could walk them around on the ground some, even use them when doing specific SRT accents with gaffs on.

Merle Nelson said:

But, as a boss, if I had a guy so passionate about getting a stem cut for me while I am waiting on the crane that he didn't feel he wanted to take the time to pull them or his harness before the next climb I would be thinking about what I could do for him.

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I hear ya though I don't agree re the spurs. But yeah, when you see a guy with intrinsic hustle, you take care of him if you want to take care of yourself. How many guys work for you, Merle?

I love Damien. HeÂ’s a Jedi now. He can dance the cha-cha in those gaffes if he wants to. I did mention the gaff-jogging to him on site there by the way.
I donÂ’t like walking around in gaffes. Like Butch, IÂ’ve gaffed myself twice. Never while on the ground though.
Once, put my right knee up into the crotch of the tree and then brought my other leg up into the stationary gaffe. That was not good. The other time I gaffed my big toe. Took off my boot in the tree and taped up a bleeder with electrical tape and went back to work.

Cory, the MUSIC IS ROYALTY FREE crap that I have to sift through for days to half-match the content.

Thanks butch, I didn't include the response to cory as an edit because I added it much later and thought he wouldn't notice it unless it was new.

Thanks for that info. Yeah I can imagine that must be definitely a lotta work to find the right tune