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crankup caution

Subject: crankup caution
From: Rich L. Boyd" <rlboyd@CapAccess.org (Rich L. Boyd)
Was taking down a crankup today, and mindful of the many horror stories 
and warnings about crankups, let me relate a couple points I noticed:

1.  Of course, as others have said, beward of worn winch cables, climb it 
with a ladder not with your toes and fingers through the tower "rungs," etc.
No problem with the cable today and climbed it with a ladder.

2.  But...I've heard the winch handle can suddenly start "windmilling" 
real fast, your hands let loose, and it whips around and slams you in the 
arm, possibly removing it.  I was careful.  But, this did happen today 
and I jumped back and wasn't hurt, but that thing was really spinning 
fast.  It seems to happen when the safety click latch (like on "come 
alongs") is rusted and not working.  So, be careful and watch for this!

3.  A new problem I've never heard mentioned before:  Though the tower 
was in good shape, the winch handle was rusted and in fact had rusted 
clear through about 2" from the end.  It broke off, no big problem, 
though it left a somewhat ragged end, not enough to hurt your hand with 
reasonable care and gloves on, but enough to snag in the cloth work 
gloves I was wearing.  In a "runaway winch handle" situation it could 
snag in the gloves and break a thumb and some fingers, or pull them off, 
or impede your escape from the runaway handle.  I recognized the 
potential danger of this and took the gloves off.

The job was completed without mishap; these potential mishaps were avoided.

73

Rich Boyd KE3Q


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