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Guy with 30 years told me to grease the boom daily and I brushed him off
Last month I had a job setting steel beams on a site outside Austin, Texas. This older crane hand named Dave kept telling me to hit the boom with grease every morning before hoisting anything. I figured I knew better, been doing this about 8 years now, so I just greased it when I felt like it, maybe twice a week. Well around noon on the third day, I heard this grinding sound coming from the main boom section. Had to shut down the whole job for 2 hours while the mechanics came out to look. Turns out a pin was starting to seize up from lack of grease, almost cost me a $300 part and a late penalty on the contract. Dave didn't say I told you so but he didn't have to. Has anyone else had an old timer's simple tip save them from a headache like that?
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piper_kim1mo ago
Right, that grinding sound is the boom's way of saying you should have listened to Dave before that pin started welding itself in place.
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the_taylor1mo ago
@kelly385 nailed it, that grinding sound is the universe giving you one last chance to stop being lazy lol. It's like when you're at a stoplight and your car starts making that weird hum right before it stalls, you know you should have checked the battery last week but you kept putting it off. Or when you're slicing up a tomato and the knife starts dragging instead of cutting clean through, that's the tomato telling you "hey, you should have sharpened this thing three uses ago." Same pattern everywhere, machines and tools just have their own way of saying "I told you so" and once they lock up, you're stuck paying the price.
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Oh man, that grinding sound is like a warning shot you only get once before the whole thing locks up tight.
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