I was looking for a wrench in the auto bay when the engine hoist tipped over and the boom landed about three inches from the top of my foot. I must of inadvertently bumped it or something. Folding legs, a high center of gravity and an unknown state of locking pins are a recipe for disaster. I could have lost my foot. One vote for cutting it up and scrapping the damn thing.
Sorry that happened. Someone has put the pin that is supposed to keep the leg vertical in the wrong spot allowing the leg to swing more freely than it should. It is a useful tool. Once the scaffolding is gone. The whole autobay needs to be cleaned and reorganized as a whole.
First off, I’m glad you didn’t suffer an injury. I think the entire autobay is a disaster right now, and the scaffolding is quite a portion of it. I agree the engine hoist is a valuable tool, but should have a better and safer spot to land when not in use. Hopefully we can get this sorted out in the near future.
I concur with being glad you are uninjured.
Unfortunately, you can have a foldable hoist that conserves space or you can have an immutably stable hoist that takes up lots of space, you cannot have both.
I would make the comment, though, that people should probably think about wearing steel toed boots/shoes out in the main tool area. Things out there aren’t exactly spacious, and I regularly do something to my foot/ankle/shin if I’m not wearing my steel toed boots.
I know safety gear is an important factor in any garage/shop situation. And the older I get the fewer risks I like to take. But in this case steel toes would have made no difference. The end of the boom came down like a forging hammer. The whole building shook. I looked around the shop and no one else seemed to notice, lol, which is fine. I know the risks. I signed a waiver and shit happens. I work hard in life to avoid accumulating bad karma and boy did it pay off that day.
I count about one and a half votes to keep the engine hoist and one vote to cut it up and throw it in Town Lake (after removing the hydraulic fluid and making it fish safe of course) so I guess we keep it. Joking but not joking…
I’m just saying the dangers are real and no one likes to think about people getting hurt at Asmbly. The obvious solution is to chain up the hoist when folded the same way you chain up the bottles of compressed gas on a welding rig.
Agreed, that makes a lot of sense, at least until we can get a friendlier hoist. I expect the fiber laser will precipitate a lot of materials-handling changes in that end of the shop.