some pics from transmission hot stick'n school

THOUGHT YOU GUYS WOULD LIKE TO SEE SOME OF THE PICS FROM SCHOOL, MAYBE THINGS WILL MAKE A BIT MORE SENSE NOW. THANKS AND HAVE A GREAT MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVERYONE. IM GOING TO TENNESSEE TO SEE MY TWIN BROTHER SO I'LL SEE IF HE'S GOT ANY GOOD CONTRACT STORIES FROM THE OUTSIDE FOR EVERYONE.

AS ALWAYS,

BE SAFE ~ HURTMAN DAN

heat'n up, move'n out!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry it's been a few days since the last post but I should have some pic's soon from the transmission yard so you can see us in action hot stick'n and as far as the Bismark job, we are DONE. I think we ended up changing out around 50 poles, mostly single phase poles out in the country but still, good learning/work for an apprentice to do!

Alright, so to bring you up to speed on what were doing now ~ For the past week we have been doing a underground job in Dewey Illinois. The local Grain Coop, in Dewey is upgrading there service. We wrecked out the Three pot bank that was there, they had your standard wye/delta closed bank, I think the transformers were 500's and we installed a pad mount which you can see in the pics that had 8 runs of secondaries on her. That's a lot of bending and pulling to get all those bastards in there the right way. Also, since it's 3 phase ~ you'll notice that there are three primary elbows on the left side of the can. All the apprentices did this pad mount so we'll see if she blows tomorrow when we close it in and heat everything up. We are also going to re-conductor about 6 spans of number #4 ACSR. What we did was tear down the old #4 and we just ran rope up thru dollies that we placed on the arms and we strung 1/0 ACSR so that should up the power a bit and it looks a whole lot better than it did before. We probably should have changed out a few of the buck poles but Ameren is strictly doing must do work until the rate case get's settled.

Well, other than that not much is going on but again, I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately, but it's been HOTT and I've been tired as hell. My better half has convinced me to start a work out plan so right after work I've been heading to the gym. So we'll see if I can't step it up a bit, and I should be able to post a few more blogs in the near future.

be safe

hurtman dan

TO THE TOP OR TO THE SHOP...BITCH!!!

SO WE FINISHED UP ON FRIDAY IN THE TRANSMISSION YARD AND I CAN SAY THAT NOT A SOLE FELL OFF ANY OF THE OLD AND RATTY POLES!!! THAT'S ALWAYS A CONCERN BECAUSE OF THE SHAPE THAT SOME OF THOSE POLES ARE. YOU GOTTA REALIZE THAT OVER FORTY APPRENTICES HAVE BEEN UP AND DOWN SOME OF THESE POLES PROBABLY OVER A HUNDRED TIMES EACH SO THEY CAN GET PRETTY CHEWED UP. WE ENDED UP CHANGING OUT EIGHT POLES IN THE POLE YARD,THAT'S ALWAYS KINDA FUN BECAUSE I DON'T GET TO CHANGE OUT MANY POLES AT WORK, OR WHAT I MEAN IS THAT I DON'T GET TO RUN THE CONTROLS AS MUCH AS I PROBABLY SHOULD. AND AT THE TRAINING CENTER THEY HAVE A HAND HELD REMOTE SO YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO STAND ON THE TRUCK, YOU CAN ACTUALLY GET UP NEXT TO THE POLE WHEN SETTING IT.

SO ALITTLE ABOUT THE TRANSMISSION TRAINING : WHEN HOT STICKING TRANSMISSION YOU REALLY NEED TO HAVE A GOOD GRUNT THAT HAS EVERYTHING IN ORDER AND CAN TIE KNOTS. I WISH I HAD THIS TRAINING EARLIER CAUSE I'VE ALWAYS BEEN PRETTY GOOD AT TIE'N KNOTS AND WELL FOR THE FIRST YEAR AND A HALF AS AN APPRENTICE YOU PRETTY MUCH SPEND IT ON THE GROUND WAITING FOR YOUR JOURNEYMAN TO FINISH UP THE TASK AT HAND. BUT YOUR GRUNT WILL SEND YOU UP ANY AND ALL SADDLE'S AND PUSH STICKS OR PULL STICKS. SOME PEOPLE CALL THEM JEW CLAWS....JUST IN CASE SOME OLD TIMER IS READIN:) BUT YOUR ALSO GONNA NEED SOME CRADLES AND LADY FINGERS....ALL KINDS OF ATTACHMENTS, BELL HOLDERS....AND A LONG HAND LINE:) YOU WOULD THINK THAT YOUR SHOULDERS WOULD HURT TONS FROM WORKING ABOVE YOUR HEAD ALL DAY BUT AGAIN, WHEN THE GRUNT IS HOLDING ALL THE WEIGHT WITH THE HAND LINE IT'S MAKE YOUR JOB PRETTY EASY. I'LL TRY AND SCAN THE PICS I HAVE OF THE TRANSMISSION YARD AND WE EVEN USED A HOOK LADDER FOR A BIT. ANYWHO, BACK TO THE SHOW UP TOMORROW AND WILL HAVE TO TRY AND GET BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS, I THINK THAT WE MIGHT STILL HAVE A FEW SINGLE PHASE POLES TO SET IN BISMARK AND THEN WE HAVE AN UNDERGROUND JOB AT ONE OF THE LOCAL GRAIN ELEVATORS SO IT WILL BE A BIT OF A CHANGE BUT IM UP FOR THE CHALLENGE.

TALK TO YA L8TER,

HURTMAN DAN

HOT STICK'N, THE LOST ART......

HEY GUYS,

SORRY ITS BEEN A FEW DAYS SINCE I WROTE, I'VE BEEN UP AT SCHOOL FOR THE PAST WEEK AND HAVE 4MORE WONDERFUL DAYS UP HERE IN GOOD OLE DECATUR ILLINOIS AT THE TRAINING SITE. LAST WEEK WE DID SOME DISTRIBUTION HOT STICK'N. WHAT I MEAN IS WE UNTIED AND PUT NEW CROSSARMS UP WITH OUT EVER TOUCHING THE WIRES/PHASES. AT THE COMPANY I WORK FOR WE CAN RUBBER GLOVE OFF THE POLE 4KV, BUT NO VOLTAGES ABOVE THAT AKA....12KV, 34.5KV AND SO ON. SO LEARNING THIS PART OF THE TRADE IS GOING TO BE VERY USEFULL SOME DAY WHEN WERE WORKING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOODS ON A 12 KV 3 PHASE POLE THAT NEEDS AN ARM CHANGED OUT AND WE CAN'T GET A BUCKET TO. I KEEP SAYING THAT I'LL POST SOME PICTURES BUT THE WEATHER HASN'T BEEN THE BEST AND I CAN'T GET AWAY TO SNAP A FEW PICS AS EASY AS I CAN A WORK. BUT NEVER THE LESS, I WILL CONTINUE TO TRY.

WELL, TOMORROW WE HEAD TO THE TRANSMISSION YARD TO DO SOME HEAVIER LIFTING WITH THE HOT STICKS AND CHANGING OUT SOME BROKEN BELLS WITH HOISTS AND BLOCKS, AND AGAIN~WE WON'T EVER TOUCH THE WIRE WITH OUR HANDS.

ANYWHO,

GOTTS TO GET BACK TO THE GROUP.

HOPE ALLS WELL~

HURTMAN DAN

HOT STICK TRAINING AT SCHOOL

HEY EVERYONE,




SORRY I HAVEN'T WROTE MUCH LATELY, WE WORKED LATE EVERY NIGHT LAST WEEK AND HAD SEVERAL PROBLEMS WITH THE CAT SO IT WAS AN INTERESTING WEEK. THE COMPANY I WORK FOR PUT OUT AN ANNOUNCEMENT STATING THAT THE ILLINOIS COMMERCE COMMISSION DIDN'T APPROVE THERE 150 MILLION RATE INCREASE, SO THEY WILL BE LAYING OFF ALL OUR CONTRACTORS AND THEN CUTTING BACK CERTAIN JOBS/PROJECTS. NOT A GOOD DEAL, MANY OF MY FRIENDS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THIS.

BUT ON TO THE CURRENT JOB/TASK... I WILL BE AWAY AT SCHOOL FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS DOING SOME HOT STICKING OFF THE POLE. WE ARE CHANGING OUT ARMS HOT, TIE'N IN CONDUCTORS WITH HOT STICKS, AND DOING SOME TRANSMISSION WORK. I'LL POST SOME PICS LATER K.

SORRY SO SHORT, BUT I'M PRETTY TIRED.

BE SAFE,

HURTMAN DAN