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Figured out I was riding the safeties wrong after 5 years, lol | Elevator Mechanics - Discusd

Figured out I was riding the safeties wrong after 5 years, lol

So I was on a job at a 12-story office building in Austin last Tuesday, and a senior guy comes over while I'm testing the governor. He watches me for a minute, then just goes 'You know you're supposed to let the rope slack an extra inch before resetting, right?' I'd been doing it the same way since trade school, and nobody ever corrected me. Has anyone else had that moment where a simple tweak saved them a ton of headache on a routine fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliotr394mo ago

Honestly I always pull it tight and move on, never had an issue with sticky resets or anything breaking. Seems like an extra step that doesn't really matter unless you're working on some super old crusty unit. Maybe it helps on certain models but half the time those mechanisms are gonna wear out eventually no matter what you do.

the_eva4mo ago

Wait, you mean you're supposed to let it slack an extra inch? I always thought you just pulled it tight and reset, that's how my first mentor showed me and I never questioned it. But last year a mechanic from a different company watched me do it on a high rise and said the same thing, I felt pretty stupid honestly. He explained that extra slack takes the stress off the reset mechanism and makes it last way longer, which totally made sense once I thought about it. Now I do it that way every time and it's one of those small things that just makes the whole job smoother, no more fighting with sticky resets.

mark6764mo ago

Elliot, you say you've never had an issue, but have you ever actually taken apart a jammed unit and looked at the reset spring? I have a buddy who rebuilds them for a living and he says those little springs get stretched out over time from being pulled tight every single time. That inch of slack keeps the spring from getting all fatigued and breaking early. Might not seem like a big deal NOW, but on a high rise job where one bad reset means climbing down and back up, that tiny extra step saves your BACK more than anything.