Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

I never seem to get tired of these... (SFW, BTW)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA3GVgK ... uxGroupLLC

Controlled Demolition is from just up the road from here....in Phoenix Maryland......a little north of Baltimore City

it is an amazing feat when done properly ....isn't it ?

I once had a summer job as a yard dog at a local manufacturer of road culvert. On days I was assigned to one of the crews loading lengths of pipe onto a flatbed, I came to appreciate what a maestro our crane operator was. The finished pipes lay stacked in a field behind the loading yard. Another dog (or two) stationed out there would attach the crane's hooks to a length of pipe - then Cookie would hoist the pipe and swing it around towards me, standing on the header just behind the cab of the flatbed. If that steel tube had hit anything on its way, it would have gone right through it - and it would have made short work of me. But by the time it reached me, it was moving so gently I could stop it with one hand and ease it atop the stack already loaded. Cookie knew his job well.

I'm fascinated by experienced heavy machinery operators.....I could watch them all day.......I worked a lot of construction in many capacities for many years....and I've seen a few bad ones as well to know and appreciate the pros.....

When i was about 20 years old we were pouring a tie beam.....I would walk the three quarter inch edges of the plywood form nailed to the concrete block wall below......a crane operator would send a half yard of concrete up to me, and when I had the bucket centered over the pour, I'd pull down the handle and dump the load......one day the bucket didn't slow down, as you suggested, and it hit me....and all I could do it is grab the handle, swing wildly stories above the ground, dumping the concrete off the side of the building until she came to to stop and a coworker help guide the bucket to place I could dismount.....

a wild ride....a good lesson

Wow... scary! The most that ever happened to me was to accidentally stick my hand into the path of an infrared laser beam. Like touching a hot coal... I'll never forget the stench of burning thumbnail....

Way back in my early 20s, I was a forklift operator at a book bindery. (Nowadays you've got to be certified to become one, but the only requirement then was the ability to fog a mirror.) I had a few special moves of my own, but also my share of spectacular disasters, usually involving the metal strapping holding the load in place coming loose... hundreds of books raining down, bouncing off the cage & onto the warehouse floor... happened to all of us at one time or another. We used to joke that the only reason we wore hardhats was to preserve our dental work in case they needed to identify the body afterwards....