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| Subject - Tips & Tricks for Working- Alone | |
| jfls40 |
I am a one-man operation and would like to hear how others do things when they are in the same situation as me. Thanks Jeff Ellis |
| JimmyDee | For nine years I worked alone on a service truck. I'll have to remember some of the things I did. Major thing I remember is extra caution working to keep my-self alive. No one there to help if something goes wrong. Jim |
| jfls40 | JimmyDee said: God Bless America, A Spell Checker for Your Forum Posts, By IESpell; CLICK HERE for a Free Copy. Its free and it works! Apprenticeship started in June of 1963. Been at it for over 41 years and still think it is the best trade ever! 1963, the year I was born, one month old when Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from Dallas Book Repository (or did he?) Jeff |
| lctrc789 | Jimmy, I have to agree with 25 years now under my belt and many of them years as a service truck guy, I had to work alone and I remember many times I wish I did have help// Safety is a very practical thing but we all sometimes think we can not get hurt and it happens to the other guys right.... WRONG I was very cautious when I worked service and had to do things hot even though we are not supposed to we all have to at one time or another but be careful, be cautious and always be aware. If you think you can get hurt, or worse I say do not do it and get help, even if it is to hold a ladder... We all want to work and go home every night the same we we went to work, in one piece with all of our fingers and toes and no body parts broken, burned or worse.... I have been fortunate and safe and remain that way no matter how stupid or long it takes to do something SAFETY is always number one, no job is worth us dying or getting seriously hurt for.... Something to think about is this take your dominate hand and stick it in your pocket, try to tie your shoes with the other hand or write or anything that could take you two hands to do and see if it is worth the fact you could be that way the rest of your life.. Or look at your kids or wife or other half and see how they would feel if you were gone.. Safety is for all of us and we must always be aware of where we are, what we are doing and always on the lookout for ourselves, you are responsible for your safety and the more you think and keep aware the better off you are.... Came in to the trade in 1980 and still love every minute of it |
| stedder | I agree, if the job seems impossible with one person STOP and think, can I wait till I can get help? Would this be better tommorrow, after a good nights sleep? Am I using the right tool, method of "whatever". I've nearly brought myself to tears just trying to drag a clump of wires through even just 2 90's. Use LB's and pulling els or pull boxes, it may take a little extra time during assembly of the raceway but when it comes time for the pull you wont still be there @ 2:00 AM being really pissed. Oversize your conduits (for the same reason). Keep the truck stocked well. Oh yea, if you feel light headed and groggy, sick to your stomach or shakey at the knees, get outside and breath deeply could be CO poisoning (happened to me just a few weeks ago) I felt so tired I just wanted to lay down but instead staggered to the door and COLLAPSED in the snow whew, felt better after a dozen deep breaths but man what a hangover. That gave me a renewed respect for working alone, STAY ALERT. |
| Romex Racer | I think the hardest part of flying solo is the load in and load out. At the end of the day you have to hump all your gear and material back into the truck, buy a utility cart and make as few trips as possible. Run lots of BX and Romex, run as little conduit as possible. Battery powered tools mean less fussing with cords, etc. A single man can actually make very good money, but always strive for peak efficiency. Whoop! Whoop! |
| stedder | Right RR 'ja ever look around at the end of the day and say (outloud)"how'd I get this much s**t strewn around" not bad for one man! Also the cordless tools are making me worry about what to do w/ all my corded stuff, guess that's what e-bay's for. Millwaukee has a new 28 volt tool out (they say doesn't weigh any more than 18 or 24) which may be true with the new battery technology these days. There's a portable band saw out along with it, IIIIdooknooowww looks preetty goood
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| gftodd | Working alone can be tough at times, main thing for me is to be safe. #1 rule never work on anything hot when you can remove power. #2 Carry safety gear for hot work & harness for high work. I gave some thought about how to equip my truck for one man operation, came up with idea to use roller tool boxes by stanley. I have 1 for final work . 1 for rough work . 1 for old work. 1 for service work. 1 for pvc work. the boxes are strapped in truck. Rather then have bins like most. These boxes are on wheels so when I get to job site I can wheel them where I need to. This is a work in progress, each time I go to a job if there is something I don't have I'll write it down & stock box with the item. Just trying to save time going back & forth to truck. |
| WELLSEROUSKI | I use a FORD Explorer. Best damm truck I've used after my Ranger died. I can lock-up my stuff and I use buckets to seperate my commercial stuff from my residential. Also good for tool storage. I can unload my SUV in 5-minutes, ready for a night on the town. Also to help with fishing wires I use the pre-fab wires used for ceiling tile grid and tie-wire used for tying re-bar. The grid wire is heavy enough to go down walls and the tie wire is soft enough and strong enough to pull romex through wall studs or top plates and fish through outlet openings. Have had great results. |
| jcarl | love the idea of the tiewire, i think of it as the electricians duct tape. i also like using the greenlee fish sticks for snaking. when working alone always have a cell and make sure someone knows where you are! |
| John A. Peters | May I ask three questions. . .quote: 1) Is there a URL with photos of those boxes? 2) How do you get them from the level of the truck down to the street or driveway? 3) What kind of truck do you strap them into? |
| gftodd | These are Stanley Metal Rolling worksop boxes.You can see them at homedepots web site.I Built a wooden platform 12" high with a stop on the back.Bottom of box fits tight against stop. Just a 1 x 1 strip of wood. Also used 1 x 1 which is used to secure boxes to side of van with bungee cords . The boxes fit right between ribs of van, they make nice tight fit. |
| gftodd | I have a Chevrolet C-30 van. I lift the boxes out to ground level by hand. The boxes have a telescopic handle for ease of rolling. Like I said this is a work in progress, so far I haven't seen a down side. It just doesn't make sense to me to have storage space that is not mobile.I'll know better as time passes if this is a system I want to stay with. |
| jfls40 | why don't you get some sheet metal cutters, cut a big square hole in the sides of your van, spot weld hinges on it and bolt a hasp with a Master combination lock? that would give you the perfect access that you need. It would look something like the emergency door over the wing of a 737... |
| gftodd | Either that or maybe I could just drive the van in the middle of the job & just empty it there! |
| jfls40 | well, thats not a bad idea, actually, if you could sever the van body where the cab meets the back, you could put a hydralic ram on it. so it would work like a dump body... |
| gftodd | The dump part is not such a bad idea, the only problem I see is restocking the truck after every job. |
| jfls40 | I got that figured out too. Weld an excavator bucket on the back |
| gftodd | I think the problem here is size. |
| wilkie | When I was starting out, I used a similar rolling tool box/bucket approach for similar items of use. After we were able to establish our advertising, therefore service work only, that approach became cumbersome. Since we are usually just looking for a part here or there, it made more sense for us to organize these similar parts in bins on the vans. steddar also made some valuable points on working safely. The part about pulling through two 90's made me laugh because I can't count the times I had wished I had planned a little better for working alone. It seemed like everytime I needed to finish, and I mean NEEDED to get paid, the impossible sole pull was still waiting. Know what I mean? |
| marxlaws | and let me add; been working on service trucks for a few years alone - a small pulley, jack chain, an cell phone( i make a call to my boss or my wife tocall me back and if i dont answer call a medic to my location) usally reserved for signs i gotta crawl in hot, and bad overloaded overstuffed panels in remote locations. |