a1abdj
Member
I recently posted a teaser photo showing a job that I have been working on, and now I can tell the rest of the story. I usually can not post photos or information about jobs that I work on due to the nature of the business, but in this case, it's a very unique installation that is for decorative use only.
I get oddball request on a fairly regular basis. This one ranks up there. I have spoken to a handful of people that are well known in my industry. None of them have ever heard of a situation like this, let alone participated in one. To our knowledge, this is the only one of its kind.
When I first received the phone call, I was very skeptical. The job involved setting a 40,000 pound vault door. This isn't very common itself, but what really makes this uncommon was that it was a residential installation. Not just any residential installation though. The door is in a boat house, next to a lake. You will go through the door and into a tunnel, that connects to the house. The entire face of the boathouse will be glass so that any boater going by can admire this work of art.
Here's the door:
Here is where they wanted the door:
Well, not exactly. They had to dig a big hole first:
For weight purposes, the door had to be separated from the frame. This usually isn't done, but it's what we had to work with. How does one detach a vault door? Like this:
After the bits and pieces are out, you need a big truck to haul it:
I admit that I had to ask myself this very question. How does one support 40,000 pounds worth of door and frame, at the end of a hallway, in a glass boat house? Apparently, if you have a few engineers, a group of guys that build bridges for a living, and enough concrete and steel, it's entirely possible.
Now that the support structure is in place, it's time to set the frame. No problem for a 50 ton crane.
A 50 ton crane sounds really impressive, and my math says that it will life 100,000 pounds. However, the crane operator had to burst our bubble. Although it will lift 50 tons straight up and down, the amount it will lift decreases exponentially as you reach further out. He says that he can not lift the 30,000 pound door from where the crane has to sit. He is 60 feet away, and needs to be within 20 feet.
No problem he says. He claims he'll just park the crane over the top of the hole by setting up some "crane ramps". He says they do it all the time:
Will it hold, or will the crane topple into the hole and get my door dirty?
So far, so good. Now we only have to put it all back together and see if it works:
Some new bearings and fresh grease sealed the deal. That 30,000 pound door swings open and closed with one hand.
I get oddball request on a fairly regular basis. This one ranks up there. I have spoken to a handful of people that are well known in my industry. None of them have ever heard of a situation like this, let alone participated in one. To our knowledge, this is the only one of its kind.
When I first received the phone call, I was very skeptical. The job involved setting a 40,000 pound vault door. This isn't very common itself, but what really makes this uncommon was that it was a residential installation. Not just any residential installation though. The door is in a boat house, next to a lake. You will go through the door and into a tunnel, that connects to the house. The entire face of the boathouse will be glass so that any boater going by can admire this work of art.
Here's the door:
Here is where they wanted the door:
Well, not exactly. They had to dig a big hole first:
For weight purposes, the door had to be separated from the frame. This usually isn't done, but it's what we had to work with. How does one detach a vault door? Like this:
After the bits and pieces are out, you need a big truck to haul it:
I admit that I had to ask myself this very question. How does one support 40,000 pounds worth of door and frame, at the end of a hallway, in a glass boat house? Apparently, if you have a few engineers, a group of guys that build bridges for a living, and enough concrete and steel, it's entirely possible.
Now that the support structure is in place, it's time to set the frame. No problem for a 50 ton crane.
A 50 ton crane sounds really impressive, and my math says that it will life 100,000 pounds. However, the crane operator had to burst our bubble. Although it will lift 50 tons straight up and down, the amount it will lift decreases exponentially as you reach further out. He says that he can not lift the 30,000 pound door from where the crane has to sit. He is 60 feet away, and needs to be within 20 feet.
No problem he says. He claims he'll just park the crane over the top of the hole by setting up some "crane ramps". He says they do it all the time:
Will it hold, or will the crane topple into the hole and get my door dirty?
So far, so good. Now we only have to put it all back together and see if it works:
Some new bearings and fresh grease sealed the deal. That 30,000 pound door swings open and closed with one hand.
