Anyone who read my post in the "What Annoyed You Today" thread knows I was involved in a shovel move last night. I do not like sitting around doing nothing at work and this move took 11 hours to walk the shovel just over a kilometer.(I informed the foreman later to never do this to me again) The actual walk took about an hour but the prep work of repositioning, adding and subtracting of the electrical cables takes up the majority of time. Sorry for the quality of the pictures as they were sent to me from a cell phone.
The start, the wire basket behind the shovel is used by the operator when he does short moves. He picks it up with the bucket and swings the cable out of the way when he walks.
Part of the cable crew moving cable off the berm in -26°C. I felt sorry for them as I debated whether to turn down my heater in the grader or take off another shirt.(The perks of seniority)
Of the three graders, mine is the only one with chains so I got "volunteered". Some of the roughly 1.5 kilometers of cable I pulled. The metal contraption is call a Pig, used when extra cable is added. I sat here for four hours.
In the background can be seen the cable arches. These allow equipment to pass under but not the shovel. The electrical sub-station is off to the right and there are three sets of cable arches, two of them needed to be dealt with on this move.
As we were getting ready to move, I lifted up the blade and ripper, very slowly. I checked the gauges and found this....
....the normal operating range for the Hydraulics is in the 40's.
Geo