the absolute best use od a ladder period
 

can I get a PE to run some load calcs please.....
African ladder Death Wish | News | Vertikal.net

Mr. Darwin...Is that you?

if you think that's crazy, you should see these things called "airplanes" - tube o'people which just 'hang' up in the sky. :cool:

Read: looks like they know what they are doing there - whether casual observers see it or not. :)

The guy sitting on the planks? He isn't a counterweight. The forces are trying to push those planks out away from the building and it appears he's simply sitting on them to provide enough friction to keep them from sliding.
If that is indeed the case, all he has to do is shift his weight wrong and the whole thing tumbles down.

Wrong again. The ladders are tied off inside. You can see the ropes under the Gothic arch. I think the painter is a brave man and quite ingenious. Something tells me that ain't his first rodeo.

look closer... they have various ropes to keep the mess from sliding outward.


http://www.vertikal.net/typo3temp/pics/4c862c69f5.jpg

the biggest risk I see is a potential buckling failure half way up the top ladder.

If he climbed that thing and didn't walk out the planks and go straight up the third stage, well that second stage looks like a real beyotch....

I wouldn't want to climb it, but it's not the worst Darwin posted on the intertubes, by far.

As long as everything is securely tied down, seems like it is ok. (In other words, the engineering concept seems sound - as far as execution of it, it's hard to tell for sure)

Since there are not follow up pics of the guy splattered on the ground, I think he proved it!

The pictures of people working under cars/trucks with homemade wooden ramps, car on side held up by old piece of wood, etc. seem far scarier.

At first glance, the ropes add confidence, but the more I look at it, the more I see things that one minor failure, could bring the whole freaking thing crashing down. Not safe at all.

I'll have to print this off and take it to my Ropes Course Facilitation teacher...

looks good to me........

Didn't see the ropes at first, you guy must have better eyes than I do or better puter monitors.
Is that guy holding onto the end of the rope?

The forces are trying to buckle the ladder, which is not designed to have any real strength in that direction.
It's designed for compression along it's axis, not perpidicular to it.
I haveno idea what the intention of the upper rops that are angled downward, they serve no visible purpose.

Is it strong enough to do the job? Obviously, at least it was up until the instant that picture was taken. Is he just lucky that it has not yet collapsed? of course he is.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1321899970.jpg

The ropes that seem to be holding the two ladders together at the point they stick out scare me the most. Two wraps of probably cheap rope, on an edge that has a pretty good potential to be sharp. If those wraps go, the whole thing is toast.

30" 2560 x 1600 ;)

My guess is to preload the mess so it's not too bouncy.

Like Milt said; likely not the guy's first rodeo.

I think ANYONE would be lucky to have that guy on their team. Anyone that can come up with that, build it, and then climb it has my vote. I bet that guy could solve ANY problem.

That definitely beats MacGuyver.

Well, what's more is that he has separated an extension ladder into two sections. They are stronger as a connected pair.

Now I know all you engineer types can run the calcs on the angle of the dangle, but let me tell you that in the 40 years I have been using ladders (sometimes improperly) and been on other people's jobs where a lot worse ladders are being used than I would use, I have never seen one fail.

The only bent ladders I have seen are on the side of the freeway. The potential to get hurt working on a ladder is pretty much all in the hands of the guy on it. IOW, human error is always the culprit.

So the rigging here is second only to the painter slipping. The ladder sections will survive and he is betting his life on that.

I don't know what the fvk the other guys is doing sitting there holding a vertical rope unless we just can't see how it's strung. Perhaps he raised the paint because it would have been more than the Great Valendas could have done to climb that carrying a paint bucket.

Ask me how I know.

i wouldnt climb that! but i bet it is fairly safe.

the only downside i see is that he is putting all the load on the rungs of the ladder(s), and not the "feet". all the load is putting a shear load on the rungs..but the shear load is relatively the same as a man standing on that one rung. no?

not clear to me why that extra man is sitting on that plank.

Because if/when it finally goes, it'll be twice as horrifyingly funny (or is that hilariously horrifying?).

The guy sitting on the plank is the safety officer.....

Looks good to me.

Exactly. Required by the Union!

I've seen stuff in Africa that would make this look sane. The thing is that they don't have access to all the cool stuff we do. They have to use their wits and most of the time it works out. Then again, sometimes it don't. Their scaffolding is what used to scare me the worst.

from the thread title, i thought this was going to involve scantily clad women.

pretty crazy, though.

And neither of them has a helmet on.... ;)

Just another day painting stuff in South Africa.

I think one of the reasons he is there is to keep the planks centered in that window, because if "the contraption" began to slide to one side or the other, it would lose its structural "integrity."

He should be able to keep it centered left to right with his legs/hips and the way he has his feet in those recesses.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1321948090.jpg

Plus, he can enjoy the long smoke break and tell the guy up top when purty girls walk by.

:D

Getting the job done.......
 

This guy is doing the best he can with what he has available. He is creative and appears to have an innate sense of engineering. I'd bet that he has been and will continue to be successful at his work and will continue to earn a living in a part of the world that is all too well known for poverty! I would not put him on the Darwin award list, I would put him up for an Excellence in Engineering award! Would I climb that thing? No way!

after reviewing numerous bids ranging from mid to high 5 figures just for the engineering, design and fabrication of scaffolding system before actual work can begin, the owners awarded the contract to local handyman and yard man Slim for his bid of $932 and 3- 40z in paper bags per diem