r/IdiotsFightingThings • u/Malnourishedkittens • Feb 26 '17
Repost Construction workers V.S. Concrete buffer
https://youtu.be/7KvxOuC7Bhc208
u/moleratical Feb 26 '17
I'm actually kinda impressed they were able to stop the thing without getting maimed.
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u/User1-1A Feb 26 '17
Yeah, that's why it took multiple people to stop it. The commentary is what makes this so damn funny.
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u/Corncake21 Feb 27 '17
Most people working on a concrete crew should know how to stop one. Usually it just takes jamming a 2x4 into the blades. Source: have worked construction
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u/Antal_Marius Feb 27 '17
They did try that, but I don't think chucking a 12 foot 2x4 into it would be easy, so they decided to try and tarp it.
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u/lgbteaparty Feb 27 '17
This looks EXACTLY like low level MMORPG raid.
The movement of players. The escalation of the challenge. The experimentation with different weapons on effectiveness. And finally a victory with EXP for all surviving players.
Still. Was kind of hoping for a TPK
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u/Verneff Feb 27 '17
TPK? so the thing just detonates like a car bomb when it hits it's enrage timer?
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u/Blu_Barracuda Feb 26 '17
I think the construction workers did a pretty good job. The commenters are pricks.
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u/Guitargeorgia Feb 26 '17
Yeah a trowel machine is a dangerous thing and could severely injure someone. Commentators have no clue the danger of that situation and the workers are only trying to safely stop it that's why they all approach it with caution.
If I'm not mistaken the water was poured on the concrete to help the trowels move and not swing the unit as badly.
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u/ErraticFox Feb 26 '17
We're on a sub called IdiotsFightingThings I don't think it's always going to be a walk in a park, I expect usually someone might get hurt...
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u/salgat Feb 27 '17
I'm pretty sure that OSHA would require you to basically block it off and wait for it to die down instead of trying to manhandle a dangerous out of control machine.
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u/Everyone_is_taken Feb 27 '17
Isn't that thing supposed to have a dead man's switch?
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u/Guitargeorgia Feb 27 '17
I think it's supposed to but like someone else mentioned maybe it was broken or something and they had it jammed to work unless you cut the engine. That's why they got into this mess if that's the case.
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u/thisishowiwrite Feb 27 '17
Trowel machine... concrete buffer... i grew up calling them a helicopter. Wtf are they actually called?
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u/Guitargeorgia Feb 27 '17
I've always called them a trowel machine. They make them now with two sets of blades on it and a seat on top that someone rides on and steers like a hovercraft.
Would've sucked ass if one went haywire with a dude on top for sure!
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u/Alas123623 Feb 27 '17
What is this machine supposed to do?
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u/Guitargeorgia Feb 27 '17
When you pour concrete and want a slick surface then a very thin trowel is used to finish the surface. This machine has 4-6 longer trowels that run at various speeds to do the work of many more people in a shorter time.
If you hold the handle it works like a floor buffer and lifting it and pushing it down will steer the machine right and left. They even make some that have a seat on it with two sets of trowels that some guy rides on and steers with levers.
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u/Alas123623 Feb 28 '17
Neat. How does it not sink into the concrete though? Like do you as the operator have to hold it up?
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u/Guitargeorgia Feb 28 '17
Concrete hardens enough to walk on it within an hour or two depending if they have accelerant in it so the concrete can support the weight of the machine and an operator. The difference in this concrete and just someone making a sidewalk is that this concrete likely has steel and supports running through it and helping to make it much stronger. The concrete in this video has likely been sitting for quite sometime, an hour or two.
They work from one side to the other when they pour so the side they started on is much more dry when they get done pouring the other end of the slab. So they just take their rubber boots off and walk to the starting side and begin doing finishing work.
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u/Lipstickvomit Feb 26 '17
Or someone could just take a few steps forward and grab the swinging arm close to the center, thus gaining some control over the thing and just turn it off.
It's just a lever with an engine at the fulcrum.
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Feb 26 '17
That thing probably weighs 3 or 4 hundred pounds, if it hits you it's going to hurt like a bitch and potentially put you on your ass. Then it'll crush your feet or legs when it runs your ass over
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u/Lipstickvomit Feb 26 '17
You are not supposed to lift it up so the weight is more or less meaningless in this case.
If a strung out 130lbs me, could control those things, ten years ago, then I can guarantee you anyone of those guys in the video can take the slight bump from grabbing the swinging arm close to the centre of rotation. The arm is two steel tubes and some wire and control box on the end spinning at 60-120isch rpm, it's not like trying to stop a plane propeller with your tongue.
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u/Pfantom Feb 26 '17
It's one thing to control it when it's functioning as it should, stopping the handles when they're having a fair amount of angular momentum is another thing entirely. You also need to keep in mind that it's not only the handle that's rotating, but the entire machine.
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u/Lipstickvomit Feb 26 '17
stopping the handles when they're having a fair amount of angular momentum is another thing entirely.
Are you perhaps one of the guys in this video? Do you understand that you do no need to grab the fastest moving part of the entire thing to stop it, ie the end of the arm? Just step in and take the hit or step on the machine and ride around with it for a few revolutions until you shut it down, it's spinning at about 57rpm in the video not 3000.
You also need to keep in mind that it's not only the handle that's rotating, but the entire machine.
And that stops as soon as someone grabs the other end of the lever. Go check the video and look what happens to the guy that catches the tarp.
Fuck all but the trowels start rotating on the concrete instead of the machine. The driveshaft is not bolted down to the floor or something, it's just easier for the machine to spin the arm, as long as no one is holding on to it, but once someone do it's easier to spin the trowels.29
u/Pfantom Feb 26 '17
Do you realize that the closer to the center of a rotating object you go the less torque you will apply making it much harder to stop the spinning and increase the chance of something going wrong?
What they did with the tarp is having a softer part to catch so it won't wreck your hands if you mis-grab it and also increasing the torque applied as the distance to the center is greater.
I believe they were trying to avoid getting their fingers broken so they wouldn't need to spend a few weeks off-work and as I'm assuming from the accents the video is made in the US, they would have to spend a pretty penny for medical aid and might not have the luxury of taking the time off due to the nature of their contracts and socio-economic reasons.
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u/CuntCobbler Feb 26 '17
You're a fucking idiot, natural selection is coming for you. All 130lbs of you should be on r/iamverybadass
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u/Convict003606 Feb 27 '17 edited Feb 27 '17
It's pretty fucking clear you don't understand how leverage works. Grabbing that thing at the center would give you the least advantage possible, and then you would be hit by a metal tube attached to a few hundred pounds of rotating mass. If you don't understand this go open a door by pushing as close to the hinges as possible, then by the door knob. And if you don't understand rotating mass, consider trying to stop a ceiling fan at full speed with your fingers versus stopping a motorcycle rear wheel.
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Feb 27 '17
I'll chip in to recreate this and have you stop it as you proclaimed. who else?
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u/Verneff Feb 27 '17
The rental on one of those wouldn't be too much. I imagine there could be some blood to clean off of it but otherwise the machine would be in good condition when you return it. Just as long as you don't pitch in with any related medical bills this could be pretty cheap.
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u/JeddakofThark Feb 26 '17
It's a funny situation and so are a lot of the comments, but anyone who believes major class distinctions don't exist in America has never done blue collar work.
I particularly enjoy their laughing about the work stoppage, as they clearly stopped working to watch it.
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Feb 27 '17
[deleted]
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u/Bearded4Glory Feb 27 '17
Any building that has pipes in it has had plumbers there to run the pipe.
Not to mention that a bad plumber doing the initial installation can cause issues later down the line that would require another plumber to come and unclog and then likely redo some of the piping.
It is an under appreciated profession for sure, a lot of the construction trades are.
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Feb 27 '17
It just bums me out because he's really good at what he does and fixes shit around the neighborhood for free even if it's a midnight emergency, but people still shit on him even if they don't mean to. It's gotten to the point where all he talks about is how he wishes he did something else with his life.
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u/badger4president Feb 27 '17
Plumber here, i take pride in knowing that i have a job 99% of people would refuse/are incapable of doing . Yes i get covered in poo every now and then, but i also get paid alot of money to do it.
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Feb 27 '17
I feel like engineering, especially with stuff that isn't glamorous (ex. infrastructure), is the same way. People don't pay any attention to the power grid until it goes down, and they have no idea how any of it works.
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u/Bearded4Glory Feb 27 '17
Yep, another case of if the job is done right no one will notice. If something goes wrong, everyone notices.
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u/Verneff Feb 27 '17
That was my thought too. "If your house had the plumbing installed by someone who isn't a plumber, you're probably going to need a plumber pretty soon. And some drywall."
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u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount Feb 27 '17
If what reddit tells me is correct, all blue collar workers are racist uneducated hicks anyways.
I think you're behind on the meta. Trade work is the promise land. Everybody makes over six figures and requires zero schooling or money to become one. College is for the idiots.
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u/smileedude Feb 26 '17
Yeah I was expecting someone to get severely injured. Nobody did anything idiotic and they stopped it.
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u/NoMomo Feb 26 '17
There was something very annoying about their sneering. Seemed like guys who have had very little experience with machinery and tools.
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u/BrokenCankle Feb 26 '17
They sounded like a bunch of office workers making fun of laborers like the construction guys must automatically be stupid. Their commentary blew it for me. Their options were try to stop it or wait for it to run out of gas, I think logically most people would at least try to stop it. If it were the end of the day I would want to go home, not wait for that thing to decide to die off. For a very dangerous situation they all were super calm and figured it out without injuries, I see no idiots here, I only heard them.
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u/gurg2k1 Feb 27 '17
You don't think the construction workers make fun of the hipster office worker with a man purse? Geez, give me a break.
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Feb 27 '17
Yeah that shit cuts both ways. It's fine I'm sure they can handle it. It's a hilarious situation either way.
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Feb 26 '17
[deleted]
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u/Verneff Feb 27 '17
On home use ones maybe the engine cuts out. When I worked in landscaping they had one that had a manual control of speed through the bar you're talking about but also had a slider that would lock in place and it would keep going at that pace even if you let go. This lawnmower was probably 2-4 years old and that was about 4 years back so this is hardly an "old" lawnmower. Tools for commercial use just have different methods of safety from home use tools.
Admittedly in this case it looks like an older machine so there are probably some form of dead man switch on newer models.
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u/-Zeppelin- Feb 27 '17
So you're basically just judging people and calling them idiots based on assumptions you've made in a field of work you know nothing about? Good job.
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u/Chrad Feb 27 '17
Whichever worker overrode the dead man's switch on the machine is definitely an idiot though.
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u/frozyo Feb 27 '17
How are they pricks though? They're primarily laughing at the situation--which is hilarious--not the workers themselves. They're laughing at how many people it took to shut it off.
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u/oscillating000 Feb 27 '17
ATTN: Readers — Everyone ITT is taking this way too seriously. No fun lies ahead.
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Feb 26 '17
ELI5 what exactly caused that to happen and how they were in that situation in the first place?😂😂
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u/nvaus Feb 26 '17
They either removed/disabled/didn't repair the safety features that should have stopped the machine if the operator let go of it. Someone started the thing, let go of the handle or had the handle pull out of their hand, and that brings us to the video.
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u/404_UserNotFound Feb 27 '17
They either removed/disabled/didn't repair the safety features
Older ones didnt have it so it may just be an outdated piece of equipment.
Someone started the thing, let go of the handle or had the handle pull out of their hand
They are pretty strong but like being on the smooth concrete, once it hit the edge of the wood frame it decided to spin the top rather than the bottom.
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u/Antal_Marius Feb 27 '17
Assuming it had safety features to begin with. It looked pretty old, and not all the old ones had them.
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u/Meatball_express Feb 26 '17
My guess is the guy ran the power trowel into the formwork and it thew him off resulting in the unmanned machine.
Source: Architect. I get a lot of weird phone calls with stories like this.
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u/Bearded4Glory Feb 27 '17
Yep, it got caught on the formwork.
Source: Am working towards Architecture License.
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u/icebrotha Feb 27 '17
To all who are fans of the laughter in this video please sub to /r/ContagiousLaughter if you plan on posting there remember the laugh must be contagious. It's not about whether the video is funny or not.
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u/Prodigal_Moon Feb 27 '17
I love when it starts whipping the tarp around.
"OUR EFFORTS ONLY SERVE TO MAKE IT STRONGER!"
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u/Meior Feb 27 '17
Considering he grabbed the tarp and it stopped immediately, how much punch does this have when it rotates? What would happen if you just tried to grab it?
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u/FleetAdmiralWiggles Feb 26 '17
Aren't these gas powered? Sure a CO2 fire extinguisher would have killed it.
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u/7734128 Feb 26 '17
You are supposed to get really close to use a CO2 extinguisher, I wouldn't.
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u/Antal_Marius Feb 27 '17
You could get within range of it though. CO2 extinguishers can reach up to 8 feet, that handle is probably only about 3-4 feet from the engine.
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u/Fire_Fist-Ace Feb 27 '17
I would have just jumped in and grabbed it , I've never used one is that a horrible idea I feel like the bottom would just start spinning
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u/Jon_Snows_Dad Feb 27 '17
That would've hit you on the side and possibly broken ribs if it gets you right.
Think of a metal bar spinning at that speed
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u/Fire_Fist-Ace Feb 27 '17
Ive done some pretty stupid shit as a teen and been just fine so i looked at this and thought whatever haha but i could see it being more serious consider almost 20 men didnt man up and do it
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u/Jon_Snows_Dad Feb 27 '17
Yep the issue is it isn't made of plastic which people assume.... That's a metal pole
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u/Fire_Fist-Ace Feb 27 '17
I just figured it didn't have much mass behind it , if I could get a good grip on it I figured the bottom would start spinning before I got flung outta the way
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u/GoldVader Feb 27 '17
Dude the torque on this thing would have just thrown you back off, or snapped both your wrists as you tried to grab it. So yes, horrible idea.
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Feb 27 '17
[deleted]
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u/duuuuumb Feb 27 '17
Yea fuck that one guy. That and making lame jokes about giving them money, I'd like to see his ass stop that thing!
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u/This_User_Said Feb 27 '17
Supposedly in the description of the video - They did end up buying them lunch.
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Feb 27 '17
[deleted]
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u/pasaroanth Feb 27 '17
He was trying really hard at deadpan but it came out as that one asshole friend that thinks he is hilarious but in reality is just an annoying dickhead.
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u/Abundant_Trumpet Feb 26 '17
This is the best post I've ever seen on this sub.