Moderators Anniversary On The Forum

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, IkeaGnome said:

I thought OSHA was first then after the Lucky Friday fire MSHA started as a sub department of them. 

At least that's what we're thought my MSHA

Could be.  I might have it backwards. If that was the case though, OSHA didn’t originally have a branch for mining.

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

If that was the case though, OSHA didn’t originally have a branch for mining.

They way I've always heard it. OSHA was early 70s, MSHA was 78. Lucky Friday was '72 and people started talking about setting up a mining oversite division. Then a few more disasters, political bureaucracy and a couple years later we got MSHA.

1 minute ago, Caroline said:

What exactly is this vehicle and how does it looks from the outside? cheers

We call it a mucker. It's a loader. That one was an 8 yard bucket. Most OTR dump trucks are about 6-8 yards, so big enough to fill one in one bucket.

Officially, it's a Sandvik LH514.

Spoiler

(some random clean engineer for size reference)

 

Ours has a different set up for the light bar since our mounting for the lights also has some sensors and LiDar on it for auto mining. 

[Bombastinator]

38 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

They way I've always heard it. OSHA was early 70s, MSHA was 78. Lucky Friday was '72 and people started talking about setting up a mining oversite division. Then a few more disasters, political bureaucracy and a couple years later we got MSHA.

We call it a mucker. It's a loader. That one was an 8 yard bucket. Most OTR dump trucks are about 6-8 yards, so big enough to fill one in one bucket.

Officially, it's a Sandvik LH514.

  Reveal hidden contents

(some random clean engineer for size reference)

 

Ours has a different set up for the light bar since our mounting for the lights also has some sensors and LiDar on it for auto mining. 

I thought OSHA was a lot earlier than that.  The mining safety thing was much earlier anyway.  I wonder what organization there was before OSHA?  Might have been unions.  I don’t know.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, IkeaGnome said:

Normally I'm just a warehouse guy. Was a mechanic. 2 bad hips and a bad shoulder by 24 put me in here. We've got a warehouse for just the mechanics underground that I keep stocked up with parts. Pandemic has made that a pain.

Got a part right now that was ordered in January with a 2 week lead time. Just got told today that the vendor's vendor  is scheduled to ship it this month.

 

Every once in a while I get to go out and play in the mud though.

I very much understand, I'm a mechanic. Welder fabricator. Diesel technician and automotive technician. I run a small shop. I very much understand the frustrations out there. When customers start talking about retiring from driving truck, that puts me out of a job man. 

 

Parts? 9 months for an EGR valve. Back Order. Still waiting. I can't make money with parts I don't have. Now what should I do? I might have to retire from wrenching early and work at Walmart. It's easier, pays almost the same and decent benefits for full time employees. lol. Home Depot is like 19 bucks an hour. I know jack shit about carpentry though. I'll do my best to act like I know some shit. 6 penny nails? Yeah Isle 13 ma'am! 

 

[sub68]

Who just changed the name

[IkeaGnome]

7 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I thought OSHA was a lot earlier than that.  The mining safety thing was much earlier anyway.  I wonder what organization there was before OSHA?  Might have been unions.  I don’t know.

I think it was unions pre NIOSH. 

You got me curious now though. NIOSH was 1970, OSHA was April 28,1971 and MSHA was 1977.

5 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

9 months for an EGR valve.

Funny what happens when you can't just delete things anymore. We've had some Sandvik parts that we had to wait on the factory, that was waiting on their supplier that was waiting on raw materials. 

Hell, we had a TH545 sit down for 3 months because no one could get tires for them in the states. Ended up buying them off some Aussie mine and having them shipped to Alaska.

Spoiler

6 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

When customers start talking about retiring from driving truck, that puts me out of a job man. 

It does, but at least in mining mechanics more people are retiring than getting into the industry. 

People think the supply chain is going back to normal. It kind of is. It's one step away from going back to shit though. I'll admit it is getting better, but it's still teetering either way.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

 

Funny what happens when you can't just delete things anymore. We've had some Sandvik parts that we had to wait on the factory, that was waiting on their supplier that was waiting on raw materials. 

Hell, we had a TH545 sit down for 3 months because no one could get tires for them in the states. Ended up buying them off some Aussie mine and having them shipped to Alaska.

  Reveal hidden contents

It does, but at least in mining mechanics more people are retiring than getting into the industry. 

People think the supply chain is going back to normal. It kind of is. It's one step away from going back to shit though. I'll admit it is getting better, but it's still teetering either way.

Better, yes. But not in a hurry. Just play the waiting game.

Common though. Home depot isn't so bad. I know how to sweat pipe! 

 

So whatcha guys mining any ways?

 

[IkeaGnome]

2 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

Better, yes. But not in a hurry. Just play the waiting game.

Hard to explain that to Mine OPs. Mechanics are happy to not have parts. We get paid by the hour, not flat rate. If stuff sits down for supply chain issues it doesn't come out of maintenance bonus either. Current supply chain issues have us working less and making more than we ever have before.

2 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

So whatcha guys mining any ways?

Gold. We get some silver but it's just a by product. We don't make bars so it gets sent out with the concentrate. Can't give exact numbers, but we're usually around 30,000 ounces a quarter. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, IkeaGnome said:

Hard to explain that to Mine OPs. Mechanics are happy to not have parts. We get paid by the hour, not flat rate. If stuff sits down for supply chain issues it doesn't come out of maintenance bonus either. Current supply chain issues have us working less and making more than we ever have before.

Gold. We get some silver but it's just a by product. We don't make bars so it gets sent out with the concentrate. Can't give exact numbers, but we're usually around 30,000 ounces a quarter. 

Awesome. I've watched a lot of mining videos. One of my favorite blokes is Frank up in Canada. He's come down and toured some mines here in the US. The videos are just spectacular. I've learned quite a bit about mining and find it very intriguing. The methods used today are much different than the 100's/1000's of years previous. Lot of mines over in Europe. I've watched quite a few videos from over seas too. 

 

Something about them Square set timbers. Just fascinating. Simple but strong engineering. By people way less educated then all of us.  

[IkeaGnome]

3 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

Awesome. I've watched a lot of mining videos. One of my favorite blokes is Frank up in Canada. He's come down and toured some mines here in the US. The videos are just spectacular. I've learned quite a bit about mining and find it very intriguing. The methods used today are much different than the 100's/1000's of years previous. Lot of mines over in Europe. I've watched quite a few videos from over seas too. 

I've shared what mine I work at on here a couple times through showing off auto mine. If you've ever seen Gold Rush, we're right around the corner from there down the channel. If you go on the mountain that I'm inside now you can see Hanes.

Parker Schnable is a big baby though. Picked a fight with a couple of the miners that used to work here at a bar in Hanes then called the cops when he got beat up.

5 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

Something about them Square set timbers. Just fascinating. Simple but strong engineering. By people way less educated then all of us.

The mine that I'm in has some floating around. We use them in a few narrow vein spots as well as Alamak raises. The mine I'm in actually was from the Klondike originally. We find old stuff around the property all the time. Was abandoned for a while, we made it bigger (30x30 ft main drifts, 15x15 ore drifts) for modern equipment. Got fiber optic down here and everything now.

Spoiler

https://www.juneauempire.com/news/digging-into-kensington-gold-mine/

The picture in the article that's in the shop. That's one of our bays. 60ft ceilings in here. One bay has a dual crane, 10t and 50t, another bay has a 25t crane.

 

I will say the dedication of the old timers is amazing. Their original portal was at 2050ft in elevation. Camped on the beach and hiked up and down every day.

[Beerzerker]

I used to work in an open limestone quarry driving Tonka trucks and MSHA was there too.
Those guys made OSHA look like a picnic when they wanted to and didn't give any slack to anybody over anything - At least that was the experience I had with them.
I also worked for a short time in an open granite quarry too, that place was like night and day vs the limestone quarry I was at.

At least in the limestone quarry everything was well maintained and if there was ever a question about a piece of equipment you parked it and had it checked - No questions asked.

The granite quarry was ran by a different bunch that was the total opposite - If it would move you drove it, if it had a problem you still drove it if you could.
Daily reports on a piece of equipment were made by the operators but always ignored and sometimes hidden/destroyed and you got blamed when something finally went wrong resulting in a breakdown of the equipment.

That's what happened to me and I was fired over a malfunctioning trans shifer in one of the trucks that kept jumping in and out of gear. Reported it several times but it was never fixed.
One day I was dumping a load in the crusher and it jumped in gear, causing it to drop the driveshaft on the spot.

Things like the arms of the loaders were in such bad shape they welded and welded and welded and welded those arms to the point they were black and the metal was actually brittle from all the welding so it kept breaking. They were trying to save money by going the really cheap way rather than replace them as one example of their neglegence. I can't blame someone for trying to save money but that only goes so far and they went too far all the time.

I consider getting fired a blessing disguse because not 6 months after I got canned there was a bad accident that caused a fatality and MSHA came in.
Of course it was ruled due to faulty equipment and blatant patching/rigging equipment to work instead of actually repairing it.

The equip there was in such bad shape, not 5 minutes after the MSHA guy literally got on the property he ordered the entire operation shutdown with everything where it was and he literally meant WHERE IT WAS, RIGHT NOW as in on the spot - Park it, leave it wherever and go home.

Took them about three days of poking around and the place was shutdown permenantly due to a literal grocery list of safety violations including conditional issues with the equipment, they uncovered daily equip reports being ignored and even "Hidden" about the conditions of it and the fact it all was just so bad the quarry itself was like a deathtrap to work in - Because it was.
All the bosses and leads too got fired and the company had to sell the property, not to mention pay out the ass in fines and even lost the lawsuit filed against them because of it all.
To sum that up, the guy's family became millionaires overnight but that still doesn't bring the guy back you know.

So yeah, I know about MSHA and I've had to deal with OSHA too on many occasions. 
 

[sub68]

2 minutes ago, Caroline said:

This is Miners on the Forum now.

I agree

[Guest]

1 hour ago, IkeaGnome said:

I've shared what mine I work at on here a couple times through showing off auto mine. If you've ever seen Gold Rush, we're right around the corner from there down the channel. If you go on the mountain that I'm inside now you can see Hanes.

Parker Schnable is a big baby though. Picked a fight with a couple of the miners that used to work here at a bar in Hanes then called the cops when he got beat up.

The mine that I'm in has some floating around. We use them in a few narrow vein spots as well as Alamak raises. The mine I'm in actually was from the Klondike originally. We find old stuff around the property all the time. Was abandoned for a while, we made it bigger (30x30 ft main drifts, 15x15 ore drifts) for modern equipment. Got fiber optic down here and everything now.

  Hide contents

https://www.juneauempire.com/news/digging-into-kensington-gold-mine/

The picture in the article that's in the shop. That's one of our bays. 60ft ceilings in here. One bay has a dual crane, 10t and 50t, another bay has a 25t crane.

 

I will say the dedication of the old timers is amazing. Their original portal was at 2050ft in elevation. Camped on the beach and hiked up and down every day.

That's impressive. A 30 foot mine shaft 100 years ago would have been uncommon. But some of the stopes amaze me though. Love them old school ore passes and how everything is mined downward to a spot then hauled up. I'd love to do some exploring and even some modern mining. 

 

But fiber down stairs, that's fucking perfect! It really can't get any better than having fast communications. 

 

Mining that vein. I love the 4K mining videos. It really shows the beauty of mother earth. Right there between the foot wall and hanging wall! 

 

15 foot ore drifts though. Miners of the past would be in total awe. Probably more so at the machines we use though. lol. 

 

So do you guys blast still? Or is it dug out with big drill machines? (I should really watch some more modern mining videos!....) 

1 hour ago, Beerzerker said:

I used to work in an open limestone quarry driving Tonka trucks and MSHA was there too.
Those guys made OSHA look like a picnic when they wanted to and didn't give any slack to anybody over anything - At least that was the experience I had with them.
I also worked for a short time in an open granite quarry too, that place was like night and day vs the limestone quarry I was at.

At least in the limestone quarry everything was well maintained and if there was ever a question about a piece of equipment you parked it and had it checked - No questions asked.

The granite quarry was ran by a different bunch that was the total opposite - If it would move you drove it, if it had a problem you still drove it if you could.
Daily reports on a piece of equipment were made by the operators but always ignored and sometimes hidden/destroyed and you got blamed when something finally went wrong resulting in a breakdown of the equipment.

That's what happened to me and I was fired over a malfunctioning trans shifer in one of the trucks that kept jumping in and out of gear. Reported it several times but it was never fixed.
One day I was dumping a load in the crusher and it jumped in gear, causing it to drop the driveshaft on the spot.

Things like the arms of the loaders were in such bad shape they welded and welded and welded and welded those arms to the point they were black and the metal was actually brittle from all the welding so it kept breaking. They were trying to save money by going the really cheap way rather than replace them as one example of their neglegence. I can't blame someone for trying to save money but that only goes so far and they went too far all the time.

I consider getting fired a blessing disguse because not 6 months after I got canned there was a bad accident that caused a fatality and MSHA came in.
Of course it was ruled due to faulty equipment and blatant patching/rigging equipment to work instead of actually repairing it.

The equip there was in such bad shape, not 5 minutes after the MSHA guy literally got on the property he ordered the entire operation shutdown with everything where it was and he literally meant WHERE IT WAS, RIGHT NOW as in on the spot - Park it, leave it wherever and go home.

Took them about three days of poking around and the place was shutdown permenantly due to a literal grocery list of safety violations including conditional issues with the equipment, they uncovered daily equip reports being ignored and even "Hidden" about the conditions of it and the fact it all was just so bad the quarry itself was like a deathtrap to work in - Because it was.
All the bosses and leads too got fired and the company had to sell the property, not to mention pay out the ass in fines and even lost the lawsuit filed against them because of it all.
To sum that up, the guy's family became millionaires overnight but that still doesn't bring the guy back you know.

So yeah, I know about MSHA and I've had to deal with OSHA too on many occasions. 
 

Haha, I love your stories. I feel there isn't a trade you haven't had your hands in!

 

I'm sure the proper safety rules and regulations come from exactly this kind of stuff. Fix is not repair 100%. That's negligence to your brother humans. 

 

short story.

When I saw one of the newer techs under a fork lift, brake not set head under the weight and up on blocks, I asked if I should wait till he stops kicking before I pull him out.. He didn't like that approach I took, but some people have to hear the nasty details of what could happen. I told him in short, I wasn't ready to pick someone's brains off the floor and try to explain it to his wife. Never mind the baby he'd leave behind. Yes, I went that far into detail. But sometimes, a simple jackstand can save quite a bit of life hassle.  

 

You can do a repair beyond just the welding. That's where fabrication comes it. Repairing a frame rail consists of a fisher plate a good weld on good clean metal. Want it stronger, drill and bolts + the weld. But you're 100% right, welds can be too brittle. Depends on the wire or rod used. I prefer arc welding myself though. 7014 rod for every day work on dump trailer arm cracks and suck. Nail good when the crack is small, it'll hold a long time. If it's long than 6 inches, I like to start plating. The crack calls for reinforcement. 

 

But I'd love to have worked a mine. Just seems like my kind of thing.

 

 

 

[Beerzerker]

Thanks for the new avvy!

[WhitetailAni]

@Microsoft it's your new home!

[da na]

1 hour ago, FakeKGB said:

@Microsoft it's your new home!

3 post count, but all hidden? Hmmmmm

[SimplyChunk]

I leveled up!   

[IkeaGnome]

14 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

I used to work in an open limestone quarry driving Tonka trucks and MSHA was there too.
Those guys made OSHA look like a picnic when they wanted to and didn't give any slack to anybody over anything - At least that was the experience I had with them.
I also worked for a short time in an open granite quarry too, that place was like night and day vs the limestone quarry I was at.

At least in the limestone quarry everything was well maintained and if there was ever a question about a piece of equipment you parked it and had it checked - No questions asked.

The granite quarry was ran by a different bunch that was the total opposite - If it would move you drove it, if it had a problem you still drove it if you could.
Daily reports on a piece of equipment were made by the operators but always ignored and sometimes hidden/destroyed and you got blamed when something finally went wrong resulting in a breakdown of the equipment.

That's what happened to me and I was fired over a malfunctioning trans shifer in one of the trucks that kept jumping in and out of gear. Reported it several times but it was never fixed.
One day I was dumping a load in the crusher and it jumped in gear, causing it to drop the driveshaft on the spot.

Things like the arms of the loaders were in such bad shape they welded and welded and welded and welded those arms to the point they were black and the metal was actually brittle from all the welding so it kept breaking. They were trying to save money by going the really cheap way rather than replace them as one example of their neglegence. I can't blame someone for trying to save money but that only goes so far and they went too far all the time.

I consider getting fired a blessing disguse because not 6 months after I got canned there was a bad accident that caused a fatality and MSHA came in.
Of course it was ruled due to faulty equipment and blatant patching/rigging equipment to work instead of actually repairing it.

The equip there was in such bad shape, not 5 minutes after the MSHA guy literally got on the property he ordered the entire operation shutdown with everything where it was and he literally meant WHERE IT WAS, RIGHT NOW as in on the spot - Park it, leave it wherever and go home.

Took them about three days of poking around and the place was shutdown permenantly due to a literal grocery list of safety violations including conditional issues with the equipment, they uncovered daily equip reports being ignored and even "Hidden" about the conditions of it and the fact it all was just so bad the quarry itself was like a deathtrap to work in - Because it was.
All the bosses and leads too got fired and the company had to sell the property, not to mention pay out the ass in fines and even lost the lawsuit filed against them because of it all.
To sum that up, the guy's family became millionaires overnight but that still doesn't bring the guy back you know.

So yeah, I know about MSHA and I've had to deal with OSHA too on many occasions. 
 

MSHA is difficult. We've had quarterly inspections ONLY look at fire extinguishers and fire suppression systems. Some go through and look at ground support only. Some look at everything. We have one inspector that has it out for a couple people here. I could go into the story, but it's less than forums appropriate. Turns out some people are sensitive when they do something in the drift and her name makes it around the mine for what she's willing to do out there

My company has gotten a LOT better about safety. 2013 I was squished by some hydraulics. Punctured a lung, dislocated a bunch of ribs and broke my scapula almost clean in two. I was back on site working like normal in 4 weeks. We have someone who sprained their ankle in Feb. Still on light duty. No surgery needed.

The trans shifter is always hard. You get in trouble when you run something broken, you get in trouble for downing it to get fixed since you're not getting enough loads.

Our equipment used to be in a lot worse shape. Mechanics were on the same bonus as miners. All that mattered was how much gold we got out. Fuses being replaced with line wire, bucket teeth getting welded on since we were out of keepers, plexi glass for windshields. Doors held shut with Copco straps. Hydraulic safetys/e stops completely bypassed since the issue was buried deep in the wiring.

Now that we're on our own bonus, it's based on overall equipment uptime so now people are motivated not to just rig it back together. We also don't get dinged on bonus for their equipment damage. If they smash a rib and blow out a door, but we don't have a door, they lose money for the door and the time it has to sit. Since that's something we couldn't prevent it doesn't come from our bonus.

13 hours ago, Guest 5150 said:

That's impressive. A 30 foot mine shaft 100 years ago would have been uncommon. But some of the stopes amaze me though. Love them old school ore passes and how everything is mined downward to a spot then hauled up. I'd love to do some exploring and even some modern mining. 

 

But fiber down stairs, that's fucking perfect! It really can't get any better than having fast communications. 

 

Mining that vein. I love the 4K mining videos. It really shows the beauty of mother earth. Right there between the foot wall and hanging wall! 

 

15 foot ore drifts though. Miners of the past would be in total awe. Probably more so at the machines we use though. lol. 

 

So do you guys blast still? Or is it dug out with big drill machines? (I should really watch some more modern mining videos!....) 

Haha, I love your stories. I feel there isn't a trade you haven't had your hands in!

 

I'm sure the proper safety rules and regulations come from exactly this kind of stuff. Fix is not repair 100%. That's negligence to your brother humans. 

They weren't 30 feet then. We use Kubota M5640SUs to get around and they were too tall for the old narrow vein runs. 

Our stopes are massive. They go from level to level and are usually around 70 feet in diameter. 70 foot circle that's about 80-90 feet deep. For obvious reasons I haven't gotten close enough to actually get a picture of one. Have to from time to time to just check the berm before you dump in it, but I'm never thinking about it. Just looking at the berm and getting out of there. 

We do still blast. Most of our development rounds are 20x20x12 feet deep. That takes around 3000lbs of explosives. We use a combination of emulsion and stick powder anymore. I've seen stopes, and been underground for ones that use over 45,000 lbs of explosives. Just in emulsion that's a tractor trailer tanker full and a half of another. Our main airflow is almost 500,000 CFM depending on main fans. I've been as far as 25ish miles from one that took the main ventilation, forced it backwards and had enough pressure to make my ears pop like on an airplane. I do have a private listed video from shortly after I started here. I'm not 100% sure on if I can share that video as part of this thread though with self advertising rules

[Bombastinator]

45 minutes ago, Caroline said:

I can't believe they've banned @Microsoft

It’s probably reserved for actual representatives. Can you be @fakemicrosoft?

[Arika]

According to my AI, this is what,collectively, everyone's battle station looks like.

 

 

translation:

• white wall
• desk made of keyboard
• solid blue box of gaming power
• underdesk lighting
• no montior
• blue door, red door handle bar

[da na]

4 minutes ago, Arika S said:

According to my AI, this is what,collectively, everyone's battle station looks like.

 

 

translation:

• white wall
• desk made of keyboard
• solid blue box of gaming power
• underdesk lighting
• no montior
• blue door, red door handle bar

Magic smoke glows iridescent blue when pressurized. It's a box of pure magic smoke.

[rrats]

My smoke's solid state.

[rrats]

On 5/30/2022 at 5:19 PM, drdrewnatic said:

 

you have 48 hours

I'm sorry but dislike button exists. It's the "i" sign

[IkeaGnome]

Welll summer is here. What is night time anymore?

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, IkeaGnome said:

Welll summer is here. What is night time anymore?

That can actually happen if you’re close enough to the North Pole. “Land of the midnight Sun” and all.