Figured out I was loading the safeties wrong for 3 years

Been doing elevator work for about 8 years now and I always wondered why my safeties would bind up every few months. Last month an old timer named Dave watched me do a load test and just laughed. He showed me I was putting the wedge bolts in backwards the whole time. Switched them around on a 1994 Otis in a 12 floor building downtown and it ran smooth for the first time in years. No more pulling the rails every 6 weeks to clean out metal shavings. Has anyone else had a basic thing they did wrong forever that took someone pointing it out to fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlies3713h ago

Funny how that works. It's like when you learn to do something one way and just keep doing it, never questioning if there's a better way. I've noticed the same thing with simple stuff like tightening lug nuts or loading a dishwasher - you get locked into a pattern and don't even see it's wrong until someone shows you. Dave did you a solid, saved you years of headaches.

evan54311h ago

Read a study once that said breaking routines actually makes you think sharper.

emma_wells836h ago

Did you ever wash your hands and realize you can't remember doing it?