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Had a retired mechanic show me his trick for aligning guide rails on an old Otis install last winter | Elevator Mechanics - Vivisector

williamw75•4mo ago

Had a retired mechanic show me his trick for aligning guide rails on an old Otis install last winter

I was out in Buffalo helping replace a 1984 Otis elevator in a 12-story office building and this old-timer walks up, says he worked on that same car when it was new. He pulled out a worn-down machinist's level and showed me how he'd shim the rails with beer can tabs instead of buying expensive kits. Anybody else got an old-school trick from a random encounter that saved you time on a job?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_claire4mo ago

Hold on, beer can tabs? That one got me. I can't believe he used actual beer can tabs for shimming guide rails. That's the kind of thing you hear about in old stories but never see someone actually do on a real job. I guess it makes sense though, aluminum is soft enough to compress and adjust without breaking anything. It's wild to think about how much time and money that must have saved over the years compared to buying proper shims. Still feels a little risky to me, but if the guy worked on that car when it was new, he must have known what he was doing.

felixhenderson4mo ago

@the_claire those tabs were probably more reliable than modern laser levels in cold weather.

evan5434mo ago

The old-timer in Buffalo actually used pull tab rings from cans, not the whole tab. You had to bend them just right to get the shim thickness you wanted. @felixhenderson is right that those aluminum tabs held up better in cold weather than some of the laser stuff we use now. I saw the guy do it on a few sections and he had a feel for it that came from decades of work. The metal compresses firm but still lets you adjust without cracking like the plastic shims do in freezing temps. It looked rough but the car was still riding smooth when we left.