These Brave and Good Iron Workers make this look easy. Walking beam of iron to build a building in Dallas. Teamwork, Precision and Good Spirit make the job possible
I am a 67 year older man, and I did exactly this. It was very satisfying erecting red steel, standing on a spud wrench waiting for a piece to be lifted in by huge cranes, shooting drift pins into holes, hammering bull pins with my four pound beater, looking after my partner, listening to the cling klang of my connecting bar rattle against my two spud wrenches, and when moments allowed my mind to think I was a little kid with a Giant mechano set. It was the most exilliorating feeling. To all those who do this work You Are Awesome. 🍁🍁🍁
HI there...so I have a question. I see these guys do this initial fix...couple of bolts in. I guess there is then a second team that comes along and puts the rest of the bolts in and fixes everything to spec?
@@GavCritchley You guessed correctly. The raising gang puts all the pieces in place. Then you have the detail crew come through. They will stuff holes that don't have bolts. They will rack the structure from the ground up. Making sure everything is plum and true. They will do all the welds that need to be done. We will also snap every single bolt with a lajune gun. There is a lot more that happens, but you'd have to get up on the iron and find out for yourself.
I came into the construction field a little late and I’m doing restoration in nyc .wish I could’ve had someone to guide me and to go to school for this . I need a connection if anyone could give a little help I would really appreciate it , thank you
Im a skateboarder from the more flatland/experimental area aswell just normal tricking stuff.. so I really can imagine the balance. But the balls they have I will never fit into my imagination. Its must be a childhood-thing when the fascination for something like this starts. Climbing too high too often results in this. I remember when I jumped down a tree 27ft, just on a small pile of branches and I went higher when there's sand or while at a waterpark.
@@billgonzales8978 Bull Shit, if you don't believe me look at any old video. That's a myth, it does take a unique mindset but it's not based on ethnicity. Retired Ironworker.
I have so much respect for wonderful workers that provide there mind, body, and soul to building anything for others. This is my husbands channel and he appreciates the workers so much! I appreciate all the workers that help make our homes and buildings. Thank you for making places for others in the heat, the cold!
This brings back many memories as I hung iron for many years starting as a young man. Many people would watch in amazement and ask how do you do it. I would say when you are young it was a challenge and satisfying after a long day looking at what was hung after a day. Yes the iron was hot and bolt bags were heavy with spuds,bullpins and beaters. Some would ask about walking beams and I would say this is when you were a kid you could walk on a railroad rail forever without falling off,,,right? Raise that rail ten feet off the ground now you are thinking about if I fall off Im going to split my skull. yeh different perspective. It takes a strong minded spirit and a can do mindset to hang steel. Watching this vid and the guys in it talking the same old BS we did makes me smile.Also happy to see safety harnesses used. We did not use a lot of safe practices back in the day,fun and challenging back then although stupid when I think how it was. Yes having a good connecting partner matters, knows how to bolt and use of a spud/ bull pin fast. These guys have it. Much respect boys and stay safe brother.
retired 35 yr I.W. here. great video...i miss the guys i used to work with not so much those hot days and them winter windy days either.but that job was awesome i seen things nobody ever will see from places nobody goes. i was never a connector. but i bolted up and threw a shit ton of deck. i always got a kick telling ppl what i did for a living and them saying there was noway they could do it .
Get up on it Hand!!! Anyone ever heard of an old Iron Hand named Jeffery Rainey....best Connector I've ever worked with!!! Worked with him in Union Bridge MD . 2001 and Georgetown SC
I used to do itonwork and weld as well and its exciting to walk the steel and then thru the years be able to look at the erected buildings and say "I helped build that" i was local 709, and ironwork is our family business!
Iam a steel framer throw decking put concrete stop or edging but I always wanted to get into iron workers especially erectors much respect brother from San Diego. Stay safe.
I was going to say I'm alright doing this until they walked down the thin girder! I have experience with working aloft (bosuns chairs) but this is crazy! 😂. GOOD JOB FELLAS! RESPECT!
I've been doing this 20 years, there is always fear, its just not really priority. "Bravery is the ability to make everyone else believe your not afraid" colonial hathcock.
Pipefitter here, but always wanted too try this!! i just finished a job for a papermill being built and i spent half my time watching the Iron Workers doing their work, i found it funny that boiler makers and Iron workers beef with each other, not in the union myself though.. I wish i lived in a big city where i could be on these type of highrise projects!
With most things in life, I can take a look at it and think "with some practise, I could do that". But when I watch structural iron workers, it makes me realise there are some things I just dont have the chops for.
Might be a little late to comment on an older video, but anyway. If they get their steel from steelfab, there's a chance I welded a lot of them bolt hole plates, wing plates, end plates, bent plate, & any other kind of plate on them I-beams & H-beams. Welded parts to tubing, channel iron, angle iron, all beams, & a ton of other stuff. Cool to see the end product of it all going together. Cool video, man.
My balance isn’t that good and I’m scared of heights but I admire this trade so much and I don’t know why. I chose the sparky life but respect to all my fellow iron workers 👍🏻
My stomach turned when he tied off to whatever that thing was he clipped to the steel. I'm cozy enough 8 or 9 stories up tied off to a retractable that I bolted to a truss, but I couldn't do thus. Big respect guys.
Thank you for the reply , it’s kind of hard to get into the union for me . A lot of people say it’s who you know now in days and I don’t . The only people I know are people from the streets and I’m through with that . I’m focus on my family and myself
These tough guys has balls of steel my balls would have sank in my stomach lmao!!! much respect what you guys do I hope they pay you guys good money to do that type of job
I don't consider myself an ironworker, I always say I'm a welder but I've been doing Bolt up and I have a lot of respect for these guys and they Respect my Welding, we work hand in hand to make sure everything is Bolted and the welding is Spot on for safety, our Lives depend on the Sturdiness of a Building
@@blessedandtalented113 not even close to being all shut down. That's the most ignorant comment I've ever heard lol just because your shut down doesn't mean the industry stops chief.
Welding in general is what I'm interested in learning, guess I'll stick to working on a shop floor for the time being! No doubt I'm sure there is a way to overcome a fear of heights because building things has always been a strong interest of mine.
I watched this video in January after getting into the ironworkers apprenticeship. All my experience was welding and never thought I’d get over my fear of heights. Trust me you do. You should be tied off at all times and working smarter not harder goes a long way. You can do it man.
After a while you get used to it. End up moving faster on heights than you do on the ground. So many times I'd be up connecting and then look back and realize my harness lanyard wasn't tied to anything 🤣
I was working in an office, watching men erect a steel-framed building across the way from me, doing what you are doing. People don't realise that sweat and balls went into these buildings.
Apprentice here, just started 2 weeks ago and I been watching all these videos. I'm terrified. I can't do heights like this I get dizzy. I'm a hard worker but this is insane. Any advice? Much much respect to you Ironworkers.
best advice i can give you is to find what you do best. throw deck..bolt up..weld. with todays safety you will be ok...trust your safety equipment . keep it in good shape. walking steel isnt that hard.....lead with your heal stay off your toes.
I’m a second year apprentice out of local 44 in Cincinnati. I was absolutely terrified of heights when I first started out. The key to beating the fear is trusting your safety equipment. Learn how to use it the right way and as long as you’re tied off correctly, you aren’t going to die. You might fall but the equipment will catch you. My first day, a forth year could see that I was visibly shaken up by the heights we were at, (we were bolting up off the steel at 95 feet). He taught me how to correctly tie off with a Beamer and tie off choker and then did the wildest thing I’ve ever seen in life. He reset his Beamer, streched about 4 feet of cable out of his retractable and threw himself off the beam. Everything worked correctly and he fell about 6 feet. I was scared shitless but after he pulled himself back up and was obviously completely fine, we had a laugh, smoked a cigarette and got back to work. He taught me a few more things that day, like how to control the wobble of a beam, how to use a bull pin, how to use a wrench or sleever bar as a step on the side of a column and how to measure for correct bolt size. He topped out in June that year and is one of the closest brothers I have in my local. As for myself, I’ve been a connector for about a year. The shit that used to terrify me, is now what I look forward to getting to do everyday. We build the biggest monuments to man, on the biggest stages in the world. It’s what we do and who we are. We’re ironworkers and we don’t die, we go refill the bolt bags and get back to the top.
Hahaha, I remember when I was a cub, my union rep gave me a new harness when I got to my very first job. The harness only had one lanyard. He looked at me and said. You only get one shot, don't fall.
Thanks for the hard work, brother. A lot of old timers and their way of thinking in terms of safety wouldn't cut it in today's construction. On most big jobsites not tying off gets you ejected permanently and sometimes that includes all jobsites under that GC. We lost two good traveling union brothers in Los Angeles, Ca at LA Rams SoFi stadium because they didn't tie off.
@@hibiki54 I was a boomer in the L.A. area for about 6 months then boomed to Portland Oregon. Miss the work, had to quit because of injuries. The injuries had nothing to do with tying off though. Miss that type of work, nobody wanted my job when I was connecting awesome.