How it was back then

[WastedPotential]

It's not though is it?

[frederik]

Thought dinosaurs were extinct.

[dominator]

it is though actually, to the millimetre.

[Jack Brian]

To John the Manc, every thing you state was just how it was. Cannot remember seeing a "Scaffler" with a bubble, just like you say a single frog for the Podger (GB) or Spanner. Working in Sub Stations/Pylon Cables etc. while the place still live, shimming down tubes with just a Band & Plate or Double at the bottom to stop you going to meet your maker while doing drop lifts and so on. We only ever used a single board. Still fond memories. Study this photo, takes some believing.Good Old Day's .jpg

[WastedPotential]

it is though actually, to the millimetre.

No, I was referring to the 'that's all I need to know' bit. You need a tape for a lot more than just measuring boards mate.

[dominator]

fair enough mate but im not trying to be funny, i very rarely use a tape and neither did the guy with 40 years experience that i learned from, too many new school scaffs have tape out at every opportunity does my head in but thats the game now i suppose.

[jonnyoneye]

Even before my time that. I remember scaffs not working in the rain, now every silly sod does it. I remember all scaffs having a few pints at dinner, now its unheard of. I remember having only a spanner in a home made leather frog, now everything is bought. Your eyes were your spirit level and skull was your hard hat. The site agent was always a made up time-served tradesman with years of experiance on the tools and not fresh out of college. Large sites were consisted of A site agent, a GF, tradesmen, gangers and labourers, now there are more in the office than on the tools. Some things have changed for the better, some havent.

Oh happy memories of sitting in the cabin on the cracker project at Pembroke in the late 70's/early 80's, when it was raining/drizzling, which was doing very often down there. I remember being there for 3 days on one occasion, playing cards, drinking tea, reading newspapers, drinking more tea, sleeping, drinking more tea and doing anything else that we could do to kill the boredom, with multiple trips to the loo to beak the monotony. I was even volunteering to go out and help erect rain protection for the Welders who were still working, just to keep my brain half sane, in the end !
A few pints at lunchtime was mandatory and I remember one longish term job that we were on in the centre of Cardiff, where the supervisor that we had was a stickler for not leaving site before 1 and being back by 1.30, yet we always managed 4 pints and a pie or pastie in the 20 minutes or so that we actually had in a bar, with the supervisor leading the beer fest !
We used to make our own frogs out of (allegedly),Elephant or Rhinoceros leather that one of the lads used to get a bit of occasionally. I'm not sure whether it originated from those two animals, but it was very thick and difficult to sew and rivet and was not from any cow that I had ever come across. Two spanners 7/16th and 1/2" and a separate one for a level if you had one, plus a nice thick belt, all of which you took to the pub with you at lunchtime and dumped in the corner. No one ever touched or pinched them, as they knew that they would get a good smacking if they did. Now days you would not even be allowed in with a belt and spanners like that, as they would be considered offensive weapons.
Although we never had helmets on civil sites, or for street work, we did have to at least take them out with us on the bigger industrial sites, but at Aberthaw we used to have one between the gang of three and two of the gang would hide if the HSE guy, Jim Dymond (of Scafftag fame), came around. He knew what was going on, but never got too upset when he did catch us without one on.
Happy memories !

[jonnyoneye]

Yes spirit levels were there, specially the good old 'Rabone red' that had a slow bubble and to me were better than a stabila ever was, but on the street, specially independents the chargehands were more into cutting corners and throwing jobs up, specially on price or target on new build sites. Crazy some of them were.

There is usually something close that you can eye the job in on, either vertically, or horizontally, but I do remember one of the 'super' gangs that worked for Palmers in the late 70's on the demolition of some of the older shops in The Hayes, Cardiff, to make way for the St David's 1 development. They were setting it all out and their labourer eyeing in all the standards for them, but he did it by lining them up with the lampposts in the street. They put up 3 lifts on a Sunday and we were sent there on the Monday to complete it. The job was all leaning out and away from the buildings, as the lampposts were tapering towards the top and the standards were following them !

[jonnyoneye]

Yep, every non boarded lift was erected off a one or two board wide working area and no temporary hand railing then.

On hangers, if you were lucky the dropper that you slid down had the double that you were going to erect off AND a check fitting, but I've been down a few that only had the fitting that you were going to erect off and nothing below it and when you are hanging a 100 or so foot above the next thing below you, with your one foot jammed against the bolt of that fitting and the other hanging below you in mid air and all the time gripping the dropper with one hand and trying to grab hold of the ledger being passed to you with the other, all the while swinging to and fro and all without a harness, one tended to sober up pretty quickly after arriving for work after 2-3 hours kip and a very boozy night the evening before.
A bit sweaty, but a great sense of achievement afterwards though !

[WastedPotential]

Thank god some things have changed. Others no so much though.