Learning to tie several useful knots has been on my to-do list for a while now and I’m reminded of that every time I tie some insane knot that’s way too loose or nearly impossible to un-tie. I guess one of my biggest hurdles is figuring out which knots would be most useful for me.
The Essential Craftsman is a Youtube Channel hosted by veteran carpenter Scott Wadsworth. He’s an old school guy with a great story telling ability and an extensive amount of knowledge. His Youtube channel is equal parts relaxing and fascinating, with topics ranging from framing to welding to a full series of videos surrounding the ground up build of a “spec house.”
One of Scott’s most recent videos is titled “5 Knots Everyone Should Know” and it has, once again, reinvigorated my desire to learn to properly tie some useful knots. Not only does he show you the knots that could be useful to tradesmen, he also offers some real world examples of how they could be used on jobsites.
The 5 knots that he suggests in the video, in order, are:
- Bowline, which is an end of the line knot
- Larks-head, a slip knot in the middle of a line
- Sheepshank, a knot used for tying a load down
- Water knot, which ties two lines together.
- “Fiddle String Knot,” as he decides to call it, which he uses to pull a string line very tightly.
Wadsworth shows the knots being tied pretty quickly, so you may need some additional help to truly figure out how to tie them. Based on the end of the video, it sounds like Essential Craftsman will have some close up, slow motion videos of each of these knots soon. In the meantime, you can check out animatedknots.com to get you started.
What are your favorite knots to use on the jobsite or in general?
Check out the video from Essential Craftsman below:
There have been many attempts to use different materials for the structural support systems of buildings over the years, but stainless steel is not one that I have come across before. The BROAD Group, based in China, recently highlights a multi-story, cantilevered building made entirely of stainless steel.
On Tuesday morning, February 23, the Syracuse Fire Department responded to a call about a collapsed crane on a construction site near the university. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
Remote jobsites with difficult terrain pose some substantial logistical challenges when it comes to getting equipment and materials on site. I’ve seen several different methods used in the past, such as heavy equipment carrying blimps, cargo planes, helicopters, and the Fat Truck, but I recently came across a new method: a cable car.
In November of last year, the 546 foot tall Mina Plaza in Abu Dhabi officially broke the world record for tallest demolition by explosion, supplanting Hudson Department Store in Detroit, Michigan, which held the record for 22 years.
If you need to get some heavy mechanical equipment on the roof of your project, you could use a boring old crane – or you could gas up the bird and make that equipment take literal flight. Alright, so cranes aren’t actually boring, but some times a helicopter makes more logistical sense, either because it reduces total lift time or, in some cases, makes economical sense. Either way, there are some important safety precautions to take in case something goes wrong.
2020 was a stressful year, so let’s decompress a little bit by reviewing some of the most fun demolition videos from the past year. A demolition that broke a 22 year old record highlights the bunch and I also stretch what the definition of “demolition” is a little bit, because I think the video is so cool. Don’t @ me.
Without further ado, here are the top 7 demolition videos from 2020:
With the large amount of people that work in the construction industry and the high visibility of many of these projects, I’m always amazed that television networks never spent any time developing shows about it. The Smithsonian Channel, however, is about to premiere a new show, dedicated to the design and construction of some of the world’s most fascinating structures and the first episode will air on Sunday night, January 3rd, 2021.
2 years ago, crane manufacturer, Sarens, unveiled what is considered to be the world’s largest crane, by both size and lifting capacity. Big Carl, as the huge crane was nicknamed, began work a few months later on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in England. Now, the jobsite boasts an abundance of crane activity, a true site to behold, and it was captured on aerial footage for you to enjoy.
Back in 1998, the Hudson Department Store in downtown Detroit, Michigan was demolished by explosives. That building stood 410 feet tall across its 29 floors, making it, at the time, the tallest building to ever be taken down by implosion. The dust cloud covered many city blocks and the 20,000 unsuspecting people that came to watch the event. That record was just recently broken by a building over 100 feet taller than it.
While still new in the construction industries, robots are typically designed to perform a specific task in a highly precise and efficient way, like the rebar tying robot, Tybot or the brick-laying robot Hadrian X. More recently, though, robots are being imagined as platforms for 3rd party companies to develop hardware and accessories to attach to the base robot, like the Boston Dynamics robotic dog, Spot. I recently came across a new robot, called Baubot, which hopes to one day perform tasks using every tool on a typical jobsite.