c/elevator-mechanics

Had to pick between cable-guided and roller-guided doors on a 1993 Dover last week

I was dead set on going with rollers cause that's what I've always done, but an old timer at the supply house walked me through the cable setup. After 3 tries getting the tension right, the doors run smoother than any roller job I've done. Anyone else had better luck with cable guides?

Pro tip: Swapped to a digital tachometer on a 30 year old Otis last week and saw the door timing drop from 4 seconds to 2.5

Always thought analog was fine until I watched the response time difference between the two side by side on a slow Thursday job, has anyone else seen that big a jump after a simple meter swap?

That cheap brake shoe deal cost me 6 hours on site

Grabbed a bulk pack of brake shoes from that online discount place last month. Saved $40 upfront but they were warped right out of the box on three of them. Had to pull them all off and redo the job on a Otis R212 at a office building in Cleveland. Anyone else run into bad batches from those budget suppliers?

Had to pick between a used Schindler controller or a new MCE board last week

The old Schindler was half the price at $1,200 but had 15 years of dust and who knows what gremlins inside. I went with the new MCE board for $2,400 because the building owner was already breathing down my neck about downtime. Turns out the MCE didn't play nice with the existing door operator, so I spent 6 hours rewiring relays anyway. Has anyone else gotten burned by a "plug and play" board that needed more work than a used one?

PSA: That 3-hour door adjustment turned into a 2-day mess on a Miconic 10

I had a Miconic 10 in a downtown Denver high-rise that started skipping floors. Thought it was just a door timing issue, figured 3 hours tops. Two days later I finally traced it to a corroded wire in the car top harness that only acted up when the cab hit a certain temperature. The intermittent signal loss drove me crazy. Anyone else run into ghost faults that take forever to find on these old systems?

Old timer told me to never oil the guide rails on a hydro, I ignored him and had a stuck car within 3 months.

I put PTFE lube on the rails of a 2008 Otis hydro in a 5 story building near downtown Denver thinking I knew better, and now I'm stripping off that gummy residue this weekend - has anyone else had to fix a mess from lubricating something you shouldn't have?

Hydraulic vs MRL traction for low rise buildings - which one actually holds up better long term?

I've got a 6 stop in a 1990s building that's on its third hydraulic jack seal in 5 years. Meanwhile my buddy's MRL install from 2015 is still running smooth with just basic maintenance. Anyone else seeing traction outlast hydraulics on buildings under 10 stops?

Just realized I was setting brakes wrong after a guy pointed it out at a shop in Charlotte

I was in a parts shop in Charlotte last Tuesday grabbing some cables, and this older mechanic starts talking to me about brake adjustments. He said I was setting the shoe gap way too tight, and that causes heat buildup on longer runs. I thought I knew my stuff after 8 years, but he showed me a quick clearance trick with a feeler gauge that made total sense. Has anyone else had a random stranger straighten out something you thought you had dialed in?

PSA: Tried a cheap brake shoe swap on a MRL in Dallas

Put in the cheapest brake shoes I could find last month. They started glazing over after just 200 cycles. Stick with OEM parts or you'll be redoing the whole job in half the time. Anyone else run into this with aftermarket stuff?

Three years ago I pulled a 'quick fix' on a governor rope in a 20-story in Austin. Last month that same rope snapped during a test.

Back in 2021 I was working a late call on a Saturday. Building manager was breathing down my neck. The governor rope had some fraying but I figured it had another year easy. I was wrong. During the annual test last month that rope gave way completely. Nobody got hurt but it was close. The car dropped about 4 feet before the safeties caught. Now I'm second guessing every time I let a customer talk me into delaying a replacement. Has anyone else had a corner you cut come back to haunt you way later?

PSA: Dropped $60 on a laser alignment tool, worth every penny

Been leveling elevator rails by eye for years. Picked up a cheap laser level at Home Depot last week and it paid for itself on my first install in Austin. Has anyone else switched from string lines to lasers?

TIL older Otis elevators actually ride better than new ones

I worked on a 1990 Otis in Denver last week and the ride was smooth as glass. Then I went to a 2021 ThyssenKrupp in the same building and it shook like crazy on every floor. The old hydraulic valves just work better than these new digital controllers in my opinion. Has anyone else noticed older elevators giving a better ride than the new stuff?

That one time an old timer taught me something I still use today

Back in 2014 I was working on a freight elevator in an old building downtown, and this veteran mechanic named Frank was showing me the ropes. We were swapping out a controller that had been running since the 80s, and he stopped me from just yanking the old wires out. He said, "Slow down, kid. Take a picture of the whole thing before you touch a single screw, then label every wire with masking tape." I thought he was being dramatic until I saw the birds nest of wires under that panel, it would have taken me days to figure out what went where. I still do that on every job, even simple ones, and it has saved my butt more times than I can count. Anyone else have a mentor who drilled something simple into their head that they still do?

That old Otis job in Seattle back in 2013 taught me why you never skip the guide rail lube check

I was working on a 40-year-old freight elevator at the old Pike Place Market building and the car was jerking so bad I traced it to a buildup of dried grease that some kid had been packing on instead of cleaning first - has anyone else seen that kind of shortcut cause bigger problems down the line?

Had a building super school me on controller placement logic

I was swapping out an old MCE controller in a 12 story building near downtown and the super comes over, asks why I'm mounting it in the usual spot by the machine room door. He said they've had three mechanics in five years and every one put it somewhere different. Then he showed me this tight corner near the back where the cables run cleaner and the heat vents out better. I've been doing this 8 years and never once thought about airflow like that. Any of you guys ever had a building staffer teach you something that made you rethink your whole setup?

Swapped my oil-soaked rag method for a proper bearing puller kit last week

I always thought pullers were overkill for small motor bearings, but after fighting a seized one for 45 minutes on a freight elevator at a midtown high school, I finally caved and bought a 3-jaw set. Now I can't believe I wasted so much time prying and cussing. Anyone else hold out on a tool and then regret it?

Hit 1,000 elevator rescues logged in my work journal and it caught me off guard

I started keeping a notebook of every call where I had to manually release the brakes or hand-crank to get folks out. Last week I counted and hit exactly 1,000 over the last 6 years. Did anyone else track a random stat like that and find it surprising?

Tracked down a phantom fault in about 20 minutes with a trick from an old timer

We had this one elevator in a 12-story building near downtown that kept throwing a random door zone fault. Drove me nuts for two days. An old mechanic I know told me to check the door operator belt tension by giving it a little twist with my thumb instead of using the gauge. Sure enough, it was way looser than it looked. Has anyone else run into a weird quick test that saved you time on a tough fault?

Switched my mind about those roller guide shoe rebuild kits after a 3am call

Old foreman told me to stop using WD-40 on guide rails, took me 3 years to listen.

He said it just attracts dust and gunk over time, and he was right - now I use a dry lubricant and the cars run way smoother. Any of you guys switch lubes and notice a big difference?

Serious question: how long does it take YOU to diagnose a phantom door fault?

I spent 4 hours yesterday on a single elevator in a 12-story building in Omaha. The doors would close fine 9 times out of 10 but then randomly refuse to cycle. I checked the limit switches, the door operator belt tension, even the encoder counts on the motor. Turns out it was a loose wire in the controller cabinet that only vibrated loose at a specific floor level. Am I the only one who gets burned like this or do you guys have a standard time limit before you pull out the multimeter and start tracing everything?

Took me 3 years to figure out I was greasing the rails wrong

Had an older guy stop by my job in Cleveland last month and point out I was putting too much grease on the guide rails. He told me to look at the buildup on the shoes and I felt like an idiot. Anyone else have a basic setup habit they just never questioned?

Old timer told me to trust my ears over the diagnostic tool on a call back

Can we talk about the elevator inspection tags in Chicago?

Was at the Thompson Center yesterday and half the tags were faded to blank. If the inspector cant even keep a sticker readable how do we trust the safety checks? Anybody else deal with that in older buildings?

Otis Gen2 door sensors need cleaning way more often than the manual says

I work on elevators in a shopping mall in Dallas and kept getting calls for doors not closing on a set of 6 Otis Gen2 units. Spent a full afternoon tracing wiring and checking boards before I noticed the sensor lenses had a thin film of dust on them. Shop rag and some glass cleaner fixed all 6 cars in about 20 minutes. The manual says to clean them every 6 months but in a dusty environment like a mall food court area it needs to be more like every 6 weeks. Has anyone else found a better way to keep those lenses clean between visits?