c/elevator-mechanics

Rant: Stop overtightening governor tension sheaves on high rises

I keep seeing guys cranking down on these sheaves until they barely move. You are creating a problem for yourself and everyone else on the route. I replaced a governor rope last month on a 30 story building in downtown Seattle and had to cut the old one off because the sheave was so tight it had flattened the rope. That rope had maybe two years of life left in it tops. The tension should feel solid but the sheave should still spin easy by hand. Over tightening just wears out the bearings and puts unnecessary stress on the governor arm. Who here has had to replace a sheave assembly early because of this?

Thought those $40 brake pads from Amazon were fine until one crumbled on a 10 floor emergency stop.

Took a chance on a no-name set to save a customer a buck, and after that failure I spent the next two hours explaining to the building manager why we're going back to OEM parts for all future service calls. Anyone else have a cheap part scare you straight like that?

Still bitter about that 'premium' door operator upgrade

The sales guy swore the new AC drive would save us 30% on power costs. After 6 months of tracking, our building's bill dropped maybe $12 total. Has anyone else had a sales pitch that just didn't add up?

Remember when we had to carry all those tools in a leather bag?

I started in this trade back in '92, working for Otis in Chicago. Back then, my tool bag weighed a ton... I had a separate wrench for every bolt size, a heavy pipe wrench, and I'd lug around a hand drill with a cord long enough to trip over. Now, I just carry a Milwaukee Packout with a couple of impact drivers and a universal socket set. The new guys laugh when I tell them I used to file down safeties by hand instead of using a digital meter. It saves my back for sure, but I miss the feeling of that old leather bag sometimes. Has anyone else held onto their old tools for nostalgia, or am I just getting old?

Remember when we used to carry tool bags that weighed fifty pounds?

Last Tuesday I picked up my old leather pouch from 1995 and couldn't believe I lugged that thing around for a decade. Has anyone else noticed the younger guys using those rolling carts now or is it just my site?

Changed my mind about those budget brake shoes from Amazon

I used to swear by paying extra for OEM brake shoes on elevators, but after trying a set of $45 Centurion pads on a 10-story model in Austin last month, I'm switching. The stopping felt rough for the first 200 cycles, but once they seated, they actually grabbed smoother than the factory parts. My coworker Dave ran the same set on a 6-stop freight car for 8 months with zero issues. I still spent 2 hours adjusting the backlash compared to 30 minutes with OEM, but saving $120 per unit is hard to ignore. Has anyone else noticed these cheap pads needing a longer break-in period in humid climates?

Noticed a big difference in my brake shoe wear after switching to a different lubricant

I work on the old Otis units in a building downtown, and I was going through brake shoes every 6 months like clockwork. The lining would glaze over and the stops would get rough and jerky. Last year I tried a new synthetic grease on the guide rails instead of the regular stuff I had been using for 20 years. After 8 months I pulled the cover off and the shoes looked almost new, just a light polish on them. The building manager even commented that the ride feels smoother now, no more jolts at the 5th floor. I guess the old grease was just too heavy and gummed things up. Has anyone else tried swapping lubricants and seen a real change in wear like that?

Noticed a huge difference in cab ride quality after swapping to polyurethane guide rails.

Over the last year at the old midtown building, we had constant complaints about jerky starts on the Otis hydro, but switching from nylon to polyurethane slippers smoothed everything out almost overnight. Has anyone else seen that big a change just from swapping guide rail shoes?

TIL the hard way about brake shoe adjustments on a heavy load

Last Wednesday I had a service call at the Bank of America building on 5th Ave, a 30-story office tower. I adjusted the brake shoes on the main hoist like I always do, but when I tested the car with a half load of pallets it rode smooth... with a full load of 20 people it shook like crazy on descent. Learned the hard way that shoe clearance needs to be checked at max load, not just empty or half-full. Has anyone else found that brake drag changes that much under different loads?

Just realized a zip tie trick for leveling door hangers

I was struggling to get a car door hanger leveled right on a 6 stop job last week and the old guy I was with showed me to loop a zip tie through the bottom bolt hole to use as a temporary support. It freed up my hands to check the gap and make adjustments without fighting the weight the whole time. Has anyone else tried something like that or got a better way to hold them steady?

A customer called me out on my door hanger adjustment technique... and they were right

Talking to an old timer made me rethink my whole approach to leveling

I was swapping out a controller in a 40 year old Otis last Tuesday and this guy who retired 10 years ago came by to grab some paperwork. He saw me fighting with a digital level and just laughed. Said he never used anything but a 2 foot bubble level and never had a callback on a single car he set up. I asked him how he managed that with rails that were never perfectly straight. He said you don't level to the rail, you level to the car's final travel path and let the shims fix the rest. Been trying it on two jobs this week and it's way faster. Any of you older guys still rely on bubble levels over digital?

Had a controller lock up on me at a hospital in Cleveland last Tuesday

The car was full of people and I had to emergency stop it on the 4th floor, then spent 45 minutes with a multimeter tracing a bad solder joint on the main board that nobody taught me about in trade school - is this something you guys run into more often on older Otis units or am I just unlucky?

Three years ago I bombed a simple door adjustment in Chicago

I was working on an old Otis in a Loop building back in 2021. Spent 45 minutes trying to get the door rollers to stop dragging across the threshold. Kept adding shims and making it worse. Foreman walked over and just said 'you're overthinking it, the track is bent.' He was right. Tapped it with a hammer and it was fixed in 5 seconds. Felt dumb but I've never made that mistake again. Anyone else have a fix that was way simpler than you thought?

Can we talk about how I used to grease guide rails with a brush vs now with a pump gun?

Back in 2018 I was still using a hand brush on every job in Austin, but after a 3-hour slowdown on a 20-floor install I switched to a pneumatic pump gun. Has anyone else found the pump gun gives way more consistent coverage or is it just me?

Cable snapped on a Tuesday and I almost lost it

Last week in a 12-story building downtown. Brake seized up on me mid-service. Had to hand-crank the car down three floors. Took me almost 4 hours with a busted knuckle. Anyone else deal with a sudden cable failure on an older Otis model?

Pro tip: Checked the ASME code book today and got a shock

I was looking up clearances for a new install at a hotel in Austin last week. Found out the A17.1 code says escalator steps can be no more than 400mm deep. I always figured it was a rule of thumb thing. Never knew it was that specific in black and white. Anyone else find a code stat that surprised them?

PSA: That time a control board fried mid-shift at the St. Louis Medical Center

Was swapping a VVVF drive on a MRL elevator at the medical center last Tuesday when the main control board sparked and died on me mid-test. Has anyone else dealt with sudden board failures on older Otis models, or did I just get unlucky with a bad batch?

Warning: Replaced a main line relay on a Mowrey last week without checking the door interlocks first

Ive been doing this 12 years and never thought to check the sequence on the hall door contacts before swapping parts. Stupid rookie mistake, spent 4 hours tracing a phantom fault till a helper pointed out the interlock was delayed by a quarter inch. Anyone else had a simple swap turn into a whole day of head scratching?

The old adjustments on Otis 211s still beat the new smart controllers

I worked on an Otis 211 from 1982 last week, and the old mechanical door limit switches just worked. No software glitches, no firmware updates, just a screwdriver and a feeler gauge. Contrast that with the new smart controller I dealt with Tuesday at the hospital job, took me 3 hours to clear a ghost fault. Has anyone else found the older systems more reliable for basic adjustments?

Saw a weird elevator setup in a 1920s hotel in Savannah

I was checking out the old DeSoto Hotel last week and they still have the original Otis traction machine from 1927, but it's been hooked up to a modern controller. The car still has the brass cage door and everything. Has anyone else worked on a retrofit like that and found weird wiring issues?

A tricky job in an old theater taught me to always check the pit floor first

I was called out to the Majestic Theater downtown last month for a stuck car. It was a 1950s Otis traction unit, and the usual checks came up empty. I was about to start pulling the motor when I decided to take one more look down the pit with a better light. That's when I saw it: a thick layer of old plaster dust and wood chips, almost 4 inches deep, had piled up under the car. The guide shoes were just plowing through it like a snowdrift, causing enough drag to trip the safety. We spent the next hour with a shop vac cleaning it all out, and the car ran smooth as silk. I'd never seen a pit that full of debris from building work. Now, no matter what the call is, my first move is a full pit inspection with a flashlight. Has anyone else run into a pit issue that looked like one thing but was something totally different?

The amount of slack I see in governor ropes lately is just unsafe.

I was called to a building downtown last month because a car kept tripping on the overspeed, and the problem was a governor rope with almost two inches of play. That's not just a little loose, it's a failure waiting to happen. How are people missing this basic step during a rope change? Has anyone else run into this on recent jobs?

My foreman insisted we replace the entire 10-year-old motor on a KONE unit in the downtown high-rise, but the real issue was just a single $15 contactor in the starter box.

Has anyone else had a senior tech push for a major, expensive fix when the problem was actually something small and cheap?

Thought the new magnetic brake tester was just a gimmick until the job in Charlotte

I saw the MTE-2000 at a trade show and figured it was just a fancy toy. Then we had a call at the Bank of America building with a brake that kept sticking, and the old way of checking with a feeler gauge wasn't showing the full picture. The magnetic tester showed a 0.3mm variance we couldn't feel, and that was the real problem. Anyone else found a tool they doubted that actually saved a job?