Smile… you’re on candid camera! Early this morning at Nucor Steel Mill in West Seattle, this craneman obviously realized he was being photographed as he was going about his job transferring thirty foot long steel billets from the drag over to the yard. The billets are red hot coming off the mill where they are formed from the continuous caster and sawed into thirty foot lengths each weighing about two tons. The magnet (attached to the crane this man is operating) which picks up these billets cannot ‘lock on’ to them until they have cooled some, if they are too hot sometimes they drop off the ‘pick’ while being moved.
My husband, now retired, worked at this mill for 41 years. Starting in 1968 as a crane follower, he retired as a foreman in the shipping department. He knows the craneman I’ve caught in this shot… but we’ll let him remain anonymous.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
‘WEEKLY TOP SHOT’ – Week #12 – Won’t You Join The Fun?
It’s time for you to enter your photos in ‘Weekly Top Shot – #11.’ Be sure you grab the button below and create a link back to my post. The linky is open Saturday morning at 12:01 Pacific Standard Time and will close the following Friday evening at 23:59.
There are just a few rules:
* Your post must be family friendly.
* Submit the url of your blog post, not your home page.
* Link up a photo that was taken by you by clicking on link below, (‘You are next, Click here to enter.’)
* Create a link back here in your blog post – (using the ‘Weekly Top SHOT’ button which already included a link back to this post -OR- right click saving the badge then create a link back using the permalink below -OR- create a text link back using the permalink below.)
* Visit a some other entries and leave comments.
Permalink to create a link back to this post: http://www.theviewfromrighthere.com/blog/?p=5812
wow. the red-hot part and the dropping off part sound rather treacherous!
Yes… RED hot… I’ll have to post another shot of the billets coming off the mill…
What a great shot. Not something I would see around here that’s for sure.
This mill has been in West Seattle for 106 years… the fellow who founded it also founded PAC Car.
Part of my duties at the local paper mill here, when I was still working, was electrical crane maintenance, so I’m well acquainted with them.
Probably an interesting job, Paul… I SO appreciate the mechanics who keep our buses running like tops.
My husband worked at the Nucor plant in South Dakota for couple of weeks last summer. :)
Cool…
What an interesting and unusual shot. This is not an activity you see everywhere.
Darryl and Ruth :)
No it isn’t… he was probably forty feet in the air…
Hi Madge, catching up on reading blogs after the holidays. I have fear of heights and could never work so high up – cudos to people that do it.
You asked about how I made the picture of the light fountain with animation – it’s a .gif file which you can make using any of the free gif making sights. I used http://gickr.com/ . The best thing is to use a tripod (which I did not for the fountain photo) and take a continues shot. Since I didn’t have a tripod while taking the fountain photo, you can see the camera slightly moving in my hand and the result is not perfect. Santa brought me a tripod, so next time I’ll do better :-).
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thanks Zozia, for the instructions… I use my tripod more than I hand hold anymore…
Oops — the Nucor plant Shane worked at was in Norfolk, Nebraska. Must be correct! :)
Lol… I was thinking that was a LONG way from home!
Love Studs Turkel’s book WORKING. Interesting as all hell.
Love that book too… he’s a good author… I ‘ve read several of his, all good reads.
Thank you for the invitation. Great meme!
Thanks, JM…!
We have a Nucor Steel here in Norfolk, NE. I have toured the facility before. The place where they melt the steel looks like the what I think hell looks like. Nice shot. Hope he didn’t mind having his picture taken. Thanks for inviting me to join : ) I will try to remember to do this more often, but I am usually not that proud of my photos.
My husband used to go to the facilities in California and do inventory, also a trip to North Carolina, but never to Nebraska. And please do come join in, I always enjoy your posts! ;-)
Thanks for the invitation, Madge. I’ve posted the hungry squirrel photo. Looking forward to seeing others.
Thanks for coming and sharing with us! :-)
I’m linked up & ready to go, Madge, thanks for the invitation! =)
Thanks Tricia… I’m so glad you came to share! ;-)
Great capture. Love it when you surprise someone, look is priceless.
He was quite a ways off, if I had to guess I’d say sixty yards or so…
Great post.
found you through Nancy! lovely idea. just added a photo
lots of love from norway
Thanks Demie, it was so sweet of Nancy to feature my meme… I’d glad you came over to share with me!
Love the photo.. I love cranes, and on the show Dirty Jobs he spent a day in a steel plant.. wow… hot and dirty work.. very dangerous and amazing.
Thanks Michelle… yes I saw that episode too… Love ‘Dirty Jobs,’ of course I think Mike Rowe really makes the show what it is!
Wow. That’s a close shot of the worker. Getting a new inspiration. We have steel mill in town that went out of business. I gotta go there with my camera.