Scary Rigging Spooktacular: Unsafe Rigging From Real Inspections

Welcome to the Rigging Horror Show

– Poor riggers, ignoring best practices, creating a horror show on the job site, each lift oozing with danger, desperate to finish the job, to go home to their happy lives.

“We don’t need to inspect our gear,” they said. So it stayed in service, still dangling overhead. Real terrors and horrors, bent and twisted, nicks, cuts, gouges, a real freak show attached to a crane hook.

That’s what happens, kiddos. And we are going to show it all to you on this Scary Rigging Spooktacular.

Meet the Expert Examiner of the Exhumed

Welcome to The Rigging Horror Show. Step up, step up, and witness the horrors pulled straight from the field. But what is a horror show without a fearless spectator?

To judge this freak show of failed rigging, we need an expert. Joining us tonight, a man who came here to talk inspections and wound up in a rigging nightmare, Corporate Rigging Inspection Manager, Tom Horner.

The Hooks of Horror!!!

Our opening act, found dangling high above an unsuspecting crew, a twisted talon of terror. Behold, the Hooks of Horror!

Tell us, Tom, what does your trained, but utterly unimpressed gaze reveal in these abominations?

– I see a lot of damage. I see a lot of scariness. I see a lot of lessons to be learned.

Side-Loading Twist (bent body, twisted eye)

This hook right here, obviously been side-loaded against the load, hence the twisting of the hook, twisting of the eye. We can also see the broken mechanism as this would’ve been a latch-lock-type hook locking mechanism.

– What if this were to stay in service?

– Definitely a violation, definitely a danger. Something that you’d want to address at the training level. Why did it stay in service?

Heat Damage (hot-metal dip; strength loss risk)

These are interesting, obviously, in a hot metal situation, where the hook was actually dipped in the hot metal. What was the heat, and how did that heat affect the strength of the hook?

On this hook, the material, the hot metal filled up the hook itself, so there’s lack of mobility in the chain attached to the hook itself, and then the movement of the chain itself.

Tip-Loaded Grab Hook (opened throat, twisted)

This is a great example of a grab hook that was probably tip-loaded, hence the reason, the opening and the twist. But I would say, also based on the wear here, what was the application that caused this to happen? So I would go back to, yes, this hook is obviously bad, but there’s probably a training and an application use concern with that hook right there.

Long-Service Wear at Eye (swinging under load)

We have another old hook. It’s probably been in service for many, many years. If you can see here, the wear in the eye. The chain itself would’ve been doing this, so probably in a heavy swinging application under a lot of load for a long period of time. And it should have been caught much earlier from the daily inspections by the operators.

– Quite a bit more than 10%, would you say?

– Absolutely.

– And if this were to stay in service?

– Definitely going to be a failure at some point. Obviously, we’re more than 10% wear. But when you create this kind of wear, there’s going to be slight cracks in the hook that are probably forming, which become what we call a stress riser.

The link here itself may have also worn, but maybe that failed and there was an actual hook leaving the assembly itself.

The Cursed Chains!!!

– Now, if you thought the Hooks of Horror were truly twisted, just wait until you see what’s been dangling in the dark corners of the job site next. For what is a hook without the chain that binds? Oh, dear audience, what Cursed Chains they are!

Tell us, Tom, what does your unbreakable inspector stare reveal in these links of lunacy?

– This is a terrifying grouping of alloy chains.

Homemade Chain Assembly (non‑compliant master link and J‑hooks)

What we can see is a completely homemade assembly. Somebody took a piece of bar, made their own master link, attached some pieces of chain that they found lying around, created their own J hooks, but definitely not compliant, definitely needed to be pulled from service.

Dipped and Eroded Links (process residue wearing material away)

A great example. Here’s a normal piece of alloy chain. But as you can see, as you go down through the rest of the alloy chain itself, it was used in some sort of a process where it was dipped. And you can actually see, as you go through the chain, the amount of material that is being worn away from the chain itself. You can see the difference.

Definitely should have been removed from service much, much earlier. It might have even been part of a failure. We’re only seeing the chain itself.

DIY Plate Hooks (burned holes, bent plate, illegal attachments)

More homemade items. The plate hooks themselves, somebody took a piece of plate, did the bending themselves, burnt out their hole, attached their chain with some, what would be considered illegal attachments. And as you can see, this was probably their master link that was over some other type of a hook.

Absolutely a great example of a non-compliant item and definitely needed to be replaced.

Hot‑Metal Exposure (over‑temp risk, WLL loss—unusable)

We have a hot metal situation. This either fell into the hot metal itself or something spilled over onto it. Obviously, unusable at this point. But even a small amount of hot metal touching an alloy chain like this could indicate that the chain was heated past its acceptable temperatures, resulting in some sort of a loss of working load.

Eroded Chain and Coupling Links—very dangerous

Looking at this chain right here, this is another great example. A very old CO. Properly made, properly tagged. I can see the information on the alloy chain, so that’s a good part. But what’s very interesting is when you look at the chain, you have your 7/32 alloy. But then, again, it was dipped into some sort of a situation that has removed… But even the hammer lock itself, the coupling link up here has been worn.

So, again, it’s not just going to be that this chain might fail and break. Where are all the pieces going to go when they blow apart? Who are the people who are in the area in the line of fire? What happens to your product you were lifting? Did you hurt the hoist that this was hanging off of due to the shock load of the breakage?

The scary part here is that something like this was in service, and definitely should have never been there or been there this long.

The Mangled Master Links!!!

– Ah, yes, Tom. Chains may rattle the soul, but what of the link that ties them all together? Step right up, my frightful friends, and shutter at the Mangled Master Links!

Oversized Link with Welded Handles (complete failure)

– This one here is really interesting to talk about. This is an oversized master link with handles welded to the master link to a hands-free operation. These are professionally done. We had a complete failure of the master link.

Now, one might argue, did the application of the handle cause some sort of a defect for that breakage to have taken right at the place of the weld?

Pear‑Shaped Master Link—catastrophic failure

Over here, we have a large pear master link made by a professional manufacturer, as stated here. And then we see a failure point, where broke it apart.

– This could have been a very dangerous failure.

– Absolutely. There’s a reason it happened, not just wear and tear. Something definitely was used improperly here.

Heavy Wear and Mushrooming

And then, lastly, looking at this large Crosby link, definitely a lot of wear. It never should have gotten to these points during the daily inspections. And wear with the mushrooming. If they do start creating stress risers, little cracks, you would begin creating failure points, potentially, at that point of the master link itself.

The Sinister Slings!!!

– Ah, yes, Tom, but what of the slings that bear the load? Wire rope twisted and woven, swaged and spliced. But kinked and bent and wicked cores exposed. Feast your eyes on the Sinister Slings!

– This is what you will typically see in a lot of wire ropes. They’re used how somebody needs to use ’em to get a job done so they’re often abused.

Immediate Fail: No Tag + Broken Wires (remove from service)

This sling, immediate failure, no tag. But as I’m looking through it, I’m already feeling all of the broken wires, obviously kinked. Now, the customer should’ve known to take this and throw this just in the trash. Pull a new one out.

Watch Your Hands (wire pricks, grime, PPE reminder)

One right here, we have one. It’s nice to see a tag on. Already felt a broken wire. That is one thing to be very cognizant of when you’re looking at wire slings. It will prick your fingers immediately. They could be very dirty depending on where you’re using them, but you just don’t want to tear up your hands.

– Everybody loves a tetanus shot.

– Oh, I’m not sure about that, but yes.

Killer Kinks (deformation won’t come out under load)

We’ll just use the term that these are kinks. Kinks will not come out under load. If under load, your deformation does not come out, definitely something we want to consider in the passing or failure of an item.

D/d Ratio Too Small (bend radius damage → remove)

But also looking here, you can see, over a small D/d ratio. So, yes, this would be another removal from service. Not something atypical out there in the world.

Crushed and Broken Strands (severe service damage)

This larger one here is interesting, because however they used it created a tremendous amount of crushed and broken wires. Don’t have to take much time to really look at that.

Within this conversation with the customer, we just want to say, “Hey, you know, we shouldn’t be finding this. You should be pulling this out of service much, much sooner.”

The Red Tagged Rigging Rejects!!!

– And so, my wretched risky riggers, we come to the final curtain. You thought you had seen every horror: twisted hooks, cursed chains, mangled master links. But from the deepest pits of neglect, we unveil the most condemned connections of them all.

One last scare if you dare. Behold, a freak show of failed rigging, hellish hardware, the Red Tagged Rigging Rejects!

What does your grave inspector stare reveal in this cabinet of catastrophic connections?

– That’s definitely what we have here are some rigging rejects.

Franken‑Fasteners (bolt + nut welded together)

A bolt, a nut welded together. We see variations of this in many ways all the time.

Shameful Shackle Wear (eye wear well past 10% → remove)

Here, we have a great example of a custom-made shackle. There’s manufacturer’s information on here. But what really is driving this home is the wear here in the eye, obviously, well past 10%. Why wasn’t it inspected? Why wasn’t it caught? Why was it allowed?

Sometimes your fittings are sitting in here and they mask this type of wear. So if you don’t move things around, you might not catch this type of thing.

Hoist Ring Breakage (top clip failure → removal criteria)

Some hoist rings right here. A breakage of the top clip.

– Removal criteria?

– Absolutely. What you’ll also see sometimes with hoist rings is people will remove the factory bolt system and put in their own for a different type of application. Definitely a no-no.

“Made in X” ≠ Manufacturer (insufficient ID → reject)

Here, we have a shackle. It has information on it, but we also see that it’s made in China. China is not a manufacturer. It’s just where it was made. So, basically, just on the lack of manufacturer’s information, it’s got to go.

Wrong Shackle Pin (threads protruding; incorrect replacement → reject)

A properly US-made shackle, it’s got all the required identification marks. But this would be something we can see where the threads are extending past. Incorrect bolt. So what happened to the original bolt, and why did somebody replace it with that one?

– Again, removal criteria?

– Absolutely. We’re not going to take a chance.

Final Safety Guidance: How to Keep Nightmares Off the Hook

– And so, Tom, what last warning will you leave for the riggers before cursed gear like this haunts their job site?

– When anybody is doing your periodic inspection, we shouldn’t find a lot of stuff like this. With all of this, a lot of this could have been eliminated with a lot of proper training, a lot of proper application of the frequent inspections, and definitely staying compliant with the periodic inspection requirements.

So what we saw today, we’re glad we caught ’em. We’re glad somebody caught ’em. But we want to make sure that we don’t get complacent and think that it’s okay, and that these things are regularly found in the field.

The Real Horror: Skipping Inspections

– You see, my sinister slingers, the monsters we’ve shown you tonight aren’t lurking under your bed. They’re dangling above your head. But they’re not fairytales. They’re real, pulled from the field, and ignored long enough to become true job site nightmares.

Because the real terror is skipping your inspections. It’s on the shrug, the “hmm, good enough,” the gear left in the box, one lift too long, and that’s where the horror lives. So protect your crew, inspect your rigging, or your next job may star in the next Rigging Horror Show!

Call the Exorcist: Schedule Your Inspection

And if you want to keep your gear out of my freak show, call Mazzella. Schedule your rigging inspection today. Because in real life, safety should never be scary. My name is Ben. Stay safe out there.