i know most of you experienced operators know this but i had to go help bail out someone due to he didn't watch the slump and let it get too stiff (on a system job for crying out loud!) anyhow he plugged up and due to and unclean 148mm clamp he had on the 5-4, it shot off the boom due to some pressure from the plug in the deck pipe. there was no where for the clamp to grasp on the bottom of the reducer due to so much concrete not cleaned out of the clamp. even if you haven't been doing this for long that shouldn't be an issue. i think that should be more of a common sense thing. any other stories or comments?

I started keeping my clamps cleaner when I started buying them. It is obvious dirty clamps pose a safety issue!! When you have to put the clamps on with a hammer. That is just bad service. In all fairness sometimes floor crews do not care about the equipment. They toss a dirty clamp on the side in the middle of August while pushing the operator to pump. Then they complained when the equipment turns to crap. The operator needs the time to take care of the equipment.

We used to wash the clamps & gaskets and then dunk them in a bucket of hyd' oil before storing them for the day. Even when the placing crew did not care for them properly it was still possible to keep them clean because of the heavy coat of 100% hyd' oil. It was a bit of a mess but the adjusting screw remained operational and the crete didn't stick. It also kept the clamp thieves from picking them up.