What's the coolest piece of heavy equipment operated in steel mills?

@JH_HAY

Жыл бұрын

I don’t know it’s all pretty cool! I like the e magnets too

@ejharvey2764

Жыл бұрын

I was hoping you would show the whole process to change the tires

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

@@ejharvey2764 next time. It takes a while

@robertstanley980

Жыл бұрын

The fan

@kevinpennings8823

Жыл бұрын

The automatic french fry machine they had in the canteen room never seen one like and they were delicious 👌🏻

I work at a steel mill, the pot carrier for slag is pretty cool cause you have to speed out of the mill to go pour the ladle before it cools off. very hot work even with ac in the carrier!

@bulletsponge1656

Жыл бұрын

@@mikek3951 gerdau

@mynameisladder3481

Жыл бұрын

You better not have a truck parked in front of one or cut one off either theyll flaten a fullsize pickup.

@SirShakesworde

Жыл бұрын

what if someone forgets to dump it

@snewton89

Жыл бұрын

@@SirShakesworde The ladle would be scrapped but pot hauler is unaffected. You’d ideally try to “beach” it by dumping it in a pit (which is later crushed up by a crane dropping a massive ball on it then scrapped or reprocessed)

@bulletsponge1656

Жыл бұрын

@@SirShakesworde If it doesnt get dumped in time it will harden and u have to either lance the slug out in pieces or in some cases the pot can be a total loss. we have welders than can fill 4 inch wide cracks that are 6-8 inches thick on pots. The ladles inside the steel mill are around 1 million dollars a piece so the slag pots are probably half the cost not as big etc..

This is literally the cool stuff everyone likes to see when they're age 5......but in reality they still want to see it at 55 or 75. This channel should be alot bigger. Kinda like Mike Rowe in Dirty Jobs show, except all it's equipment instead of the job itself. Don't be afraid to show some more enthusiasm and passion for the cool equipment, people need that to understand exactly how cool and specialized this stuff really is.

@jcrides1320

Жыл бұрын

It’s our little secret!

@atheinasophiajade1044

Жыл бұрын

38 yr old female , I concur everyone wants to see this.

@ILoveBluePeople

Жыл бұрын

He's about to blow up... The reason I know is because I'm here and I have no common videos with this watched

@adamfrbs9259

Жыл бұрын

@@ILoveBluePeople the algorithm has been beckoned. Lol

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

@@ILoveBluePeople we're only getting going!!!

I'm a maintenance mechanic at the largest blast furnace in the western hemisphere. I don't care how old I get, giant equipment never gets old.

@haidandurham8630

Жыл бұрын

Damn man, how much you make a year if you dont mind me askin

@mephInc

Жыл бұрын

@@haidandurham8630 That depends. Most people hire in as a entry level laborer. At that rate, working straight 40hr weeks, you'll be sitting between $60-70k. If you're willing to have no life, no sleep, and work 112hrs a week, you can break $200k. Keep in mind that this doesn't include insurance, benefits(dental vision, etc,) pension, aannnd the likelihood that you'll die 5-10 years earlier than most people.

@licktin1091

Жыл бұрын

@@mephInc perfect job for a single person in their 20s. Work as hard as you want as long as you want. Nobody at home telling you to stop.

@mephInc

Жыл бұрын

@@licktin1091 Watched a kid get hired in at 18. He doubled 7 days a week for the entire year then quit. He had enough cash for a new car and most of his college.

@charlescourtwright2229

Жыл бұрын

@@mephInc it wouldve been smarter for him to stick with the trade, since college degrees are not really worth much anymore

I used to do tire work on those pit loaders every week almost. They're a beast of a machine and get put through a lot. Thanks for the video. I'm going to show it to people when they ask about my OTR service days

Those steel slabs at 1:11 are incredibly cool. Reminds me of reading how US Mills were once able to produce thick steel slabs for Battleship armor.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

It’s wild huh

@kishascape

Жыл бұрын

Were?! They still are.

@jakubolsza3315

Жыл бұрын

@@kishascape No, they most certainly are not, making armour-grade steel plates in thicknesses required for battleships is essentially a lost art and it would take a lot of time and effort to regain it. Thickness is by far the smallest problem when it comes to naval armour plate, techniques used to create the perfect amount of hard and ductile material are no longer in use when it comes to plates often more than a foot thick.

@JustAGamerA

11 ай бұрын

@@jakubolsza3315 at least some of that institutional knowledge still exists with the steel made for submarine hulls.

@T33K3SS3LCH3N

5 күн бұрын

​@@jakubolsza3315 while it's true that is is no need for battleship-thickess armour plating and therefore no such production capability exists right now, I wouldn't call it a "lost art". Our understanding of metallurgy has improved a lot. While it would certainly be more expensive today due to rising labour and steel costs, I'm sure we could produce even more of it if we had a need as urgent as it was in WW2.

I love seeing machines like anyone else but I like seeing how everything is done. Would have loved to see them change that tire: taking the chains off, wrapping it in extra rubber, putting the chains back on..

@getoffthegames89

Жыл бұрын

I’d imagine it could take some time, as in man-hrs. Is it a process that spans days?

Simply amazing display of human ingenuity. Everything shown here was produced entirely, first, in the minds, then by the hands, of mere men. Truly astonishing creatures we are, thank you so much for the upload and for the work you do.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

thanks for Watching Sean

Back when we had the big brown out our local steel mill (Nanticoke works) lost a pot in mid poor They managed to lance out the chunk and save the pot We came in with a Demag A/C 700 to load it out came in around 230ton pretty impressive/expensive lift for a blob of scrap

@commeeche

Жыл бұрын

It's still sitting by the pizza hut

@xXsc3n1cXx

Жыл бұрын

That’s crazy to think of. I used to lance out 50 ton dump pots, that was enough for me!

I build these tires for a living.. it's a rough job. Cool to see em in action.

@tinhinnh

Жыл бұрын

so you never get tired of it

@sonsofisstvan1675

Жыл бұрын

@@tinhinnh boooooo

@davidhenderson3400

Жыл бұрын

If I was to spend $30k for a tire that thing had better be able to survive re-entry.

@Anonymous..VQ3.5Lg35

Жыл бұрын

Do you have access to tire molds?

@seantaylor4683

Жыл бұрын

@@Anonymous..VQ3.5Lg35 Yeah, but it's a different department..

It's interesting to see how different everything is done in other parts of the world. Here in the Netherlands we do almost everything with trains and cranes. Slabs and slagpots are loaded onto trains with cranes, and the slagpots get tipped by a crane as well.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

that's amazing. Maybe we can visit one of these days!

@SoundShunter72

Жыл бұрын

@@AaronWitt You definitely should!

Man I worked at Nucor Steel Mill for Memphis Mill Service for a year. I operated the Kress Pot Carrier, 988, Haul Trucks, Lattice Boom Crawler Crane, Backhoes and Crusher Plant....all for a whopping $15 bucks an hr....what a fun job for slave wages. Contractor pay...I even went to Heavy Equipment College of Georgia and they still couldn't give me $18 an hour...

I’m a union electrician and helped build a steel mill for Nucor in FL in 2020. They make rebar there now. It was very interesting to see the production process. They take this big piece of stock, maybe 1’x1’x10’, and they heat it up until it’s bright glowing hot. Then they send it down a conveyer and into “rollers” And each roller squeezes the hot piece of stock down into a smaller and smaller but longer piece. As the stock gets squeezed, it picks up speed. I remember one day they were testing the machines and everyone was told to stand far back away from the rollers. Well, as the steel picked up speed, it missed the opening on one of the rollers, hit the side of the roller machine, and the bright hot steel “string” went flying up into the air, looked like silly string. After they shut everything down, they had to wait for the steel to cool off so they could cut out the wadded-up steel from inside one of the rollers. Looked like a big, weird ball of yarn stuck inside the machine. I left that job before they test fired the arc furnace though. Would have loved to see that in person!

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

that's fantastic

@Krackeno_

5 ай бұрын

Sweet, I'm also in the ibew as an apprentice and working at another Nucor plant in Kentucky. It's absolutely fascinating seeing the arc furnace running, the noise that it makes is kinda horrific and awesome because of how much amps you know are firing through that. We have to do cleanings every now and then when they do shutdowns to clean the rectifier room. It's incredible, they have the big dc smoothing reactor in the middle, which is water-cooled, and it's roughly 40'x40'x20' maybe. It's just really cool to see electricity on such a big scale, really blows your mind to see the capabilities. I was also working underneath it when it kicked on and the magnetic field it produces is like nothing I've experienced before, I could get all my tools to stand straight up and balance on the top of a 10 footer and holding them out with your hand and feeling that magnetic pull is crazy. People don't like to work there because of the conditions but I think it's fascinating. Always keeping safe though.

We have one of those 'hot working' 988s at Finnings. She's definitely put some hours in!

Everyone gangsta during the apocalypse until they see this drive out of a volcano

Never been to a steel mill, but I have worked on a stretch of railroad where special hot cars frequently rode by. It's a normal freight train locomotive pulling a handful of football-shaped train cars designed to be tipped once they reach their destination. You can see out the top where the lid is is typically glowing with molten steel inside. If you're close enough you can actually feel the heat radiating off the cars.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

Those are very neat too

This is very very impressive. I used to work at a steel processing center, we got the material from places like this. Now I rebuild hydraulic cylinders. It's pretty cool to see these machines in action, and to see the process of what it takes to get it all done.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

awesome. Thanks for watching

Sure wish these videos were longer, just teasing us with this content!

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

all future videos are. This one was shot many months ago

Steel mill worker from 89 till 09, Miss this very process ! It was Amazing !

But where are the Dwarves?

Ya dude, you get around love what your doing I whould pay good cash to walk in your shoes for a week as a holiday , Don't get me wrong I can't even imagine the hoops, challenges,and bull you gotta go through to do this stuff so we can get a glimpse keep it up love your work dude

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

I really appreciate it thank you

Thats fascinating that there's enough recoverable metal dust that they can run a electromag and recover that dust for processing

It’s amazing to see what steel workers do, I’ve been a heavy equipment mechanic for years. Granted the closest thing I’ve come to working on is construction scrapers, graders, loaders, etc. I can’t imagine what it’s like working with these guys. Y’all steel workers, operators and supporting crew (got you gear heads) are awesome, and not to mention everyone in the comment section is just sharing information without all the typical bicker. I admire y’all

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

agreed. Thanks for the comment Tyler

I used to build cooling towers at steel plants all up and down the east coast. Nucor mainly. The heat produced from the furnace was so hot it would raise the outside temperature a couple of degrees while they were pouring and we were over 1000 yards away from the smelter. The slag pot carriers were absolutely massive machines too and very impressive to watch them work.

@jerrykinnin7941

Жыл бұрын

NUCOR just doubled the size of their GHENT KY mill. It's HUGE. Their building another mill southwest of Louisville in Breckenridge county KY. I haul into North American Stainless in Ghent KY. A small river town half way between Cincinnati and Louisville.

@PeetzaPieAmore

Жыл бұрын

@@jerrykinnin7941 ten 4, I gave up the construction aspect about 5 years ago. I'm now trucking as well.

@jerrykinnin7941

Жыл бұрын

I'm a local intermodal trucker I'm around big stuff all day long. 3 railheads 5 different depot's where the m/t boxes are stored fun stuff.

The amount of different kinds of specialized vehicles in a steel mill is impressive makes me wonder who designs and manufactures these it’s definitely not caterpillar because everything isn’t yellow

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

a lot of the time they're based on Cat machines and components, but a different company builds them. Look up Kress

I am a contractor a commercial diver to be exact and I spend a lot of time in different steel mills it’s always blows my mind when I’m in US Steel Gary Works and I’m watching these front end loaders drive into the slag pits and they are being sprayed with hoses and they go in and out. They we CAKED in slag. The slab haulers are extremely interesting and crazy to watch coming around corners on the crazy mill roads. It’s going to be interesting the next 10-20 years because every time we are in a new spot diving in the mill that we haven’t before we are seeing more and more of missing blue prints and knowledge of where we are working because all the old guys who knew everything are either fired, retired or dead early from the hard work lifestyle as they are taking the knowledge and mental blueprints with them

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

it's going to be interesting for sure. Seems the industry is going more and more toward the mini mill model

Nobody else going to mention the production qaulity and camera work done in this video? Absolutely bonkers for a small channel, very well done 👍

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!!!

I have insane respect for these guys! Those are real men!

For some reason I thought I would get more info on the manufacturing of them and how they're produced but I guess it's still cool to see them

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

we'll go back and show all that

air con in steel mill machines has to be stupid strong i bet. i know we can't operate machines in the mines without AC due to dust.

That's the toughest looking loader I've ever seen. Puts anything in Mad Max to shame.

Just found your channel Aaron that is such a cool video I love big iron worked it for 30 years before I retired God bless you sir thank you

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

Thank you Jonathan glad you found me!!

If theres a problem... Theres a solution. Thats the motto to live by !

Yep I drive around these pot carriers alot. Pretty impressive.

@eddiemunster4094

Жыл бұрын

Really wow impressive work👍

i retread these types of OTR tires. pretty cool seeing some of the work they perform.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

awesome

Hey !! I work here haha yes them 988 are some piece of art and them steel slabs as soon they make them they put them Outside and if you drive by them let’s say 10-20 feet it’s some extreme heat

AK Steel in Middletown Ohio , worked there as a union boilermaker , cool place dangerous as hell over at the blast furnace. I see that this video was taken before they blew the old stack down.

Massive respect to those steel workers, gotta be hella risky to work around molten metal all day

This video is awesome one of your best. Thanx BW

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

thank you!!

Thousands of year in the making - today you have the perfect worker-human class.

Awesome video! I recognized some of the machines from Bulk's Instagram, also love seeing US steel and industry!

Never grew up ...my sand box and toys just got bigger and better. 10 years haulin slag pots so far.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

Love it. Thanks for watching David

Someone needs too get this thing too WhistlinDiesel !!!!

I love how you nerd out on this stuff. My kids and I love nerding out on it with ya!

This video would give T-1000 nightmares :D

Keep it up. Wish the vids were longer! Very interesting, all info, no fluff. Great work.

First time watching one of your vids, awesome work and such high quality for a smaller channel. Just subbed :)

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

thanks for watching David!!

I work in the iron ore mines in Northern Minnesota. Our 988K loaders we use to crush the taconite uses half slick tires to help reduce the amount of rocks that get stuck between the tread & carrying it elsewhere around the mine. You should try to get up to here sometime to do a video on the source of the steel.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

that's awesome

I work at a Worthington processing plant in Michigan, I work on a 60” slitter which is permitted for 25 gauge to 300 gauge steel, we are just starting to test run aluminum at our tension leveler and 72 inch slitter. I have never been so fascinated with the whole steel process or let alone just my job, I love working with steel and I stumbled on a job I didn’t know was my dream job, the mill portion is just a fraction of what the process is.

@jeffreykielwasser3637

Жыл бұрын

Which one? I know of the one outside of jackson Michigan

@devinbates4762

Жыл бұрын

@@jeffreykielwasser3637 im in taylor, we just got re-bought out by worthington so we’re not a joint venture with us now

I work at one ! i am a hot pit operator and it is pretty interesting and cool how everything is done

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

that's awesome!!

Man that skull cap on the slag bucket was so satisfying to watch

I fricken want that, Also that better have fricken good AC lol Also I would love more footage of this place

I've only had a couple of visiting jobs on a steel works, so I've not seen everything but the slab carriers are my favourites. It looks so unlike anything I see in the wider construction industry.

I worked in an Aluminum cast house for 3 years, it would have been nice if they had given us these for anything we had especially for the fork trucks we used to dump dross pots after cleaning the melter. With always going into the cast scrap house and people not being careful when running them out to the dumping area our tires were always worn to hell

To me one of the coolest pieces of equipment that pot carrier of the hot molten steel that is so neat to see and I like the big 988 loader and the big modified excavator magnets

Remember, not everyone can drive one of those things! You'll need a class C license, no accidents for 6 weeks, you have to take a 2-hour training course, and find a special way to make the boss happy.

The truck drivers in the army used to complain about having to put chains on wheels during the winter. At least they didn't need a blowtorch to put them on or take them off.

This is probably the coolest video I've seen all year...

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

Stoked you enjoyed it!!

love the channel man! would like a bit longer videos from time to time great work though

This is cool we normally get either the B&P BTNC or PW1 train which hauls them steel slabs in special carrier cars from the AK steel plant in Butler Pa to New Castle for CSX

Grew up in Homestead PA. Thought I would end up in the mill. They were starting to close when I graduated in 1980, joined the Navy, then after that spent 37 years with the Corps of Engineers. Had a few little stints working with refractory work when we got laid off in the winter. Great career I had.

Where I work we service a lot of metal recycling facilities in our city, pretty much all of them. One of them is a larger corporation that owns a couple Kawasaki 95Z7 hot slag machines. We have rebuilt one of them from the hydraulic pumps out(as in, just the hydraulic system mostly), and are in the process of rebuilding their other one. These machines get into the nasty and when run to shit, are hung up nasty as well. Gnarly to work on, but they get their work done. It's interesting seeing one of these with 16 thousand hours in pieces in the workshop, taken to its bones.

The slag pot machines at the mills I've been at are massive. 122k for one tire.

I can't believe the amount of great material that was right in front of you to film like changing the tire and you just completely glossed over it like nothing. This place had so much potential for a long video. I feel like I was robbed of information that you could have provided. Shirley I'm not the only one that feel this way.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

You're right, but you can't just freely run around a steel mill with cameras and were we supposed to stand there for the whole day as they changed the tire? Also... please don't call me Shirley

@MattyDardani

Жыл бұрын

@@AaronWitt I just want to let you know good luck, we’re all counting on you!

Whistlin Diesel should get a set to drive MonsterMax 2 through the volcano. Lol.

This looks like its straight out of starwars! So cool!

I work at Cleveland cliffs burns harbor Indiana. I work in the BOF steel production we spray the furnaces from burning through. Been there for 5 years and everyday you see something different. Nothing is ever the same!

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

That’s a very cool mill

it sounds like they are very specialised pieces of equipment

I love your TikToks. And your KZread does not disappoint!!!!

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

thanks billy I appreciate you following along!!

Oh man that slag dropping from the carrier just tickles me in the right way, cool video dude!

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

thanks for watching!

What a wild piece of equipment. Only followed by the wild maintenance. Crazy.

Thanks we needed a channel like this

4:28 I just noticed the label on that ladle says Signal which is the company that I work for in Texas called signal metals lol

I subbed after 3 seconds when you looked into my eye and said.. "bulk equipment"

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

welcome aboard

I used work at the magnet manufacturer (Winkle). It's about 5min from where I live.

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

awesome

Work as a heavy equipment operator in the " slag" in Northwest Indiana. Very cool what you do.. it has been a great living for me and my family. My son now is in the business.. I wish we still had the old 992C and D models to dig the pits. Companies down sized to 88's.. go through many more tires.chains and especially buckets. Supposedly to save fuel. They eat 5 times more money in buckets bucket repairs and tires because the smaller machine has to so many more cycles to get the job done.. oh well their money . I dont dig pits anymore or work with any Hot stuff. Now Magnet Crane Operator. Much better for old timers.. anyway always enjoy your videsos.. awsome stuff.. stay safe!

This is like adult mighty machines, idk why this was recommended for me, but this is amazing

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

glad you're here

It's great to see more content about heavy mechanic and equipment most people don't even know we exist xd 😂😂

Nice to see the wheel chains close up. Have seen before but only from far away.

I just found my favorite channel on KZread. Love it

The Kress pot carriers are wild, I love driving past them at Stelco

This is proper equipment. I love it.

That 588 is sick looking. That thing looks like it can survive anything.

Use to work a at steel frame manufacturing company. Where we would recieve the steel coils made from those huge slabs (did not know coils started out like that. Always wondered that). The company would then literally unwind that big ass coils and would ultimately make different sized frames (forge the pieces and assemble them). I worked logistics, so I only dealt with the end products but walking to and from the bathrooms/lunchrooms, you can see the evolution of that giant coil

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

that's really cool

The slag dump was so awesome! Great shots!

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

thanks for watching!

Great video! My only complaint is that it was a short video. I would love to see one an hour long😂

@AaronWitt

Жыл бұрын

we're working on it! Thanks for watching

I work at a steel mill. The buns of steel mill. We're famous for our men's butts discounts.

We use slick tires at the rock quarry gets better grip on the pit floor

those are racing slicks!

I work at a scrap yard and i operate a sennebogen 830e and its just really satisfying

Here in this Mill Everything looks Badass.

Come to Topeka KS goodyear plant. See how its made step by step

Coolest machine yet

Really cool video, nice work 🤙🏼

that loader is like Killdozer straight from the factory

We have one of those 988G loaders on our tear down yard with chains on it. Now i know what the chains are for.

Never seen anything like that. That's really neat

Love the big rigs!

Worked as an operator in that exact same green magnet tractor. And in a foundry pouring ladles. It's awesome work. But HOT. VERY hot

Awesome Machines.....I've hauled slag from many steel mills here in Western Pa.