ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area gang box clutter

so did you play nice and follow the rules?

Pull the gang box off the job and load and unload the tools and stuff everyday. Do this until someone says," where is the gang box" then let them know why it was pulled off the job.
Or go nuts and tip the box over everytime you need to find something and then use a shovel to load it back up and deal with it.

togol.
Profile: Exploratory surgury???!!


"Sorry Mr. Cakeworthy, you need a new 200A service here, but the good news is your bile-duct is just fine and dandy!"

Alan

Edit. I follow a lot of posts with interest, but sometimes the meanings get lost crossing the pond. What is a "gang-box"?
Alan

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 10-02-2005).]

I have read literally tens of thousands of electrical forum posts, I have to say this has to be the first one to use the term bile-duct.

Joey D, sometimes you just got to go nuts to get the point across. I think you have offered the best solution yet. (I had to laugh imagining what that would sound like, right down to the last washer rolling to a stop)

Alan, these are gang boxes: http://edev.colorassociates.com/greenlee/storage.pdf

Alan, gangbox is where all tools (contractor and sometimes personal)are locked up for the evening ..

as for exploratory surgery.....I want ot work on a doctors house , and not be able to "exactly "pinpoint what the problem is.......lets see ,you say the light doesn't work?
Well I think you may need your attic wiring completely ripped out..oh ! that didn't do it ? well , maybe you need a new service? still not working ? hmmm...we are going to need more tests... I'm still not convinced the light bulb is bad...you know... practice

The idea of a communal box for everyones' stuff wouldn't appeal to me. Most crafstmen I know, ( including me! ), seem to work best and glory in clutter and utter disorder, ( and the immpecably neat-guys seem to eventually turn out to be either anal, slightly nuts or useless), but at least you know your screwdriver is under that particular pile of crap when you're scratching in your own dung-heap. Bear with me here, guys, I'm fast runnin' outa alalogies!

togol. Good analogy on the surgery! That would be like a decorator painting a gynacologist's hall though the letterbox.
Or would that be irony?

Alan
edit for grammar.

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 10-02-2005).]

Alan each company is different but where I work it is against the rules to store personal tools in the gang box.

Primarily the gang box is for company tools, paper work and small expensive supplies that tend to grow legs and walk off the job.

Bob

Consider the messy gang box as a symptom, not the problem itself.

I have been on 70-electrician jobs where the parts trailer and gang boxes were always reasonably orderly.

I have been on 5-man jobs where you couldn't find daylight at high noon!

Care to guess which job had the poor morale, and management issues? The messy one. And, it was this messy job where the foreman took liberties with work hours, breaks, and other labor rules.

So- I suspact that messy boxes are the result of poor leadership in most cases. In the few remaining, just look for that ONE guy who's a pig, who likes making a mess for everyone else, who says 'hooray for me and fie on all others!"- and fire the sod!.

Iwire,
we have the same uses as you for the gangboxes, and, while there is nothing prohibiting someone from leaving his tools ...there is usually more than one box .....
if they get pilfered, there is no replacement by the contractor ....
some folks are more comfortable with the risk than others....I take mine home every night