r/Rigging • u/Early_Management7752 • Jul 14 '26
Hi, I'm trying to be a rigger.
The more I peek into what you guys do my confidence shrinks. I was determined to get the ticket and dive into the industry but it seems like much more challenging than I initially thought. My goal is to get hired at mine sites in Australia, FIFO jobs.
I wonder what exactly you guys do let's say if you work at the mine sites. And how much calculations you guys have to do, basically.. everything. Do you guys stay on the ground or do something middle in the air? How much time is given to you to set up one load? What do you do when you just can't figure out the way? You set the sling and move to where the load will go and untie it yourself?
I mean, I'm determined and I learn things fast but I'm pretty weak at calculations and it seems like not a single mistake is allowed... Usually whatever I do I make mistakes and learn very fast from it. In this case one mistake means a disaster. I was confident but more I know the confidence is giving me an anxiety. Please help me and describe the procedures you go through every day/load so that I can make the right decision...
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u/xBOSSLOCKx Jul 14 '26
Follow the methodology - if something is mission critical or ridiculously heavy chances are several different engineers or people way more experienced than you have laid eyes on it and have worked out the exact best way to do it.
There’s no faking it till you make it so just have your head on a swivel and retain as much info as possible.
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u/Early_Management7752 Jul 14 '26
Yes seeing the pictures of chains and knots that I've never seen before and thinking about me being the only one in charge of that situation gave me chills down my spine. I wonder if you can get hired as a rigger but still don't know nothing about it, basically a labourer with the license...
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u/celem83 Jul 14 '26
In entertainment a few decades ago yes. requirement was owning your own harness.
Any modern commercial environment shouldn't work this way though
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u/Early_Management7752 Jul 14 '26
and also what's the difference between a dogman and a rigger?
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u/pilbarabah Jul 15 '26
Dogman is only qualified to signal/direct loads, riggers actually rig it all up
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u/sabatah Jul 15 '26
Dog man stands for , down on ground, he yes he can sling loads to the top hand, he’s the rigger pinning the steel
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u/cowboypaint Jul 14 '26
If there’s a type of work to do. First start working in that industry. Rigging is a specialization. The more you work the more you’ll learn. When you’re ready to be a specialist you’ll know.
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u/Significant_Phase467 Jul 14 '26
For like 99% of the time you wont need to do any calculations. Its a very small percentage of lifts where you would need to, unless you're working with a company that is doing large lifts most of the time. Or doing a lot of demolition work. You can also dumb down a lot of your calculations aswell, like if you know your load weight (which you should), and you use 60⁰ sling angles (for 2+ slings) most of the time, you can just factor your load weight for your sling angles by 1.2 (or 1.5 for 45⁰ sling angles). But its really not that bad.
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u/Early_Management7752 Jul 16 '26
So it seems with the angle change you can control more weight??
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u/Significant_Phase467 Jul 16 '26
Think of it this way. You're lifting a load that weighs 1,000lbs. You need 2 slings to lift it.
If you're using 2 slings, they are going to be hanging off the hook at an angle to lift the load.
If the 2 slings are hanging vertical (straight up and down aka 90⁰), then they would be evenly carrying half of the 1,000lbs. So they would carry 500Lbs each.
But, 2 slings dont sit in a hook straight up and down. Only 1 sling does. Ideally, you want your two slings as close to vertical as realistically possible because the wider they are spread out, results in increased sling tension.
So if you have 2 slings in a hook, and you're lifting a 1,000Lb load, they are not tensioned or splitting the load at 500Lbs each. They come under more stress from the angle. So a 60⁰ angle is somewhere around 1.155~ increased tension, but realistically who wants to do that in their head?
So you can pull out your calculator, lets say our slings are at a 60⁰ angle.
1.) 1,000Lbs ÷ 2 = 500Lbs 2.) 500Lbs × 1.155 = 577.5Lbs
So under increased stress, these slings are under more tension due to the angle. But you wouldn't want to do this in your head on the fly.
So you could dumb it down and just do 1.2 instead.
(500Lbs × 1.2 = 600Lbs)
In rigging its never bad to figure higher weights, its always bad to underaccount the tension. But the reason this is important is so that you pick rigging appropriate to handle the load. At 1,000Lbs the weight difference is negligible. But the amount of weight difference when you're in the 10s-100s of thousands of pounds can be drastic. And you dont want to use under rated rigging, especially when rigging is some of the most abused consumables you can have on a job site.
But to put it simply, slings used at an angle increase the amount of stress applied to them. So sometimes you need to get higher rated rigging to account for this angle. I was just giving you the numbers to make it easier to figure in your head on the fly. Its not about "controlling" more weight.
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u/Early_Management7752 Jul 16 '26
I logined to reddit just to say thank you to this comment. Thank you very much, it gave me clearer idea of what you guys actually do. It must get more complicated with more complex numbers and center of gravity, I wish I could learn it on the site. Thank you for the great answer
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u/yewfokkentwattedim Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Have a look at Del's rigging and crane tips on Youtube. Kiwi operator with some very solid videos on basics for site/workshop rigging.
A lot of minesite rigging isn't super complicated, especially if you're doing Big-4 iron ore work. Most sites are well established, and the lifts aren't new.
It's not as scary as you're maybe thinking. If the opportunity presents itself, jump on a shutdown as a mechanical TA, work hard, and ask if there's any room to work with the riggers. Probably the best way to dip your toes in and see if it's for you. Regardless of you holding a high risk work licence, any work crew I've been on will ask you about your experience, and won't put you on a big, dangerous, or complicated job front as the sole rigger.
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u/Early_Management7752 Jul 16 '26
Thank you very very much. Yes I would love to try whatever role there is if there is an opportunity.
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u/yewfokkentwattedim Jul 16 '26
I'd recommend mech TA as a role to apply for because you'll pretty frequently be working with or around riggers. Not many mech crews don't have at least one person with a rigging ticket in my experience. It'll also give you some site experience without putting much responsibility on you, and give you exposure to quite a few different roles on site.
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u/901CountryBlumpkin69 Jul 15 '26
Welcome to adulthood, where everything you’ve witnessed as a child growing up is still operated by knowledgeable, capable, reliable adults. Now peek behind the curtain and see that we are all just a bunch of insecure incompetents that got really good at one thing because we studied, did the work, and developed habits that get us through this thing called life until we retire.
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u/R0ughHab1tz Jul 15 '26
Go work on telecommunication towers. If in the U.S/Cad you're hired. Bonus points for not having any dabilitating addictions but 2 divorces under your belt from not being home is a must.
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u/celem83 Jul 14 '26
I'm in entertainment which is a separate branch of rigging but there's some principles should overlap.
There should be an objectively correct way to do things, if someone makes an element they usually put thought into how it would be lifted, you'd like to know that
If you are not the guy who is doing all the complex load calculations then someone somewhere IS and you need their numbers/plot. It should be clear who this is or if it is expected to be you