Work story!!!

So! A good (and exciting!!!) story, and one that will maybe give you some idea of what it is I do... Some of the time. So, Jerker and I went to our old factory warehouse to take some measurements of a spreader that was shipped back to us for refurbishing. It's been in service in Germany for like 7 years, and it's all beat to hell and dirty as shit. So there is three main parts to a normal spreader. The center section and then the two twin-beam arms on both sides of that. The arms telescope out from the center and are held together by an end gable on the outside to shape like a giant rectangular U. Anyway this spreader is separated into it's three parts, and we are going to take measurments to see how close to tolerance the TBUs (arm thingys) are (answer: not very... now). The port had done some of their own repairs to it while they had it and we have to figure out if the out of tolerance...ness is from them or us or what, and why there was uneven wear in certain spots and not in others, etc. Stuff like that. Anyway, the TBUs are about 25 or 30 ft long and weigh about 5,000lbs each. The one we are messing with is about 4 feet off the ground on these giant metal stands. In order to check the tolerances we have to get the thing squared up as even as possible and as flat as possible, which means lifting it off it's stands and putting metal plates under it. Obviously we have two giant winches on the ceiling to lift it with. We adjust the end without the end gable (read: lighter end) with no problems, but it still isn't quite square so we have to adjust the end WITH the end gable (read: heavy as shit). One of the regular workshop guys is like "Yeah just slide the straps down to the other end and lift." And proceeds to do it, then tear ass with the winches to jack up the heavy as hell end like 6 inches in about 2 seconds, then slam it back down. "See?" and walks away. I'm like "I think we should support the other end, I mean, if it slips..." Jerker "It'll probly be fine." Here's the thing about inertia: It's very difficult to comprehend, even when you know how much something weighs and can see how big it is. If the winch isn't DIRECTLY over the center of the TBU then no matter how slow you lift it a tiny force to the left or right will send 5000lbs hurtling in that direction. Imagine having one of those huge Ford Super Duty trucks hanging in the air and swinging in the breeze. If you try and stop it from swinging, even though it looks like it's going slow, it will KNOCK YOUR SHIT DOWN. Anyway, Jerker very slowly winches up the heavy end. It starts to go a little to the right and then SHIT! It pulls the light end (like 2,000lbs) RIGHT OFF OF THE STANDS. The other two real workshop guys came running over cause it must have sounded like it fell through the earth and hit China or something. I can't really remember how loud it was cause I was too scared when it happened to notice. Luckily there was a wooden pallet in a very lucky spot that shattered and absorbed most of the impact thus no damage was done. When it fell though, I had my hand on a 1/2" thick steel plate, the corner of which ran straight up the length of my hand at about 50mph when the heavy end slid off. SOMEHOW it didn't slice it right open, well, in half really. I have no idea how. We both got REALLY lucky to not have more than only a scratch on me. I learned my lesson: Don't just SUGGEST them, ALWAYS INSIST on the safety precautions and if for some crazy reason you are refused, sit the shit out.