Alex McGaw
Blog 6: The Smell of Spring and Fresh Paint
March 26, 2021
My name is Alex McGaw and I am in my 4th year of Mechanical Engineering at Dalhousie University. Currently I am on a co-op term with Irving Equipment at their branch in Dartmouth, NS. This is my 3rd work term with JDI, the other two which I completed with CFM in Saint John, NB. I am planning to use this blog to inform readers and other students of my experience with JDI thus far and share some of the experiences that arise from my current role.
A bit about myself: I am from “the middle of everywhere”, which is the slogan for the small town of St. Stephen, NB also known as Canada’s chocolate town. I grew up and lived there until I realized Pal-o-Mine bars weren’t good for you and decided to attend a boarding school in Tilton, NH. Following graduation, I played junior hockey in Connecticut before being persuaded to attend Acadia University in pursuit of an engineering degree. I have recently hung up the cleats and skates and now chose to play golf in the summers and ski during the cold months. Outside of work, school, and sports I spend my time repairing BMW’s and Sea-Doo’s that I buy for the purpose of reselling. I think it was this hobby that led my parents to persuade me into studying mechanical engineering.
My previous co-ops with CFM provided me with excellent real-world experience where I got the chance to apply some of the theory from school as well as learn essential skills that will help me in my career and life in general. A couple of highlights from these terms were: receiving both my white and yellow belt in the Six Sigma Program, working as a field supervisor, and quoting the install of a dozen overhead canes. Each of these events were new learning experiences that taught me valuable lessons and skills. I now plan to apply these skills and lessons learned to my role at Irving Equipment as I navigate a new role and industry. I am excited about this new opportunity and will continue to update this blog with the experiences I have and any advice I have for current or future students working within JDI.
Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
Blog 1: A Bit About Myself
January 29, 2021
As winter concludes and the weather warms up, our team at Irving Equipment has high expectations for our spring and summer season. Over the course of the winter, we did a great job of finding success while navigating challenging obstacles like the pandemic and of course the weather. Despite this we were able to keep work coming in the door. Allowing us to grow our team.
As work picks up the need to expand our fleet also grows. The team continues to do a great job at making sure our fleet is up to date and diversified so that we are prepared to do everything from a local boom truck lift to a wind turbine repair with our large crawlers. The newest addition to our fleet is a Liebherr LTM1400-7.1 which is a 500T all-terrain crane. This new crane is pictured below at the port in Germany where it was loaded on a ship to be shipped to Halifax. I was fortunate enough to greet this impressive machine at the Port of Halifax as it was being off loaded. After getting some cool company logos put on its fresh paint job this crane will be ready to hit the streets and perform some of the jobs that our sales team already has in mind for it. Overall, warm weather in Atlantic Canada means more work, more cranes, and more excitement, all of which I am excited to be a part of.
As the term wraps up, and most students head home, I'll be preparing for the second half of my 8 month co-op term, so the fun has not ended for me yet at Irving Equipment. Overall, my experience to this point has been nothing short of expectations and I am excited for a busy summer. Hopefully, I will get the chance to meet any readers out there at some point in these next months and will be able to meet the rest of the Saint John Irving Equipment team. That way you can let me know whether I should shift my career path from professional engineer to full time blogger. Have a great summer!
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Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
Blog 2: Moving a 600-tonne crawler crane
February 12, 2021
I would like to start this post out by thanking Nova Scotia’s favorite weatherman Shubenacadie Sam, who was the first groundhog in North America to make his springtime prediction. Sam made the executive decision to stay out of his den and provide us with the hope that warm weather is around the corner.
On another note, I would like to provide readers with some insight into what I have been up to at Irving Equipment as well as some advice for any prospective co-op students. The first thing to be conscious of when being hired as a co-op student is the fact that your time there is limited. Therefore, the window that you have to create a positive impact or leave a great impression is smaller than it would be if you were a being hired for a full-time role. In my experience students are typically hired with the intention of getting them to work on specific projects over the course of their term. When assigned to these projects it is crucial to make sure you are fully engaged and make the most of it. These projects are an excellent chance to network, apply some of your education in a real-world setting, as well as demonstrate your skills and aptitude. Personally, I have learned important lessons about industry, leadership, and life in general while working on projects with JDI.
I was recently asked to participate in a project that will assist in the mobilization of one of the 600-tonne crawler cranes that we have here in Nova Scotia. For those who are unaware of what this capacity indicates; a 600 tonne crane in theory can lift 1,323,000 pounds in its optimized configuration. This weight is the equivalent of around 330 cars. A crane that can lift every car in the Costco parking lot at once unfortunately does not have the ability to be simply driven on the same road as these cars. In order to move this crane, it needs to be disassembled, loaded on trailers which are towed to the job site, and then reassembled. Depending on its configuration, it can take up to 34 trailers to move this crane. The project I am working on involves finding an efficient and easily repetitive way to perform this mobilization. To complete this project, I have been using Irving Equipment’s “CraneCAD” software which it developed in house. In my next blog I will give more detail on this unique software.
Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
Blog 3: Learning to use CraneCAD
February 24, 2021
It has been a very busy and cold couple of weeks since my last post. In fact, the temperature dropped enough to break the window regulator in my car last week which led to some breezy drives, duct tape, and frigid street side repairs. This added to the excitement of continuing to work on the mobilization project for the LR1600 while also working as a project coordinator for a high-profile project. This project involved multiple other JDI companies working on a very tight timeline to serve an important client.
When not out on a jobsite I have been learning to navigate and use the company’s proprietary software “CraneCAD”. This is a type of computer-aided design (CAD) software which was initially developed by one of the lift planning engineers at Irving Equipment in the late 1980’s. The purpose was to reduce tedious repetition in order to make the process of planning lifts and creating technical drawings more efficient and streamlined. The program uses the AutoCAD platform which was coded to include additional functions and settings specific to the crane industry. For example, the software gives users the ability to visually see the working radius of the crane with a given boom configuration and setup. This function assists in determining the size of the crane as well as planning a location to set up the crane. The software also offers the ability to calculate the capacity of the crane in real time which is colour coded to inform the planner on how close to the safe limits of the crane they are working. These are only two of many different functions within the program that allow the lift planners to be more efficient.
Fortunately, I have been exposed to multiple different CAD programs in school and other co-op terms which made this learning curve much easier. I have been impressed with the capabilities and functionality of the software, it is well designed and, in my eyes, accomplishes the goal of making technical drawings easier. Since its original release in the 1980’s, there have been many improvements and changes made to this software. The original developer of the software still works at Irving Equipment and has recently been joined by a second engineer to assist with improvements. The company is also in the process of developing a phone application that brings a 2-dimensional technical drawing to life in 3D with the use of augmented reality. Mixed reality tools are also beginning to be incorporated into the planning process to bring lift plans to life. Overall, there are some cool and innovative things being done with lift planning and its supporting software at Irving Equipment in order to provide detailed visuals and peace of mind to their customers.
Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
Blog 4: Leading the Convoy
March 15, 2021
As someone who loves to be active and outside, anytime there is a task outside the office or away from my desk, I am always interested in being involved. This trait landed me with the opportunity to be an escort (for a crane mobilization of course) this past week. Some of the larger mobile cranes here require an escort while driving on public roads due to their size and weight. This escort typically involves one marked vehicle driving ahead of the crane and one following close behind. The marked vehicles are equipped with flashing lights and reflective signs to warn others on the road that there is a large object with a lot of momentum moving down the road.
Last Friday we needed to move our LTM 1250-6.1 (300-ton crane pictured below) from the yard we have here in Dartmouth, NS to Windsor, NS so that it can be used to install some bridge girders for a new overpass. During the move I was nominated to lead the convoy as the front escort. Prior to leaving I was given an explanation of what my role was and what I was supposed to do during the trip. Due to their size, cranes drive quite differently than regular cars and trucks, and require extra room to make turns. Turning out of the Irving Equipment yard they require the majority of the road space available - on both sides of the road. With all proper safety measures in place, and instructions provided and understood, it was a unique sensation pulling out on the wrong side of the road to alter traffic and provide the crane with the safe space to turn. This was also a good opportunity to practice my radio (walkie talkie) talk as all three vehicles in the convoy were equipped with radios to help with safety and directions. Overall, it was an interesting experience and the operator who was driving the crane was very helpful and understanding of my first time which helped alleviate any pressure.
This is just one example of the different and new tasks that I get assigned to daily which helps make everyday interesting. These tasks also add diversity to my workday allowing me to get up and move around, meet new people, and gain new experiences. This has been a characteristic of all three of my work terms with JDI which is one of the main reasons I continue to enjoy my co-ops here.
Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
Blog 5: The Art of Rigging
April 20, 2021
Rigging is a crucial component of the lifting and heavy hauling industry, however, in some cases its importance is overlooked. In general, rigging is a term used to describe the equipment used to hold or fasten an object while it is being lifted, moved, or suspended. There are many different items that could fall into the category of “rigging”; from your basic household rope to a spreader bar, to a come-a-long. Every type of rigging serves a different purpose and has a different rated capacity/ability.
There is not much point to having properly inspected and working equipment (along with competent individuals to operate it), if you do not have the correct rigging to properly secure the load(s) being moved. This is a lesson that I have learned since my introduction to the crane industry. I began my work term with a project that involved recording an inventory of all the rigging that was in our branch’s storage, as well as on the cranes in our yard. This helped me to become familiar with the different types of rigging that we commonly use. Since then, I have worked on projects with very specific rigging configurations requiring me to either pick various components from our inventory, re-inspect rigging with expired certifications, or order new rigging. As you may be able to tell, this area has been one that I have spent much time working on and around.
I am currently enrolled in an online course for rigging and its inspection. This course has been very insightful and useful to my day-to-day tasks. At this point, I have gained knowledge on when to use different types of rigging, how to help prevent failures, and what to look for when visually inspecting a piece of rigging.
The most important lesson I have learned is not to overlook the importance of safe and proper rigging. According to the course I am enrolled in, a high percentage of crane accidents are related to failures in the rigging. That can be anything from a sling that breaks, a load that slips, or a shackle that gets unscrewed. It is best practice to spend an extra few minutes in advance ensuring all aspects of the job are ready for go time.
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Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
