Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 26, 1999 08:40am | #1

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   Well, there are certification programs that the wood came from suppliers using sustainable yield forestry practices and certified wood floors, not to mentioned certified wood floor installers... Might depend upon how much water you want to pump with it (oops, wrong kind of pump jack...)

   I am unaware of the type of certification that you are interested in, however, various forest product labs do test various lumber species for strength and some species of wood can be twice as strong in resisting bending forces than others. For example, if you could find them, you would want to get the 2x4s cut from longleaf, shortleaf, or slash pine as they are listed as being at least twice as strong as sugar or ponderosa pine. Fir comes somewhere in between these, or about 50% better than the sugar pine. (Of course, it goes without saying that you would want structural select rather than lower grades).

   For the platform, there are certainly better materials than a 2x12 (even if it was structural select from a longleaf pine). I believe there was a thread on Breaktime some months back discussing scaffolding which mentioned some preferred platforms. Don't have time to chase it down, but you should be able to search on "scafolding" or a related term and find it.

   Of course, if you don't like the wood, you could always spring for a hydraulic man lift. A bunch of used ones went at auction a few weeks ago for only $4500 each and a really cute little new one from Japan (the manual was only in Japanese) that went up to something under 15 feet went for only $3500. Would have bought one if they had only gone for a few thousand less...

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 26, 1999 02:59pm | #3

   *Johnas,Osha no longer recoginizes diminsional lumber as scaffolding platform material. get a long walkboard. Chose good #2 material with few knots for posts. Brace them to the wall often. This is where the strength comes from. Rick Tuk

2. 
   johnas_morris | Oct 26, 1999 02:59pm | #2

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   ARE THERE AVAIBLE CERTIFIED 2X4'S AND 2X12'S FOR USE WITH PUMP JACKS THAT WOULD BE SAFER THAN REGULAR RUN OF THE MILL ??