Update: I finally stopped using the hand signals I learned in 1998 and my spotter caught it in 10 minutes

Mary Garcia · 2026-10-23T00:10:04.162992+00:00

I was running a 60-ton on a job over in Corpus last month and my spotter kept waving me off for no reason I could figure out. Turns out I was still using the old boom-down signal from my first gig, palm down and chopping, when these days half the crews read that as stop. He pulled me aside on break and said straight up, "buddy that hand means kill it, not lower it," and I felt like a rookie all over again at 51. The bigger thing is nobody ever told me the signals changed, I just kept doing what my first operator drilled into me back in the day and figured everybody ran it the same. We lost maybe 20 minutes sorting it out, but on a pick with guys under the load that kind of mix-up is a real problem. Now I ask on the first morning of every job which signal set the crew runs, takes 30 seconds and saves the headache. Has anyone else run into this where the signals you grew up on don't match what the young spotters are using?

🐿️Pinecone Attack

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Update: I finally stopped using the hand signals I learned in 1998 and my spotter caught it in 10 minutes | Crane Operators - Pinecone Attack