Archive for February, 2012
By the time most of you read this it will be Thursday, but right now it’s Wordless Wednesday! Sent in by Steve Turner of Precision Doors and Hardware…a fairly common but definitely not code-compliant retrofit: Sent in by Steve Monroe of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies…the sign does not make this ok! Anybody know why not?
…Well, one of my most embarrassing professional moments, anyway. I’ve received several email notifications lately regarding the upcoming deadline (March 2nd) to register for the CSI CDT exam. Although sometimes I let friends believe that I’m a member of the Crime Scene Investigators, CSI is the Construction Specifications Institute, and CDT is the certification for [...]
Today is the 3rd anniversary of iDigHardware (aka iHateHardware)! WOOHOOOO!!! If you were wondering what to send as an anniversary gift, all I want is your experience and expertise. I have had several questions lately that I could use your help with. I am always amazed by your willingness to add your two cents to [...]
Whenever we’re on a family road trip, we try to find cool places to stop along the way to break up the ride. Today we went to Battleship Cove, the world’s largest historic naval ship exhibit. The museum is home to the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the USS Lionfish submarine, the battleship USS [...]
It’s school vacation week and we took the kids to the Cape for a few days. Here are some of the doors we’ve seen on our trip. The kids are AMAZED by the dollar bills taped all over the hotel bar. The bartender told me that there are more than 10,000 bills. This windmill is [...]
Earlier this week I read several news reports of a disastrous fire in an overcrowded Honduras prison, where hundreds of prisoners died. Many of them remained locked in their cells because there was reportedly only one staff member who had keys to the cells, and he left in the midst of the panic. It made [...]
Sent in by an anonymous fire marshal who is getting quite the education in fire door assemblies.
The 2010 Florida Fire Prevention Code, effective December 31, 2011, requires fire doors to be maintained in accordance with NFPA 80 and references the 2007 edition of that standard in Chapter 2 – Referenced Publications. The 2007 edition of NFPA 80 requires fire door assemblies to be inspected annually as part of the maintenance requirements, [...]
This article was published in the February issue of the Locksmith Ledger: An electromagnetic lock is essentially an electromagnet in a housing mounted on the door frame, and a steel armature mounted on the door. When the magnet is energized, it bonds to the armature and locks the door. To allow access or egress, a [...]
Way back in hardware school we were taught that rim panic hardware with a removable mullion is the most secure and maintenance-free application for a pair of doors. Most facilities prefer mullions instead of vertical rod panic hardware, which can be difficult to install and to keep properly adjusted. On the other hand, most architects [...]
When I saw the LCN digital calendar page for February I wondered about the LCN employee featured on it – Brad May, a Princeton, Illinois native who has been with LCN for his entire career. We asked Brad to answer some questions about his time with LCN, and he generously obliged: Q: What made you [...]
Every so often I love to have a guest blogger write a post for me, so I can have the night off to do something fun and exciting like attend a PTO meeting (sad, right?). My colleague, Steve Ostapower, was recently involved in a situation where the power usage of a Von Duprin EL (electric [...]
December 8th, 2011, was the 50-year anniversary of a fire at Hartford Hospital which caused the death of 16 patients, staff, and visitors, and resulted in many important changes to code requirements for hospital construction. Connecticut Public Television has just released a video about the tragedy and the resulting code changes. Other than the statement [...]
