Hello everyone, have hardly had a chance to be on the forum this past week. For one thing my school was on spring break, I was "enjoying" a spring break of another kind. I occasionally do work for some of the local shops, this time one of them called me to see if I was available for a shut-down that they were going to man during my break time. Figured it was a good time to get my hand back into things so I accepted the offer.
Long story short, an aluminum extruder not too far from me had made arrangement for a maintenance shutdown of one of their extrusion presses. This particular machine is rated in the range of 24,000 tons and had managed to crack the platen plate that the dies are housed in when it is in operation. The piece needing repair was 24" thick and had some cracks that were nearly completely through it radiating from a hole in it's center. We utilized 2 Miller Proheat induction heating systems to provide preheat (450 degrees) and when it's all said and done they will also be used to complete the heat-treating regimen of bringing it up to 1100 degrees. I was part of one of the shifts that worked on this for 7 days, 24hours a day. Ended up carbon arc gouging and welding for about 72 hours total for the time that I had available to help them out. I believe the overall rod use was near 350 pounds, give or take. Removed and replaced quite a bit of material, my warmer climate comment was directed to welding with the "heat on". 450 to around 500+ degrees was a bit of a water remover for this old boy and all of the gouging and welding was done in these conditions. Went through plenty of gatorade/squenchers and have a renewed appreciation for my teaching job. I know that many of you can relate to these sorts of jobs and work conditions, just felt the urge to share. Wanted to include pictures, however, I believe that the company that the work was done for wouldn't appreciate those being shared. Best regards to everyone and to those of you who are out there right now doing this same sort of thing, I feel your pain right along with the pride that comes from accomplishing something that not everyone is capable of. Afterall, isn't that what drives us to do what we do. Allan