"normal" day at the shop...

Date 09-09-2013 21:38

Soooo... Saturday was spent cutting, rolling, and fitting a 3.75 strip to replace a seal holder on a big arsed vaccume truck... Kinda looks like one of these; http://www.gapvax.com/forsale.html
Today was spent welding said ring with SMAW (6011 at that) due to the rust that could and would not be completely removed, No matter how much I tried; and from how it welded if i had got totally clean I dont think anything would have been left to weld to.
In the middle of me trying to wire wheel off the remaining pits of rust one of the "enegimneers" wandered up with a little brazing project that HAD to be done today to save the customers bacon....

A pair of teensy weensy hastaloy B tubes which were about 1/8th *OD* (!!!) with an unholy thin wall, stuck into a carbide block... The micro butane torch didn't have the oomph to do it, the MAPP plumbers torch was over kill and threatened to melt the tubes away, So out came the "smallest" oxy tip we have in the shop. It was till 3 sizes too big. Kinda like preforming brain surgery with a dull battle ax. Oh And these are the only pieces we have. Period. In the world at the moment...
Some how I pulled it off... Much swearing and sweating involved... :evil:

And then it was back to sticking the rust back together on the truck.

Anyone else have days like this or am I just lucky?
:twisted:

By lo-hi

Date 09-09-2013 23:05

I always tell the people that ask what I weld on . **** spreaders to space shuttles. Not sure if it ever happened in the same day, but did weld on aluminum gyroscopic parts that a machine shop had messed up and then a nasty logging truck in the same week. That's what builds our character. Cause most of us are characters.

By Tyrone

Date 09-10-2013 11:01

Glad you could help out the enegimneer (and the customer's bacon). Helping out on things like that will keep the piggy coming back again and again.
Tyrone

By PlasmaHead2 (***)

Date 09-12-2013 01:03

I should clarify that my tone about my coworkers and customers are not intended in an insulting manner, but is my sense of humor showing... :evil:

I really do like my job and helping out with the strange things that come up. Keeps things from getting boring :grin:

The part in question is in service and doing fine, everyone's bacon is saved and life carries on until a proper part is constructed. The thing I brazed was a stop gap to get things rolling until another proper component was fabricated.
High pressure, severe abrasion, and high temps do not end well when directed through a 90 degree bend in small "soft" metal tubing... :eek:

The carbide in question was at the location that all of those forces combined would cause the most havoc, and the tubing I was given was from the original part that had given up after about 10 min in use...

Today involved welding titanium, steel, aluminum, and packing up the stainless parts that I spent all of yesterday spot-welding. :lol:

And I forgot to run the first post through spell check, hope everyone can forgive me...

By Cumminsguy71 (*****)

Date 09-14-2013 11:31

Sounds like you did a bang up job of taking care of everything! That's what counts. I've had days like that myself, happens more often than not. "Can you weld this?" is typically the question and then you are left to pull the rabbit out of the hat.