What I have been doing lately

I've been busy at work. We stopped for three days over NY, and then back at work 7am last Monday morning for 12 hour shifts. It's been enjoyable, though.

One of the things I enjoyed doing the most was doing some repairs on a heavy sluice gate. I actually like welding, when I can get the legitimate opportunity to do it. A coworker and I spent a lovely 2 hours reattaching a 3mmx50mmx50mmx2m strip of 316SS angle to the top of the gate, plus some other work. Even though it was hot there was a nice breeze (necessitating the use of sticks rather than tigging it). As well as the sheer fun of the work, the way the sun reflected off the light ripples in the pink water (it's full of red algae) was very pleasing. Even the way that this messed with the autodark function in the welding helmet was amusing, and despite initial missgivings there was no problem with the function when the arc was on so I was at ease all the way through. I wont be posting any photos, though, partly because a secrecy agreement includes a NO PHOTOS stipulation, but also because the sheer ugliness of the weld is too embarrassing - I am not a professional welder and wont be invited to make certified pressure-vessels any time soon. Still, the bash-plate made from the angle ain't going nowhere, I had fun putting it in place, and was dissappointed that there wasn't more welding to do that day.

Another thing I was doing was getting inside the guts of some large machinery to remove the rust with an angle-grinder and flapper discs, prior to it being epoxy-painted. And yes, I had fun doing that, too. I had a choice between doing that and standing outside performing the oh-so-hard task of standing idly by a button while waiting for a truckie to say "that'll do" while pumping materials out and in of an ISO tanker. I opted for the power tools and the opportunity to make the sparks fly for half a day. Yup, I'm male.

Today was kinda mundane, just getting kitted out in food-grade clothing to do a final no-rinse sanitation and putting a spray-drier oven back together. The only powertool I got to play with was a 20-inch drum fan, and that just consisted of plugging the sucker in and turning it on. It did make a lovely din, though.

All that aside, I have had some time to think about more intellectual matters - I'll continue this in the next post...

JJM