It's about time.: Clank and A Heart Monitor.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Clank and A Heart Monitor.

Our Location today is Windsor, Ontario.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

It started out as a good day. Traffic was light and flowing freely. Mile was in a good mood knowing I would be finishing a Ten Inch Bearing today. I even had a few minutes to sit and talk with Jason for a few minutes before the early shift started.

Since nobody else puts Feedscrews into the Sandbox, I had left the Metal Cable attached last night, making it easier to pull the Unit out. Even with balancing issues the Screw was mounted in the PTA within Ten Minutes. A minute later I was about to light the Burner when a bunch of Clinking sounds started coming from the Bearing. When you have worked with Metal as long as I have the first thing you do is start looking for Cracks. There was nothing visible, so I grabbed a hammer and gently started tapping the Bearing Surface I had stayed late, to weld last night. The sounds were Cling, Cling, Clank, Clank, Clank. The ring of metal is what you want to hear, not the sound of metal that did not bond to the base.

I immediately put the shadow on Mile’s day. He asked how I had welded the Bearing, how much Powder, how much Amperage, how warm was it when I had put it away for the night. Luckily, I record all the Numbers, for reference. Then he returned with a Three Pound Mini Sledge. He hit that Bearing so hard it should have shattered, but it didn’t. There was just part of it that had not properly bonded and there was no reason that it should have done so.

It was set aside to be ground on the OD Grinder. My next job was another Ten Inch Bearing Area that had just been ground down. While it heated up, I did a few other repairs until it was ready, as well as helping to move a few jobs around.

When I hit the “Begin to Weld” button, both Mile and Jovo were coming to see how it was going. After only Ten Seconds of welding, I stopped the machine, which shocked them both. The job had been ground but there was still old Bearing Material that was bubbling up. I told Mile it had to be ground and before he could object, I started grinding it down with a Hand Grinder. I finished grinding an Hour later. When he saw me putting it in the Sandbox at 2:45 he was happy because he saw me hitting it with a hammer, and the solid ring was beautiful. (He’ll finish grind it on Monday.)

Kathy was busy this morning running errands, then going to her Heart Doctor this afternoon. The Technicians were not happy with her Echo-Gram and sent her home for the weekend, wearing a Heart Monitor.

My final job of the day took Ten Minutes for set up, Ten Minutes for cleanup and Three Seconds of welding. It reminded me of my Pre-Retirement Days.

Even though I punched out at 3:38, after running errands it was nearly 5:00 by the time I got home. Kathy said she had just walked in herself.