Yup, still cluttering the place up but have found nothing of any import to type about. Typing’s an effort now anyway – so damn hard when you’re in a bubble.
Wot have we got? Sadly, it’s tea-light and teddy time across the channel again. When do we get the transition from tea-lights and teddies to automatics and tanks?
I also see there’s a good chance of ‘compulsory’ house arrest being inbound. Must be a few traditional pubs still open and in need of shutting down then.
In other news, I see there’s a chance we could be building a new nuclear power plant. Let’s see if they can knock it up as fast as they did those empty Nightingale Hospitals. Unlikely as I remember a story told me by a rig welder I worked with many years ago who said that, years before, he was a welder on the building of a nuclear plant.
Reported on day one and was issued with a bike. He explained he had a car and was informed the bike was for on site use. Because? He enquired and thus it was explained to him. He had to join a queue of welders, get to the front where he would be handed welding rods. Not a quiver full, just a slack handful. This took time as each rod was documented with batch numbers, identification of bead to be welded, welders name and weld inspectors names.
After that he was free to peddle off to the allotted work area, find the area boss who took him to the joint to weld. After burning his slack handful of rods, he then had to wait for the initial inspection and once that was done, he was free to peddle off to the warehouse area, join the queue again and wait for another slack handful of rods to be issued to him, for the next bead or continuation, after documentation.
The thinking behind this was, in the event of any weld failure in the future, every inch of welding could be trace back to rod batch, welder, date and time of weld, weld inspectors with date and time of inspections and prevailing weather conditions at the time of welding. He noted that the documentation involved with every meter of weld was quite something to see.
He claims to have spent far more time in the saddle, queuing, signing and waiting for inspections than actually welding.
I’m sure high tech has moved in to save time. Time saved and then lost squared by ever more health and safety regulations no doubt.
Quote; Greg House.
“Rules are just helpful guidelines for stupid people who can’t make up their minds.”
7 comments:
I went to college 1997-1999 to do City&Guilds 383 - Repair and maintenance of road vehicles + diploma in vintage vehicle restoration. I didn't have to do the welding part of the course because I was already an experienced coded welder so they let me do the exam pieces in the first week. I still used to go in to use the college facilities for my own jobs. In the weld shop of the college was a massive MIG machine, which took 10mm diameter flux cored wire and was pulled along by one of those sit on lawn mower type things. The weld set had a sensor underneath that did seam sensing to keep the weld on track.
I never saw anything like that before, and was told that it was used for 100 foot continuous runs on ship decks etc. Apparently its the only one in the UK and gets lent out now and again.
Almost 12 years later I go to work for a digger maker, and every 3 years welding qualifications there have to be refreshed. Pleased to see that the examiner was my old tutor from college.
Just heard that we are on lockdown 2.0 from Thursday Mac, but hey - I've got a cunning plan. We could commission some chap - let's call him Noah for the moment - to build a massive boat (I'd be pleased to do the welding). Then the entire population could escape.
I suggest sailing around the coast and landing at Dover, then everybody gets a luxury holiday in a 4* hotel with £40 a week beer money. And at the end we get deported back to where we came from. Pretty good plan eh?
Ripper,
Closest I got to welding was using a gas axe in times of emergence and in a very amateurish fashion. In fact if a rough cut was needed, I was the go-to guy.
As to your second piece, excellent idea and I think I'll steal a march, get a lilo and paddle round the coast.
Mac, When I first got into welding in 1976 it was a career to aspire to. Now its classed as just another minimum wage, cheap labour job. the digger maker I worked for is the highest paying employer in the county and I had always thought that you had to be one of the elite to work there, but having started on the place I found the quality of the welding to be seriously lacking. They have gone in the direction of robot welders but they overlook the fact that in order to produce good welds they need people with extensive knowledge of welding to program and operate them - when they go wrong they cause a hell of a mess. Instead, they have the unemployables with nothing better to do, but who know how to push buttons and drive these machines past their capabilities.
Most of their welders are eastern european and most of my time there has been spent cleaning up and making strong bad welds from the robots and foreigners. The company shouts about its commitment to quality, yet every machine that goes through the door has been fixed or patched up in some way. If a weld has rolled and hasn't taken for example, it gets filled with silicon sealant before paint. That's how bad it is but they keep that in the closet.
In my time I've done stick, mig, tig, oxy (welding and cutting), brazing, soldering and even plastic. The hydraulic rams are friction welded and I've done a bit of that too, besides operating the robots.
Yet now, there are no other jobs for me to go for. The foreigner will get there first, probably because he's younger.
Is there room for 3 and the colanders on that lilo? Happy to do the paddling.
Ripper,
Interesting read. You sound like a true hot-rod artist as where the offshore welders I worked with back in the day. Fabricate anything from anything and repair everything. I well remember the shipyard weld inspectors with their fancy kit and kicking their kit as they were unable to accept the welds were all good.
Yes, come along but you'll have to wear a couple of colanders.
Sadly, too many holes to make good paddles...
Don't know about hot rod any more, but this guy isn't the only one that can do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hvKx9_gQ9A
Had to give it a go, after seeing the vid didn't I? Found it fairly easy, one does the root run, followed by the second, which does the capping run.
Damn.. a colander won't even keep the rain off. Might serve as a good tinfoil hat though.
Ripper,
You're way over qualified for this 'brave' new world.
Now I'm guessing many firms will be considering the one-off purchase of various robots so thy can let those six guys go - and 'blame' it all on C0-C0 1984.
Post a Comment