Friday morning. Oh yes. Get everything ready for the real workers. Of course it's a bit difficult when four of your mates turn up successively just to pass the time of day. I didn't even get to start until about 11:30 and then everything was very messy and needed a bit of a clean up just to make a decent work area. Nevertheless things were well under way when the welder arrived and we were able to co-ordinate activities quite successfully.
Things went well. I remember saying about 4pm that we must check wire and gas etc. so that we would have everything we wanted for a long Saturday. Then the conversation went something like this:
"Last time we did 16 of these and we only changed the bottle twice. So that's sixteen from two bottles. We only have to do 10 this time and it's a new bottle so we should be fine."
"OK but maybe I should check how we are going about 11 o'clock just to be sure."
"Good idea. By the way there is another fellow I know who is looking for something to do just to keep from getting bored. Is it OK if he comes in Saturday and gives me a bit of a hand. He doesn't even want to get payed."
"That's fine. We can pay him anyway. I can do some other things I need to do and that will work out well."
Did you spot BOTH mistakes?
Mistake 1 : If you start with a full bottle and change it twice and end with an empty bottle - you have used three bottles!
Mistake 2 : If you do something different from the original plan then things can go astray. I was supposed to check how the gas was going in the morning wasn't I?
You guessed it. About 3:30 Sat. afternoon.
"Oh Dear. We seem to have run out of gas." Or words to that effect . . .
And nobody else around who has welding gas - of course. Well that's it for Saturday. Three and a half half done.
We pressure tested the finished ones and of course this time we got leaks. We never get leaks! These radiators have no pressure in them when operating so we only test at about 1.5bar which is plenty. This is what we got . . .
The frustrating thing is that just grinding out the weld is enough to seal it up. It must smear some metal across the "hole" and that's enough to hold the pressure!! Generally it only requires about a 25mm weld to fix it. This is the worst one.
Well at least the helper got his part done. We have all the tubes and parts cut and ready to go for next week for the rest of them.
But wait a minute.
I need to have these things ready to go to the zinc plater Monday morning. I don't have gas to do it and the welder won't be back until next Friday. That means first thing Monday I will have to get the gas and FIX THEM MYSELF!! Oh woe is me!!
I guess that means I better get prepared by psyching myself up on Sunday. Let's see. Hmm. Maybe up about 8am. Ride up to the hills. Have breakfast in that nice little restaurant I found a couple of weeks ago. Spend the morning exploring the hills tracks. Maybe back to the restaurant for a spot of lunch. There's still a few spots I need to go back and see - that track that split into two - I need to see where the other part went. Should be home in time for dinner. Sounds about right!!
Monday . . .
Of course it isn't going to go to plan!
Got the gas OK. Fixed the leaks. Loaded up and headed off. Fortunately and conveniently I only made it to the first roundabout when I had a sudden realisation. I had left off the lifting lugs!! Back to the factory, unload, more welding, load again and finally to the zinc plater.
The day has disappeared rapidly and I have to do something on the truck today so maybe seeing I have the gas I can weld up the mudguard post brackets.
Doesn't seem like much for four days :(
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