Working Out

My Millermatic. And myself, to a lesser extent.

I got a call last week from the guy who tests architectural designs about him needing some welding done. A slightly complicated design of which I could only understand about half of the blueprints. Mostly because I had never seen anything like the seismic portion of the design.

We started out on the floor getting it squared and tacked.

Here it is sitting in front of the current test subject that is attached to The Unicorn.

But by the afternoon we had it upright and about 75% of the way done.

That piece of 8in x 8in x 3/8in square tubing along the bottom just off the floor will slide left and right and move up and down. We’ll be attaching the contact points for the hydraulic pistons today and then attaching it to the three sections of wall I helped assemble a few weeks back.

After that, the guy’s team of carpenters will seal it in and they will begin the moving and shaking. After the first of the year when the testing is done, I’ll get to come in and disassemble it with a cutting torch to try and save as much of the steel as possible for use on future projects.

This project has been my first taste of actual structural welding in a practical sense and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even the laying on my stomach and back and welding into a corner parts. Sometimes I forget I’m getting paid to have this much fun.