Today was pretty exciting. I mean we were doing work that the boys on my crew probably found pretty humdrum but as pretty much everything is new to me I am really enjoying it. For the past two days we have been doing a shake-out of the steel wear plates that will eventually find their way into our surge bins.
A shake out is when you take the steel pieces from their bundles and get it ready to be rigged-in and installed. In our case it involves fitting a lifting lug onto each piece, welding it into place and then marking and stacking the pieces in an organized way.
Looking downstream in my iron working career I can see myself as a welder/fitter. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when the lead hand said from the word go that I was going to get training as a fitter! I thought he would get me to do one or two and then hand it over to someone with more experience (like anyone on the crew for instance as they are all welders. But instead he has had me doing ALL of the fitting so far. I know that this fitting is pretty rudimentary and has miles of room for error but it is fitting just the same!
Nearing the end of the day my senior Foreman came over to watch. After a while he called me over and asked if I had welded anything yet. 'No' I answered. So he said 'go get a welding helmet and get one of the guys to show you how.'. Of course I almost fell over and died! So off to the tool crib I went and when I returned I had a welding helmet in tow.
Now I would love to tell you that I took to it like a duck to water but that wasn't the case. Instead I was given a piece of angle iron and shown how to make a pass along the seam. When it was my turn I made a ton of mistakes including sticking my welding rod to the metal and being unable to retrieve it! Still, it was a start! All the carrying and fetching and shovelling that I have just done without question has proven to be a worthwhile investment. All the crew were there putting in their two cents worth and encouraging me along. God it was great!!!
As it was the end of the day we didn't have much time. But I was promised that tomorrow I would not only get to try again but would also get to weld lugs that I had fit onto the wear plate! The good news gets even better when you consider that we will be on this duty until our turn around so I should be able to practise for the next 4 days!!! I am not getting ahead of myself and assuming that my role will now change. I am a pre-apprentice still so carrying things and lifting stuff and climbing stairs and shovelling will still be my daily lot in life. But I have tasted the action and I am excited to do it again!
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