A letter to my Dad about fitting...

Dear Dad;

It's Friday and I am on the bus home. The sun is just going down but the sky is bright and beautiful. It was a warm day after several cold ones. All good.

Yesterday we found out first thing in the morning that the company Driver needed to work on the conveyor head that sits 100 feet above our bins so for the next 2 weeks we are not allowed in the bins. On the surface it looks like a reasonable request from another supplier on site but in fact it is a squeeze play. Driver is a main competitor to Waiward and rather than using union labour they use CLAC which is an 'association' which is a fancy excuse for scab labour. And this is part of the big companies battling the unions. CLAC by the way stands for the Christian Labour Association of Canada. It has been my experience that people who start companies with Jesus' name in it do so to pick the pockets of the gullible and this is no exception. We can agree to disagree on that score if you like.

In the meantime it meant that I was doing something different than normal today. The crew that I was put on is doing a 'steel Shake-out'. That means that we take the bundled steel for whatever the job is and get it ready for installation. The process involves organizing it, bolting or fitting it, and getting it into a position to be easily rigged into location and then installed.

Today's work is with wear plates that line our bins and over the next 3 years slowly wear out at which point they are changed. I was fortunate because a 30 year member who is in charge of the job is teaching me how to 'fit'. This involves making anything fit together even if some dough head completely messed up the piece during the manufacturing process. In my case it involves fitting lugs to the wear plates that will be used to lift the plates into the bin. The fitting is important as the load balance which results from either a good fit or from a bad fit determines the success and safety of the rig-in. I am really interested in fitting because I see it as a valid future career for me at my age. In buildings like the surge bin it is a key process as it is the bending and warping of the huge plate which make up the bins so that the seams have a perfect fit which can then be permanently welded. Fitters work with welders very closely. Generally the fitter uses 'dogs' and 'wedges'. He welds the dog (as steel square with a square cut out of one corner) to the top or bottom plate, inserts the steel wedge into the cut out corner and then he pounds it with a sledge hammer until the plate warps a little closer together. I guess it is true that with a large enough lever you really can move the world! So I have been very happy to be doing rudimentary fitting.

I have to go as the bus has just pulled into camp. I hope that all is well with you and Mum. I look forward to seeing you in a few days and to helping you in any way I can with the office relo. And who know? Maybe we will get to tie and possibly even cast some flies as well.

Lots of love! Peter xo