Cold, Shiny Metal

We were grinding some weld seams at the 21,939 level when it occurred to me just how nice the shiny metal looks when it's done. You see when they weld two giant plates of steel together it leaves a cap protruding from each side like a scab and that has to be ground flush before wear plates can be welded over the top of them. The caps look like 5-7 shiny metal earth worms laying on top of each other and I think they look really neat too. Although it is a shame to grind them down from an optics perspective the smooth and shiny look of them when done makes up for the metamorphosis.

That was two days ago on a warm spring day. Yesterday however started with a lot of snow and a strong cold wind from the north with a windchill factor of -19. It didn't even resemble the day before in any way. And when I arrived back up in the surge to work on my precious seams again it was covered (as was the whole wall) with a layer of snow and ice. Not my nice looking metal from the day before!

We don't get to go home just because it is freezing cold and the metal is covered. Instead we go and get a tiger torch which is sort of like a propaned powered flame thrower. We get that little. Any fired up and the. Start warming the icy metal. As you melt the ice it turns to water and rolls off the seam like a river of tears. The seam liked hiding apparently and is loathe to give up its snowy jacket. I guess I'd feel the same way if someone were planning on grinding me down all day!

When the metal has been heated and all the snow is gone the seam now looks like rusted old metal. This in around 12 hours! What a change! So I stood there yesterday with a freezing wind ripping through my clothing very much like a grinder and it occurred to me how much my metal and I were in fact alike.

As an iron worker or a welder you develop little ways of keeping the cold out. Obviously many layers of warm clothing is the start but even with that stuff in place my hands and feet were like lifeless white chunks. I think that's the human equivalent of rusty metal! So off I went to the tool crib where I got Terry to give me some little heat pads for both my hands and my feet. I then headed to the warmup shack where I could take my boots off and get the little waking pads hooked onto my toes before putting the boots back on. Step two completed I headed back to the icy metal.

Months ago when I first started iron working and the temperature wAs routinely in the minus thirties with wind hills taking it down into the minus forties I discovered what a hoarding was. Welders need to put up fire blankets to protect others from their flying sparks and from their welding flash. But in the extreme cold they get fire blanket on all four sides, underneath them and then they add a roof. These little homes are referred to as hoardings. Once inside the welder gets his tiger torch going on a wall and they keep it there until the metal is hot enough to radiate heat for the next half hour of so. The hoarding keeps the warmth in and protects the welder from the wind allowing him to get down to grinding or welding until the cold returns and he has to start the process again.

Yesterday with the wind howling and ripping a cold path through my clothing I built a wall from the fire blanket to protect the welding inspector who I have been working with and myself. It barely had any impact but it was a start. The welding instructor is a good guy named Rasheed. He is from Nigeria in Africa where it is very hot even when the locals say it is cold. I wonder how he must feel about this cold and whether he finds himself thinking on days like this: "What the hell did I move to this frozen continent for???" That said he is a hearty fellow and he works his ultrasound equipment mostly without even having gloves on. I have a lot of respect for that. But yesterday it was freezing and he had caught a cold the day before and so was terribly stuffed up. So not long into our day I talked him into taking a walk to the tool crib where I got the poor guy so hand and feet warmers and took him to the warmup shack to thaw out.

Then we were. Ack up staring at the cold seam. I took my grinder and pushed it hard against the cold rusty seam and worked it back and forth for a while. The sound of the grinder ripped into the air and the sparks showered into the fire blanket screen that I had put up. I wiped some sweat from my forehead and admired the beauty of the freshly polished metal. Shiny, smooth and nice.