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Thursday, March 26, 2009

For several weeks I've been working in the same space - - what formerly was two spaces, now being combined into one in what the Navy calls a 'shipalt.' For the first few days I was partnered with Elmore Sr., but Starner, my supervisor, moved him to other jobs, working with his son. Since then, I've been on my own, working alone except for the occasional welder (with his firewatches), who I need to tack weld for me.

On steel work we shipfitters generally do our own tacking, but on this aluminum work, which they deem 'critical,' the Navy requires that all welding, even tack welding of temporary attachments, to be done by a welder certified in the process to be used, in this case wire feed (MIG) welding machines.

I have installed a diagonal bulkhead, which will have a wire cage door in it, in place of the solid, jogged bulkhead that existed before. I have also installed an insert to close up the hole left from removing a door from the p-way that used to access the office that is no more.

Yesterday I was on a roll. I worked solid all day, practically without a break except for lunch, 'inserting' (or closing off) two large cut-outs in the top of the new diagonal bulkhead. These cut-outs were the result of a design screw up on the part of the shipyard contracted by the Navy to do the design work on this shipalt. Whoever did it envisioned a bundle of cables passing in one side of the new bulkhead and out the other. It made no sense, because there wasn't any reason for the cables to enter the space at all.

My 'buddy' Joe had started this job, and going by the print he had raised the bulkhead plate with the cables looping in one side and out the other. Getting this bulkhead in was a pain because of criss-crossed beams in the overhead and the fact that the plate isn't flat but rolled about 45 degrees on each end, not to mention the various other obstructions. Anyhow, I was the one who pointed out the screw up, although reps from the Navy and the design contractor had both scratched their heads at seeing the cables go in one side and out the other. I took the plate out again to remove the cables so they could pass in a straight line outside the bulkhead.

Anyhow, as I was saying, I worked hard all day yesterday fitting up the plates to close off the cut-outs. Apart from the cables and pipes and other stuff in the way, this was no easy task because of the joint design our welding department came up with to make it easier for themselves but harder for us. This joint design calls for a 3/16" gap where the plates butt together, and each of the plates must be beveled 30 degrees on the edge. All this is to facilitate weld penetration. They then weld the joint using a removable ceramic back-up strip behind the butt. For fit-up then, the insert has to 'float' in the hole so to speak. Holding the 3/16" gap while aligning the plates is difficult, not to mention tedious, and requires special procedures. So yesterday I completed one plate start to finish, including cutting it to size, and got the other one about 80% done. But when I came in to work this morning I found that they had taken my welder away and the weld supervisor refused to give me another one. So I was pretty much stuck - - another wasted day, so far as production was concerned - - apart from some clean-up.

So today I was totally alone. Sometimes that isn't a bad thing. One day last week - - St. Patrick's Day, in fact - - I had two welders in the space with me - - both of them trying to give me shit about my fitting. Some of the welders are crybabies, including these two. They think my job is catering to them, to make things as easy for them as possible. (The biggest crybaby of the two is the son of one of the department foremen. I call him "Prince Philip.")

Then there was the heater. The Navy requires that the aluminum we're working be at a minimum of 60 degrees before welding. That isn't a big problem now because the temperature outside the ship has been 50 degrees or more lately. But we have a big 440 volt electric blower heater in the space to use when necessary, and it can bring the aluminum up to temperature in a few minutes. The problem is that some of the firewatches, especially the women, think the heater is there to keep them warm and they want it blasting all the time. It gets too hot for me to work. That day I had to battle them, too. Every time I'd shut the heater off, they'd turn it on again. That's the way it went all day.