7.29.2015

Jim got two early morning phone calls about his plywood order - one from the driver asking for the address and another from his rep saying that something got messed up and the order is a few sheets shy of what it was supposed to be.  All of that meant that Jim had to be at the site extra early for the delivery.  It should work out in our favor - his rep promised that she would give him a better price on the extra sheets and deliver them too.

Even with the Lowe's distraction and calls from the insurance agent that Jim had to deal with this morning, by lunchtime he had both sides of the ties welded down and was working on the middle.  The middle tie is doubled for extra strength - that way he can prop things against that truss if he needs to.  The picture below is half of the doubled tie - its mate was already up on the truss.

Plus it was another soul-sucking hot day - though not quite as humid as yesterday.  We don't get a lot of humid days here but they seem to come when we are doing especially nasty jobs!  Jim kept a bucket of cold water nearby that he could rinse his face with periodically and of course drinks a ton of water.

Here he's using the grinder before welding.

Time for welding - just the gear to wear in 90 degree temps - black face mask and gloves!

Welding the pieces together...

Jim wanted to just press on after lunch - we had talked about doing some other things in the afternoon but it's tough to switch focus all the time.  So I went back late in the afternoon and he had gotten all but one of the custom ties made and welded into place! 

He had first thought he would screw the tie down to the track but the steel is too thin for the screw to really bite.  So then he went to welding - but again, since the steel is thin he had to do a series of little spot welds.  It came out really nice as you can see from this painted finished one.

Welding the last tie into place.  The only thing that is left to be welded is the tie to the actual tie on the truss.  Jim wants to wait until the deck is on to do that so that there is some play there if need be.

He stayed after I left and did some more painting on the welded areas.  Another day where he was really glad to be home!

 

And of course the work doesn't end once he gets home - his latest project is final tweaks on the order for steel doors - 2 sets of double doors and 1 door going into the apartment.  There are so many specifications for each door so he's been working on this for awhile.  He expected a call from his rep today which didn't happen, but he will hopefully wrap up the order tomorrow.  Exciting!

 

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