The most unusual job Beam Ender

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Big Pete
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Big Pete »

I did forge a pair of chisels out of Silver Steel and quench them as part of my shore based workshop training. ( Never did it inside my toolbox though, that would have been clever!!) They were never much good! If I remember the first time I tried to do anything serious with them the edge chipped. All a lost art now. I remember as Second Engineer, asking a Chief to order some new chisels and he upbraided me about the cost, and said it would be much cheaper to land the old ones to a Blacksmith, and have them re forged, hardened, tempered and ground!! After 6 months he had to admit there had been no Blacksmiths in any of the Ports we had visited to do the job.
Modern chisels, only have about 4 mm of hardened edge, welded onto a mild steel shank. They are truly use once and throw away. However, it is years since I have seen anybody use a chisel on board, everyone just uses angle grinders for almost everything chisels and files used to be used for.

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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

Oh well, that's me down and gone on that one, well done J.J., first did this when starting out at work, then again at the Techincal College day release which you had to attend each week. You described it spot on but I am surprised no one else out there picked it up. Don't seem to do it nowadays, probably maybe people buy new instead?
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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

Well done to you B.P. also, didn't know or see the welded on tips business nowadays, seem a bit of a throw back because we used to braze carbide tool tips onto tool holders for turning etc in the sixties but that then years later went out and yet came back in again for cold chisels. Don't use the chisels much today but it can on occasions save the day, broken off head studs below the block face, splitting nuts where a grinder can't get in or no power etc.
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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

Been three days adrift in an open neck shirt off Gibraltar with only my toolbox for company. No lump hammers, chisels or spanners in it, only Mr Bosch, Mr Delphi, Mr Pico, Mr Darwen and a pop tester. What am I attempting to do? Any one in the area? No horrible 6 on 6 off here,no boring routine bookwork and chained to a computer for 11 hour days here B.P.Wouldnt be here without the kit in the toolbox.
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Big Pete
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Big Pete »

You can get the broken studs out with a specialist company using spark erosion gear, if you can't drill out the stud and get it out with a stud extractor.
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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

That spark eroder tool, haven't used one of them since late sixties, what a mess you could make with it if things didn't go according to plan I remember, bit like using the arc gouging rods methinks. We sometimes if there is enough meat there mig a bolt of similar size onto the casualty and get it out that way. Or if you can get to it centre drill it, drill the base diameter size and tap it out, provided of course you get square onto it and you have a taper then a plug tap the right thread form, seem to remember 55 BSF and 60 degrees metric? Plus the right TPI ( threads per inch)
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JollyJack
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by JollyJack »

1st year apprentice, I spent 3 years (seemed like it anyway!) in the blacksmith shop in July and August. The blacksmith had arms like thighs and was an artist in metal. I was shown how to extrude, jump-up, harden, anneal and temper. When it came to making tools, which was the object of that spasm in the blacksmith's shop, I sweated bullets under that leather apron, between forge and anvil, swinging a 2 lb ball pein hammer to fashion a perfect cold chisel, hardened and tempered just so. To test it, he put the edge on a steel plate resting on the anvil and with his 3 lb club hammer, came down on my perfect chisel like a thunderbolt.........and shattered it!

I was thinking some not very nice thoughts about blacksmiths when he said "Do it again lad"....
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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

Wrong colour maybe being run off the end? Different colours for different applications . I did an 5 year indentured apprenticeship whereby you had 3 months in the plumbers, ditto in the boilermakers, electricians,and welders depts and an NH3 plant, the shipwrights you didn't do for some reason. After 5 years you had to do a year as an improver before you were " fully skilled ". Always remember one plater/ boilermaker's show off trick was to walk around with a full size oxy bottle under one arm. Didn't like being inside galvanised tanks for hours with crude breathing gear on sweating buckets arc welding the seams and baffles. Fumes or what. Huge roller machines rolling boiler sections trying to rip themselves out of the ground it always seemed in the boiler shop. And those air hammers and air operated needle guns. As we speak a friend of mine who did his time alongside me but in the plater/ boiler makers shop has just been diagnosed after all these years with galvanic poisoning, not nice, and after all those years too. Just had a thought ref asbestos and all that lagging we used to cut off steam pipes, clouds of it throught the engineroom as we used to cut it off with like wood saws. A specialist team used to clag it all up using trowels, it was just like plaster on walls but in this case on steam pipes. Asbestosis,
That comes out apparently later on in life.
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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

Against the side.jpg
Bit of a bow but all safe.jpg
Well, here it is then, back on its feet. You can see how tight a fit it is, it's up on the ships side against Revolvers four truck tyres which I wire stropped to the side to cushion the blow and stop it hurling itself through the side and into the briny thereby taking charge of the situation. Note the roof clearance of the deck head, careful handling here. It's going to be necessary to create a gap of about three feet to get it off the ships side and get my tyres back. Very important to check the air cleaner in case it's one of those oil bath ones which will, being on its side for hours allow the oil to seep through the inlet manifold and on top of the Pistons. No hydrostatic lockup wanted here with S shaped conrods apon start up. That would be down to me 100 per cent. Any further thoughts anyone? B.P.?
No more smashed bottles here.jpg
Last edited by JK on Tue May 12, 2015 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Turn photos
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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

Well, here is the answer folks. Given my Stomper medal award a lot of thought and on reflection have decided that BP was virtually there re the answer as he suggested using the ships winches which of course you could do all sorts of things with, cutting holes to run cables to or from, snatch blocks and eyes to attach cables to, in fact all sorts of cable runs combinations could be attained to solve the situation. Don't forget what you were told when you started out, you can never, ever have enough tools. Even if it's once a year job it could well save your life. This piece of kit is an extension of just that, please remember I did say the most unusual job you ever did, and that a very large toolbox was necessary , seeing the discussions and answers supplied by some of you folk out there and knowing I was really up against it I did perhaps pitch the question a little high. This bit of kit is American made by Earnest Holmes of Chattanooga, Tennessee and purpose built on a suitable rear suspension UK truck. For this operation the twin booms are split, as per photo to obtain the maximum winching effort from the mastheads.Two 25 ton winches which thro' snatchblocks can be grossed up to 100 tons each side ( by using 4 snatchblocks ie 4 times 25 ) to obtain a 4 to 1 pull. The frictional losses on each well greased snatchblocks is 7/8 percent ( I cheated on that, I couldn't remember so I looked it up) So onto the job, good inspection based on the old shipwrights adage, measure twice, cut once basis. Check you can secure self locking chains high up on the ships side to take two snatchblocks, luckily beam girders are already cut to access this to save the oxy/acet cutter jobby. Position the blocks high up opposite the trailer up on the girder, place chains and wide strops on the trailer only ( never the tractor unit to avert fifth wheel coupling twisting damage ) Winches into neutral, pull out the two wire ropes (250.00 feet on each drum) climb up the ships side, undo the snatch blocks, in with the winch rope and lock them up. Down to the trailer strops and into the hooks. Now this lot weighs 44 tons but we are not going to do a deadlift here but a rolling weight calculation. Past experience dictates a one to one pull will suffice easily, ie a straight pull via one snatchblocks only. Place the scotch blocks ( see under the rear road wheels ) and loop the self locking chains loosely into the locking plates purposely built into the rear of the vehicle.( see photo ) make sure all is clear and release the air operated handbrake on the truck. Start winching and the truck will climb up ont the scotch blocks and when the chain tightens the whole of the truck is locked up solid. On with the air handbrake, all of this lockup will prevent the recovery vehicle being winched towards the casualty which of course you do not want. It's such a lockup that you can get the ballasted by 12 tons front wheels off the ground by winching rather than the vehicle moving back. So on with the pull, winch at tickover and as its only a rolling weight up she comes. When it's against the truck tyres you put on the ships side let go everything, reattach the kit on the other side of the ship and lowdown on the trailer and then the tractor unit to winch it over to release it from the ships side and get your tyres back. Put away all the kit, lift and tow the whole lot off the ship onto the quay. Check that air cleaner as I said before in case it's an oil bath type to avert the S shaped Conrad scenario on startup. So there you have it, a necessary diversion to the everyday job and very different indeed and a good way of keeping you out of the pub on a Saturday night. Apologies to BP here as obviously he knew all along that I do not keep this piece of kit in my toolbox after all but was talking figuratively in order to throw him off the scent, but he knew the answer was winching but he did not know of course to what the winches were attached. So Martin can justifiably award him the Stompers medal in this case with my full blessings. That's me on the left with the gloves on by the way. Ps, the unbroken wine cases we had to test after the job were passed out as ok by me and my assistant, perhaps the most important aspect of the whole job.
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Last edited by JK on Tue May 12, 2015 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edited to fix photo, JK
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JK
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

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I rotated the photos so we could see your smiling face. :)
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Merlyn
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Re: The most unusual job Beam Ender

Post by Merlyn »

The facial expression displayed was my scheming thinking look, I was worried not about the job but about how many bottles of the wine I had been promised to get the truck off the ship in time for next day's sailing I might smash. It makes for serious though smashing full wine bottles you know, especially when they could be yours you are smashing.
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
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