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Which brings me to this, the main body of the machine, it's too wide, too high for a container. It goes on a 20ft flat rack, If they can only find me an empty one. I had the crane booked for Saturday, and had to stand him down. I've been chasing an empty flat since last Wednesday.
You might be wondering why that machine is smoking? I think that was from last Monday or Tuesday morning. It has a C02 fire suppression system on it. I've seen these go off before, just with vibration. Years ago at Borg Warner in Albury, I was inside a rotary transfer machine. A Sparky was just drilling holes for conduit clips, and the thing went off. I was all I could do to fall out the door.
The machine gets a vacuum bag around it, before I erect the crate. If that was to go off, it would blow the bag apart, so I decided to discharge it. We forgot about that until after the power was pulled. So I took in a 24V DC power supply and triggered off the solenoid.
Which brings me to what has rattled my cage tonight. There's only a few companies in town that do these vac bags and crates. It all has to be ISPM-15 treated timber. Structurally crap, but it doesn't have bugs. I'm working with one of them. I told them late last week, "don't deliver the crate", as I'm stranded with out a flat rack to put them on. I backed it up with a phone message first thing this morning.
I had a bit of a crisis first thing this morning with another customer that's blown up a spindle, and I knocked up a few gadgets in anticipation of seeing this crate, maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.
I got back on site around 11.00am. Stupid me, I actually drove around the block 3 times wondering why that truck in the drive way was taking so long. I couldn't park on the street as I had the trailer, with a spreader bar in it, that I needed to unload.
Third trip around the block, said truck with name on the door same as the company I'm dealing with, passes me going the other way.
I honestly spilt my coffee. Dirty prawns, had turned up, hurled the panels off the side of the truck, and lent them up against the side of my container. And left them sitting there in the rain.
The same container that is awaiting pick up by a swing loader, so they can deliver me a flat rack. :( You might also notice the 40 footer isn't sitting in the doorway any more. I skated that back into the car spots so the swing loader can get at it again, last Friday.
Managed to fix these pictures.
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It took me close to 4 hours to flip each one of them (5 panels), into my trailer, back them through the roller door, drill some holes for lifting lugs, then stand them up all in order. I'm back to working by myself, and there was no one on site to help. I don't know what those panels weigh, but they are all 4.5m long by 3.0m high. They might be lighter when they are dry, as they are I can barely hand lift an end. And I had new rigger gloves on. That normally makes me stronger. They all have 12mm Rud lifting lugs on them now. I have a 2T overhead crane to work with. I took my 2m spreader bar out, I just wasn't expecting to use it today.
This thing is supposed to be on a boat by Saturday. I still need a flat rack, then I need a crane, then I need to lash it, then I need a marine surveyor to sign off on the lashing, then the bag, then the box, then a dirty big forklift to pull it into the carpark, and lift it on a low deck trailer. And if I failed to mention, the machine is so wide, the box sits off the sides of the flat rack. There's going to be some very inventive nail gun action going on there. I have 5 days.
Regards Phil.
P.S Do you blokes know you cant have any over hang on a trailer now. (At least in Vic.) I believe the laws been changed in recent years. I had to go and get some 75 x 100mm bearers last week. I think it was last Monday. They had them in a 4.8m lengths. And it was lunch time, so I didn't bother them to cut them.That's a 10 foot bed trailer, and I had the front right out to the tow ball, but I would have had 800mm hanging of the rear. Dirty big red flag attached. I got pinged on Whitehorse Road, just turning off East Link. $221, that is going on the bill. The farmers son in me said that was O.K It was 1.00 o'clock in the afternoon. Dry & sunny.