What's that smell, my co-worker asks. I answered with a smirk on my face, it's a combination of jet fuel and Calvin Klein's Obsession mixed with grease. Working heavy maintenace now since I forgot to bid my days off and crew assignment, we have to get close to each other working. One night I helped a coworker change a nose landing gear. The nose wheel well is, at the most, 28 inches wide. So we work elbow to elbow getting the gear in and out. The next night the whole crew worked to install both main landing gears in another plane. 4 mechanics per side. It isn't hard work, but it wears you and your body out. The gear is on a dolly that can jack the gear into place, but everyone pitches in to man handle the dolly in place. The gear, if positoned correctly, goes on smooth as silk. But that "sweet" spot is hard to find and requires major finesse. The front mount of the gear, called the trunion mount, is like your shoulder. It is a ball in a socket with a 4 inch diameter pin sticking out of it. The gear has to slide onto this pin. Once it is started on this pin, it has to travel uphill, as the back mount of the gear is lower to clear the back side of the opening in the wing. We have a 15 pound dead blow hammer on a 4 foot long handle that we use to tap the gear up than inclined pin. I did this tapping last Saturday night. Did I mention you have to strike it overhead about 7 feet off of the floor? It usually takes at least two different mechanics tag teaming the hammer. During this tapping exercise, the rest of crew wiggles the gear. Once the front trunion mount is in, we man handle the gear and dolly so the aft trunion mount is lined up and then we slide a 4 inch diameter pin out of the gear casting and into the aft trunion mount bearing. This bearing moves all around like a ball, so it takes a precise eye to get it lined up. Then a 4 foot long slide hammer is supported over the flap to pull the aft pin into the aft trunion bearing mount. Sometimes a bur is all that keeps this from going smoothly. That is when one mechanic stands on a ladder behind the flap supporting the aft end of the slide hammer and a mechanic on a ladder in front of the flap really bangs the slide hammer with all their strength. Once the pin is in postion, a one inch diameter bolt goes through it to lock it in place. Most all the pins that hold the actuator that retracts the gear have nuts that are big enough to use a smaller bolt and nut to lock in place. After all this labor, I am ready for a hot bath. Make that two hot baths. I take one after work and before I go back in the evening.
Rebecca and I had a wonderful time at the George Strait concert in Austin. I went over the evening before and we hit Doc's Sports Bar for some Mexican food and drinks. Rebecca had some problems with a continuing education course she was taking on campus, so the afternoon before the concert found me sitting in my truck watching all the campus activiety while Rebecca visited with her counselor. As usual, we got to the concert late and missed the female soloist opening. We did find out seats in time to catch all of Little Big Town. They played for 1 hour. Then King George came out and entertained us for over 2 hours. We had nose bleed seats as we were sitting in the next to the top row in the Frank Erwin Center. I didn't forget the fact that a month earlier, Rebecca recieved her dipolma there. I took a few videos of the concert at Rebecca's request. I haven't watched them, but I made a copy for Rebecca. She told me she is going to start calling me Shaky, as I didn't hold the camera still enough! After the awesome concert, Rebecca bought her a George Strait shirt and cap. Anyway, I did get a good photo of George taking his hat off to the crowd. Well, I was a little early and caught him just as he started taking his hat off. Oh well, maybe next time. On the way home we drove by the Texas Capital, as Rebecca's apartment is dircetly south of it. The pink granite Capital is taller than the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C.!
The granite came from right up the road in Burnet and Marble Falls. The next day Rebecca invited her best friend to join us for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack on Town Lake. Austinites call it Town Lake, but in reality it is the Colorado River, and it looks like a river to me. Anyway, it was too cold to sit on the patio at Joe's, so we went inside where I stuffed myself on King Crab. The crab was delicious and as usual, everyone was waiting for me to finish.
The following week I did get a chance to finish trimming the expanded steel for the Big Red Beast's bumper and grill. I did such a neat job on it, the welder asked me if the factory sent it in two pieces! That made me feel good. Anyway, he tacked it on for just $10. What a bargain. With the grill finished to my liking, I decided to make it easier to work the 6520's backhoe after dark this spring and summer. I installed two lights on the canopy and wired them into the Mahindra's plow light. I removed the plow light as it would shine on my left elbow while running the backhoe lights. That took almost all day as I didn't have the right size drill bit at home and had to go to town not once, but twice. My drill wasn't big enough for the bit, so it was back to town to buy a bit that fit my drill chuck.
Rebecca and I had a wonderful time at the George Strait concert in Austin. I went over the evening before and we hit Doc's Sports Bar for some Mexican food and drinks. Rebecca had some problems with a continuing education course she was taking on campus, so the afternoon before the concert found me sitting in my truck watching all the campus activiety while Rebecca visited with her counselor. As usual, we got to the concert late and missed the female soloist opening. We did find out seats in time to catch all of Little Big Town. They played for 1 hour. Then King George came out and entertained us for over 2 hours. We had nose bleed seats as we were sitting in the next to the top row in the Frank Erwin Center. I didn't forget the fact that a month earlier, Rebecca recieved her dipolma there. I took a few videos of the concert at Rebecca's request. I haven't watched them, but I made a copy for Rebecca. She told me she is going to start calling me Shaky, as I didn't hold the camera still enough! After the awesome concert, Rebecca bought her a George Strait shirt and cap. Anyway, I did get a good photo of George taking his hat off to the crowd. Well, I was a little early and caught him just as he started taking his hat off. Oh well, maybe next time. On the way home we drove by the Texas Capital, as Rebecca's apartment is dircetly south of it. The pink granite Capital is taller than the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C.!
The granite came from right up the road in Burnet and Marble Falls. The next day Rebecca invited her best friend to join us for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack on Town Lake. Austinites call it Town Lake, but in reality it is the Colorado River, and it looks like a river to me. Anyway, it was too cold to sit on the patio at Joe's, so we went inside where I stuffed myself on King Crab. The crab was delicious and as usual, everyone was waiting for me to finish.
The following week I did get a chance to finish trimming the expanded steel for the Big Red Beast's bumper and grill. I did such a neat job on it, the welder asked me if the factory sent it in two pieces! That made me feel good. Anyway, he tacked it on for just $10. What a bargain. With the grill finished to my liking, I decided to make it easier to work the 6520's backhoe after dark this spring and summer. I installed two lights on the canopy and wired them into the Mahindra's plow light. I removed the plow light as it would shine on my left elbow while running the backhoe lights. That took almost all day as I didn't have the right size drill bit at home and had to go to town not once, but twice. My drill wasn't big enough for the bit, so it was back to town to buy a bit that fit my drill chuck.
Today I decided to get the Big Red Beast's loader bucket straightened and reinforced. I have bent the upper lip up from tackling large stumps. I will be getting a 2 x 2 x 3/8 inch angle welded on the entire length of the upper lip on the bucket and have 3/8 plate welded on each end. That is, after they straighten the bucket. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough tomorrow to work on the barn siding. Check back later to see if I got "red" on the sides of the barn and please check out the photos I have uploaded.
hugs, Brandi
