Personal Update

Just a short note on what I've been up to. To start off, I'm still learning stuff in the foundry, although today is the first time that I've molded bells since last Wednesday. Thursday, I had a doctor appointment, so I had to take the day off. Friday, I was on grinder (everyone takes turns; technically I was on grinder Wednesday, but ended up molding instead). Then yesterday, the boss decided that we really needed to take a day to clean the place up. Today I was back on my usual bell, but with several new tools that people had given me, or that I had scavenged out of the tool box of a coworker that left the foundry last week. I seem to be getting faster, so I had some time with my last few boxes to experiment. Some were OK, some were butt-ugly, and one pattern I will definitely develop more. I only had to scrap 2 out the 32 bells I molded, so not too bad.

As a department, we are a bit behind. We had one person leave last week. one that is still out of the country on extended vacation, and one on vacation until Labor Day. Another will be leaving Thursday for ten days or so. In the mean time, Friday was a complete disaster due to furnace problems. The first pour was too hot, so the bronze boiled in the molds, which wrecks the bells. On the second pour, we overshot and the bronze was too cold and hardened before it got to the bottom of the molds. All day, we managed less than 20 bells (typical day is 80 to 100 bells). A couple guys had problems today (some bells just have a high scrap rate due to their shape), and the fifth person was making bronze tiles (something new for us) instead of bells. Bottom line is that the output from Friday and today combined barely makes a day's worth of bells.

But here is the best part of all: it ain't my problem!! I just crank out bells and let the people that make more money than me do the worrying. Sweet. The only direct effect on me will be when I get moved up to five boxes per pour, which I'm sure will be some time soon given how early I got done today even slowing down to work with new tools and patterns.

Things finally worked out today for me to practice being "on tail." I will be doing it for real tomorrow. In order to get low enough for the pour to work, my face will be less than a foot from the bronze. I don't expect that I will be needing to shave as the heat from the bronze burns the hair off my arms from several feet away when I'm doing the shoveling.

Speaking of shoveling, there is a new chunk missing from the concrete deck thanks to me. Besides the boiling problem, when the bronze is too hot, it tends to break out of the molds. One of the shovelers' jobs is to watch for leaks and break them up by mixing wet sand into the bronze. The bronze is so hot, it will literally burn the concrete and leave a hole if you don't move fast enough. Well, during the first pour on Friday, one got away from me. It was all pretty dramatic. When the bronze leaked, it ran under the mold, which sits on a piece of plywood screwed to a couple 2x4 feet. Of course, the wood immediately burst into flame. I threw a bunch of sand around the mold, which smothered the fire. I needed to move the mold so I could get at the puddle of bronze underneath, but I couldn't without getting in the way of the guys doing the pouring. If anyone has seen Backdraft, you know what happened as soon as the mold was moved: the wood flashed back into full flame. Between myself and the second shoveler, we got everything under control, but it was too late for the concrete deck. There is a nice new divot about five inches across and a quarter of an inch deep in the foundry floor.

And just for the record, that was more excitement in about three minutes than I had in 22 years of sitting in a cubicle.

And I am beginning to understand the logic behind the questions I was asked during my job interview for the foundry. There were exactly two:

"Have you ever had a back injury?"

"Have you ever been on fire?"

OK; enough for one post. Tomorrow, I will let everyone know how my first time on tail goes. That second question has me a little nervous....