A Construction Story
The following true construction story is another entry in
the Working Outside Contest.
I hope Jeri was paid well for what seems to have been a dangerous
job in bad weather. Here is his description...
Jeri
Arizona
I have worked outside for a significant percentage of my
life. I was working as a painter in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when
I received a call from a friend and fellow member of the "construction
junkies," a loose knit group of people whose raison d'etre
was to help each other in whatever enterprise we found involved
in building or building maintenance. Dave was doing a job in
West Bend, Wisconsin, which was a large bank.
The red iron and poured concrete floors were in place and
our part was to "flesh out" the building with eighteen
gauge, galvanized parapet steel and then to clad the building
with aggregate paneling. The first part of the job was to affix
sections of steel studs with top plates and bottom plates and
weld them to the red iron and to each other. Eighteen gauge galvi
is very touchy to weld because of its light gauge you can burn
through it in just a few seconds of not paying attention and
the gas emitted from each weld is highly poisonous. In addition,
this was in the winter in Wisconsin.
We used a crane to lift the sections in place and my partner
(a female person!) and I stood in "buckets" at the
tip of the crane to guide them into place, then weld them together.
The aggregate panels were then lifted into place and affixed
using Teknon screws. The panels were pre-drilled and we covered
the screw heads with a mixture of epoxy resin and fine aggregate.
Buckets at the tip of a crane? Fresh air and danger have their
appeal I guess.
If you have your own story of working, doing business, or
making money in any other way, you can send it to me. If I put
it on the site I'll email you an e-book (I'll let you choose
from several that I publish). Alternately you can subscribe to
the Unusual Ways newsletter (the form is to the right)
and watch for the next contest.
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