The wall continues…
It seemed to take forever to frame the wall and there were many memorable moments during the process. A few of them; because of the positioning of the cables, we found that the higher we went, the harder it was to keep the Sky Climber from pressing hard against the wall. To move up or down, you had to reach out and push the climber away from the wall. And there were obstacles, such as pipe and conduit joints to push away from. I remember descending one day and suddenly noticing that my partner’s end of the climber was falling quicker than my end. “Hey! stop that…” I called out in a panic. But it was an illusion. My end was actually stopped because I had allowed it to be caught on a pipe joint and now I had about 5 feet of slack cable lying on the plank. I quickly reversed the motor before the plank slipped off of the joint. Or the time that I caught the control lever in my safety belt and when I turned, the climber motor turned on, dropping us a foot or so. Terrifying, when you’re 80 feet in the air!
Finally the wall was completely framed and I remember that we stood across the room from it and were awed by what we had done. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take a picture of it because of security restrictions. You may remember from a previous posting that I once worked for STL and all work on their sites was considered “Secret”. Too bad, it would have made a great picture!
Now it was time to put drywall on those studs and so we began, at the bottom of course, and each day we would climb higher up the wall. And since we couldn’t carry more than one sheet of drywall at a time on the Sky Climber, we had to use a rope and pulley to get the sheets up the wall. We used a C-clamp with large plates welded to it to hold the sheet and one, or more usually two people to pull on the rope. We did have one journeyman that could stand flat footed and pull a 4’ x 10’ sheet up, hand over hand, one hand at a time. He was awesome to watch!
And what was the purpose of the wall? We were told that the Shake Test Facility had two security classifications. One side of the wall was “Top Secret” while the other side was simply “Secret” and so a wall was needed…of course. And what did they do that was so secret? They would take a missile, the whole thing, into the room and shake it. I can only suppose that they then counted the things that fell off of it?
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Monday, June 12, 2006
Shaking!
Last night, during our Bible study time at church, we got into a discussion of our fears. And someone revealed a fear of heights. Of course I could relate to that! And so I will continue with my stories…
Although the Broadway stores were our “bread and butter” projects, we would bid on and sometimes secure other, even larger, projects. One of those was the “Shake Test Facility” at the Space Technology Laboratories site in Redondo Beach. (STL – now TRW) This building was unique in that its interior space consisted of two rooms, with one wall – 140’ high and about 300’ long- to divide them. Our job was to build that wall. And since Alex knew of my fears of height; he asked me if I wanted to work on the wall. I decided to confront my fears and told him to include me.
Of course they don’t make studs that are 140’ long so there was a structural steel framework for us to build upon. We were building many pieces of a wall between those supports and once it was complete, it would appear to be seamless.
Because of jobsite conditions, using a scaffold was out of the question and so it was decided that we would use “Sky Climbers” as our working platform. A Sky Climber consists of a long and narrow (20’ x 2’) aluminum plank with an electric hoist motor at each end. These motors would grip a cable that was hung from the roof and then “climb” that cable.
To begin, we had to secure the cables to the roof structure and that meant a ride up to the roof trusses. A portable construction elevator took us up. There, between the bottom supports of huge roof trusses, was a complete sheet metal factory built on wooden planks. A temporary floor for the contractor that was installing the air conditioning ductwork. We had to snake the cables in between the planks and secure them to the structure. The scary part? Removing a plank and seeing the concrete floor, 140’ below you.
With the cables secured, we began to climb the wall, 10’ at a time. Build a 20’ length of wall; climb again. It took a little coordination to make sure that the climbing motors at each end operated at the same time and that the plank remained level as it rose. And we had to make certain that all of our power cords were free from entanglements as we climbed. This was often overlooked and we tore apart many cords through the weeks.
I didn’t have too much of a problem with the heights until about the 40’ level. That’s only the height of a 4-story building and we were going to build a wall that equaled the height of a 14-story building! That fact suddenly stuck in my consciousness and wouldn’t go away. And as the days passed I noticed that my legs now ached after a day at work. What was that all about? Then I saw why; I was trying (desperately!) to grasp that plank with my toes. Toes that were separated from the plank by heavy work boots. Yes, we had a safety belt that was attached to a safety rope by a safety brake…all safe, right? Since none of us had ever tested any of this equipment, it really didn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling!
The weeks passed slowly and the wall began to take shape; A silver grid framework of studs between red steel beams. And I found that the aches and pains in my legs eased as I saw the wall growing. Pride in what we were doing helped quite a bit. And I found that others were affected by heights as well. I remember that an older, more experienced, journeyman volunteered to work with me one day when my partner (Babe) was absent. Everything was going along fine until he spotted a bird flying by – beneath him. “Get me down!” he said. Strangely, the fact that he was bothered by the height strengthened me.
Although the Broadway stores were our “bread and butter” projects, we would bid on and sometimes secure other, even larger, projects. One of those was the “Shake Test Facility” at the Space Technology Laboratories site in Redondo Beach. (STL – now TRW) This building was unique in that its interior space consisted of two rooms, with one wall – 140’ high and about 300’ long- to divide them. Our job was to build that wall. And since Alex knew of my fears of height; he asked me if I wanted to work on the wall. I decided to confront my fears and told him to include me.
Of course they don’t make studs that are 140’ long so there was a structural steel framework for us to build upon. We were building many pieces of a wall between those supports and once it was complete, it would appear to be seamless.
Because of jobsite conditions, using a scaffold was out of the question and so it was decided that we would use “Sky Climbers” as our working platform. A Sky Climber consists of a long and narrow (20’ x 2’) aluminum plank with an electric hoist motor at each end. These motors would grip a cable that was hung from the roof and then “climb” that cable.
To begin, we had to secure the cables to the roof structure and that meant a ride up to the roof trusses. A portable construction elevator took us up. There, between the bottom supports of huge roof trusses, was a complete sheet metal factory built on wooden planks. A temporary floor for the contractor that was installing the air conditioning ductwork. We had to snake the cables in between the planks and secure them to the structure. The scary part? Removing a plank and seeing the concrete floor, 140’ below you.
With the cables secured, we began to climb the wall, 10’ at a time. Build a 20’ length of wall; climb again. It took a little coordination to make sure that the climbing motors at each end operated at the same time and that the plank remained level as it rose. And we had to make certain that all of our power cords were free from entanglements as we climbed. This was often overlooked and we tore apart many cords through the weeks.
I didn’t have too much of a problem with the heights until about the 40’ level. That’s only the height of a 4-story building and we were going to build a wall that equaled the height of a 14-story building! That fact suddenly stuck in my consciousness and wouldn’t go away. And as the days passed I noticed that my legs now ached after a day at work. What was that all about? Then I saw why; I was trying (desperately!) to grasp that plank with my toes. Toes that were separated from the plank by heavy work boots. Yes, we had a safety belt that was attached to a safety rope by a safety brake…all safe, right? Since none of us had ever tested any of this equipment, it really didn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling!
The weeks passed slowly and the wall began to take shape; A silver grid framework of studs between red steel beams. And I found that the aches and pains in my legs eased as I saw the wall growing. Pride in what we were doing helped quite a bit. And I found that others were affected by heights as well. I remember that an older, more experienced, journeyman volunteered to work with me one day when my partner (Babe) was absent. Everything was going along fine until he spotted a bird flying by – beneath him. “Get me down!” he said. Strangely, the fact that he was bothered by the height strengthened me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)