Painting the interior of the tubes to prevent rust.
Placing holes in the middle beam of the track.
The carrier on the tracks.
At my internship at Piasecki this week, I worked in Briggs, Texas on a rail system for Firefly. Firefly is the name of the yellow carriers that were mentioned in the week one blog. The name of the company that we worked for was also called Firefly.
When we got to Texas, the work started early and ended late. Monday started with a lot of holes being drilled to a place a track down the middle of the middle beam. While that was happening, the other intern and I painted the interior of the tubes to prevent rust when the cement was poured.
Tuesday and Wednesday we worked with the tubes in the middle row and two lasers to ensure they were level as well as straight. We were allowed .005 inches of wiggle room.
On Thursday we worked on the outer tubes and they went into place rather easily and pretty quickly.
On Friday morning, the final checks were done on the tubes. They were anchored into the concrete, ready for the final pour. Friday afternoon, we placed a carrier on the tracks and noticed a number of issues. First, the guide wheel didn’t reach the track. Second, the connecting tube would not slide into the designated holes on the carriers. Finally, the holes to hold the connection tubes were not level.
We fixed these problems by shimming the wheels so they would touch the track. We shaved down the sides of the connection holes and shimmed up one connection hole so that the tube would fit all the way on a lever plane.
Saturday, we painted a concrete repellent on the tubes so when the pit gets filled in, the concrete will not be on top of the tubes and cause tracking issues.
On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we made the 1,700 mile journey home. The unloading of the truck and work will all start on Wednesday.
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