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Happy Birthday to Me
Aug. 10th, 2011 07:30 pmTwenty-Four today. I spent the day wearing fall protection doing some minor maintenance on a water-sprinkler system above the liquid petroleum gas bullets. 14" pipe wrench did the trick.
The bullets themselves are about 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide and maybe 60 feet long. They were all pressurized as well.
The sprinkler system is a system of 2 inch pipe that runs along the length of each bullet, and there are about 14 bullets all together. We had to remove the first sprinkler in the chain for each bullet, and the last. Fall protection had to be worn in all cases.
It was a half day project. Then we ran into some difficulties testing the system and getting all the gunk out of the pipes (the sole reason we removed so many sprinklers) - a motor operated valve didn't operate. If the system had been needed for an unknowable amount of time prior to our discovery (a once a year maintenance necessity) it wouldn't have functioned. Awesome. Not that the sprinklers would actually help all that much - that much propane in a single vessel, imagine the damage. It's simply not even right.
Toby told me I'm a natural today, a pretty high compliment actually. I've only been there five months. I've been studying fluid catalytic cracking and some other basic refinery knowledge via wikipedia, and am considering investing in chemical engineering or other books available as reference knowledge for the operative and mechanical side of things. I'd like to start studying compressors/pumps/motors as well.
I might start taking some coding classes at an online university. At least try to get an A.A. in programming, if not a B.A. eventually. While working at the refinery. I shouldn't need electives because of my degree. Just to expand my horizons a bit, give me some options.
But the truth is I actually love wrenching and tearing stuff apart and putting it back together. I actually love the physically laborious side of there. You can't really get that at too many places that allow you to learn and utilize so many different practical skills year after year.
The bullets themselves are about 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide and maybe 60 feet long. They were all pressurized as well.
The sprinkler system is a system of 2 inch pipe that runs along the length of each bullet, and there are about 14 bullets all together. We had to remove the first sprinkler in the chain for each bullet, and the last. Fall protection had to be worn in all cases.
It was a half day project. Then we ran into some difficulties testing the system and getting all the gunk out of the pipes (the sole reason we removed so many sprinklers) - a motor operated valve didn't operate. If the system had been needed for an unknowable amount of time prior to our discovery (a once a year maintenance necessity) it wouldn't have functioned. Awesome. Not that the sprinklers would actually help all that much - that much propane in a single vessel, imagine the damage. It's simply not even right.
Toby told me I'm a natural today, a pretty high compliment actually. I've only been there five months. I've been studying fluid catalytic cracking and some other basic refinery knowledge via wikipedia, and am considering investing in chemical engineering or other books available as reference knowledge for the operative and mechanical side of things. I'd like to start studying compressors/pumps/motors as well.
I might start taking some coding classes at an online university. At least try to get an A.A. in programming, if not a B.A. eventually. While working at the refinery. I shouldn't need electives because of my degree. Just to expand my horizons a bit, give me some options.
But the truth is I actually love wrenching and tearing stuff apart and putting it back together. I actually love the physically laborious side of there. You can't really get that at too many places that allow you to learn and utilize so many different practical skills year after year.
