Week 3 (7/20-24) Aluminum Welding!

We were asked to make a minor repair to a hand rail on one of the ramps for Alaska Airlines. We have a welder at the shop and I have been itching to have an excuse to use it, and here it was!

So after reading the instructions (I totally did NOT jump the gun and try to go at it without reading the instructions first...) I managed to get all of my settings dialed in. I used a solid .035" aluminum welding wire with 100% Argon flowing at 25cfm and was fortunate enough to have a 220V outlet to supply sufficient power. We had a piece of scrap aluminum laying around the shop that I had the opportunity to practice on and dial in these settings along with the help of my Miller app on my phone.

My bead on the scrap metal was looking pretty good and decided to go for the hand rail. Of course, It started to fail miserably as I did not take into account that the hand rail was thicker than the scrap aluminum I had been welding. So, after readjusting to the settings I listed above, I managed to save my weld. Upon completion, I took a step back and felt an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment in my first aluminum weld. Take a look!

The weld on the far right is my co-worker, the middle and one directly to the right are mine.

The ramp. The bottom of the last post down is where I welded. 

Not to shabby for first time!

Hours for last week: 31.25

Running total: 115.25

Week 2 (7/13-17)

That week I did not learn anything new to me. It was a whirl wind of trying to keep PM's up to date and completed before the weeks end.

Because of that week I realized how important it is to keep a very thorough record of previous maintenance done on equipment as the next guy who comes along to work on it has absolutely NO idea what you had or had not done last time. Is this a new problem, or an ongoing problem? Did it get a full PM, or partial? What kind of repairs or issues has it had in the past?

These are all questions that can be easily avoided by simply keeping an organized file on that individual piece of equipment in a clean, organized, and relaxing file which can be transferred to a electronic record very easily.




Hours for that week: 24

Running total: 84

Week One

Started a new job working for Bellingham Aviation Services LLC at the airport. My company is contracted with Allegiant Air to perform quarterly maintenance on their equipment used at the airport such as Tug tractors, catering trucks, belt loaders, ground power units, push back tractors, etc.

One thing I learned that stood out to me and was out of the norm was loading the ground power units (GPU). These pieces of equipment are power sources for the airplanes while they are powered down at the airport. However, these large generators do not get used to their maximum potential and therefore can develop harmful build up inside of the engine.

So to prevent this from happening we will attatch the GPU to what is essentially a giant resistor and then loads the GPU and causes it to run at its maximum capacity and helps the engine burn off this build up. Basically, it's almost like switching to a "'re-gen" mode on a modern truck.

Hours this week: 32
Running total: 60