The Great Plasma Cutter experience

We have had a couple of weekends away since the last big working bee so progress has been a little slow.
However Tina and I have managed to mulch all the plantings we have done so far using some Cyclone Yasi mulch we got from the council. 

We have cut our first hole inside the container using the Plasma cutter MK2. It’s a long story but the first one I was sold would not run on the generator and we even purchased a $ 250 extension cord (on advice from Brian) to try to run it of the mains from our neighbours pump circuit board. All to no avail so after I took it back and had a bit of dummy spit, I parted with more money for a better one that was guaranteed to work on my 8Kva geny.

So with the new Plasma cutter in hand we cut out the first hole in between the lounge and dining area. The container walls are made of quite thick panel so we have to cut them off in about 900mm pieces. This takes a long time, is bloody hot and the burning of the special paints and coatings they use are quite noxious.  So one hole down but because the 2 containers are side by side we will need to repeat this for the second wall to get the full opening.

Tully rain fills the tank

We have water

I managed to pick up a load of seconds paver from a local manufacturer and it is our intention to fully pave under the workshop roof. This will need quite a bit of thought about slope run off etc as the rain comes in some mighty angles so there is always some water underneath the roof.

 
Tina and I head back on the weekend and with the tank connected awaited rain. They always say be careful what you wish for and down it came 100mm filling the tank in about 2 ½ hours. We did manage to fit the barge nesting channels on the workshop roof, weld the workshop containers to the stumps and fix up some water runoff issues. With all the rain we had some time to remove numbers from the containers  which seems to be a never ending job. There was a bit of of OH&S incident but we can report no serious injuries.

Brian and the Roof beams

Tina’s dad Brian is down for a friends party and kindly stays on for a few days to assist. First job we put up the gutter and wait for rain. While we wait for the main roof beams to be delivered we make all the support posts and we welded on all the brackets. I got the plates pre-fabricated this time with all the holes punched and cut to length which saved heaps of effort.

3 main beams arrive and after we are set up Brian welds on all the end plates and cleats. There was some delay between the delivery of the remaining beams so we carried on to other jobs. We did this all week in hot dry conditions on top of metal shipping containers. Hard work, but we had cold beers to keep us hydrated. So by the end of the week all 10 main roof beams are welded up with all the posts made as well. Just need to weld on the end cleats which I’m getting made this weekend of course then Tina needs to paint them.

So a special thanks to Brian who’s help has progressed us weeks ahead.