There are a lot of people in the trades that depend on the buses or family for a ride to the job site. This is good in a way but it really isn’t the best mode of transportation for my trade. When you rely on other people for a ride it can be hard because you have to go by their schedule. Showing up early for work is good, but in winter it could be bad as it gets cold and having to wait around a long time for work to start isn’t fun. On the other hand showing up late for work doesn’t work to your advantage either because no boss likes a person who shows up late all the time. The same thing goes for taking the bus to work. You might get there either way too early or way too late. Riding your bike in summer is another option. It’s a good work out and all, but sometimes you have to carry a lot of tools and if you’re always jumping sites it can get a little difficult. Also, many people don’t like giving rides because most of the time they aren’t offered gas money. Owning your own vehicle is the best option to get to work in a trade where you frequently move from site to site.

One of the greatest things about being an Apprentice is the variety of stuff you get to learn and experience first hand. When I’m not working on cars, there is always something else to do. At my workplace, if there is nothing to fix there is always something to unload, to build, to organize; the list never ends! One of my favorite jobs that I do is unloading trailers. We are a trailer dealership as well as a car dealership, so we do get loads of them in. But they don’t exactly come fully built and ready to go.  They arrive stacked about eight trailers high, so they have to be lifted off, tires put on, fenders fastened on and all the lights, and the ramps also need to be put on. This picture may look unsafe, but it is actually the safest method to do this. The only rule we have is obviously don’t stand underneath. The trailers don’t weigh much, but hydraulics can fail.

My next rotation leaves me in the Apparatus Maintenance (East) division.  As the name would suggest, this division performs weekly, monthly, and yearly maintenance on breakers, relays, transformers and much more.  I work in the St.Boniface/Transcona area.

Today was spent testing impedance relays.  A little research revealed they were manufactured in 1941.

There are four impedance relays pictured above, one per phase and a neutral.  First they are “unplugged,” and removed one by one for testing.  A device is used to inject current into the relay.  Jumpers are placed, and two “sensing leads” are connected.  A laptop is synced up with the testing device to record the results.  Sensing leads tell the laptop whether or not the relay passed or failed the test.  Along with the computer tests, the relays are also trip tested.  This means we imitate a situation where the relay would operate, causing the associated breaker outside to trip.  All of our relays passed with flying colours.

Pictured above is the neutral relay.

In this video, we are testing a relay.  The red alligator clip on the left hand side is one of the sense leads.  You will see a contact open and close, and hear the test set beep.

Two things, the transformer is up and running smoothly, and now we are heavily into breaker maintenance.

Basically every other day this last shift we have done another air blast breaker. That means there are 3 stacks for each of the three phases to pull apart, inspect, clean, and re-install. Its not hard or anything but you really have to pay attention to the order in which you pull things apart. Because after everything is back together and THEN you notice one stupid little washer left over in the tray it makes for a long day.

This week I am back in the control room, and I have four night shifts coming my way and I think I see some fishing in my near future.

Later,

Tracy.

Last weekend I had a chance to do a little volunteer work. I was out in Ontario and was asked to help out with framing a building. The building wasn’t too big, only 1700 square feet. I had three days to frame it and stand the trusses while waiting for other trades like welding to finish the stuff I needed to do my job. I was working with a few volunteers that didn’t have much - if any, experience in the trade. I had a couple that did and helped out but for the most part it was just people who wanted to help but couldn’t do it on their own. We started Friday at 8 and got it done around 12ish on Sunday. Not too bad. The exterior walls went up fast because of the size of the build. The problem with the walls though was the bracing. The pegs went into gravel and weren’t staying strong. We almost lost a wall after coming back from lunch but we saved it in time. To stand the trusses on the building took about three hours. This wasn’t bad considering that we had to use a front end loader to get them up, and the guy controlling it didn’t follow the hand signals we gave. Saturday we got held up on doing the carport/drop off roof because the welders were taking their sweet time with the beams.  When we finally could we didn’t have the correct Hilti nails to fasten the plates. But we got it done as well as the fascia on the main building along with lookouts. Sunday we had to stick frame in the valley which rocked. I got to use training I got a school for this. Then around 12 noon we were done and headed home. It was a good and fun weekend and proves that even though you may not know a lot about framing, it’s not too hard to pick up. Especially for those of you who are looking for a fun and awesome trade.

Today I got to cut some concrete.  Thankfully I was wearing my mask so that saved my lungs.  Man, if I didn’t have that I would be coughing up dust all night.  Wearing a mask isn’t the greatest cause it pulls your hair and just feels bad when you are wearing it.  But it does save your lungs and I think that it was worth spending the money I did to buy it.  It’s got two filters on it and it clears pretty much a lot of the air you end up breathing.  Glasses are a good idea too.  They save your eyes and save you from making a trip to the eye wash station.  A good thing to watch out for though when cutting in a dusty situation is to make sure you do this early enough in the day so you aren’t too sweaty.  If you are, the dust will stick to you and it won’t be fun being covered in the stuff.  So watch how you are cutting to save yourself from this.  For the times when you can’t avoid it, just make sure you have a rag for wiping yourself off.

One of the harder things to do in your working life I think  is to get back into the swing of things after few days off.  It’s really hard to get your head back into the game when all you can think about is how fun and enjoying your last few days off were, and how you wished it would just never end. I don’t have anything really new work-related this week, as it has been more of a recovery week for me. The slow, long days didn’t bring much excitement to the shop. I did take a few days off this month to go to the Dauphin Country Fest, though. It was the first time I went, and I will definitely go back. WOW!  Four days of camping, crowds and entertainment there was awesome! I’m not much of a country fan, but I do listen to some, so I was able to get into the swing of everything. Walking around in a cowboy hat all night is not my style, but I made it work and I had a blast. Other then that, its not so much the entertainment and music that people go there for as I found it, it’s the four days of partying!  I’m heading to the lake this weekend, I’ll post some more interesting blogs next week. Cya then.

At my work place we sell a variety of trailers as well as cars.  Though I am currently apprenticing for a Vehicle Mechanic, I also get to work on and learn a lot about trailers. There is only so much to a trailer, and after time and experience they become quite enjoyable to work on.  Through my workplace I obtained my forklift safety certificate, and I now operate the forklift. When a load of trailers arrives it comes on a flat deck semi trailer, usually about three trailers on a load depending on the sizes. When they arrive I set up the forklift, and carefully lift them up off the semi trailer. The semi driver then pulls ahead and I lower them onto the ground. The process repeats for the others. Since these interstate trailers come in different sizes, the smaller ones can fit inside of the bigger with plenty of room to spare.  This makes for easier shipping. In this photo, you can see me removing one trailer out of another.

Some of the trailer parts have to be fastened back on after unloading, as they have to be removed for shipping. Here, I’ve just finished attaching the fender, and am tightening the last lug nut on the wheels. This is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job. I get to spend the day outside, operating the forklift.

One of the great things about the apprenticeship program is the opportunity to travel around Manitoba.  With Hydro, employees in training are rotated throughout stations in the province.  I just finished my one year rotation at Dorsey Converter Station.

My last day was spent on a crew replacing bearings on a motorized disconnect.  Disconnects, in conjunction with breakers, are used to isolate equipment from live lines.  This allows for maintenance to be performed.  The disconnects, as the name suggests, are driven by a motor.  One shaft moves, and all three phases open through the wonder of mechanics.  If for some reason the motor seizes, the disconnects can be operated by hand.

Replacing bearings involves a lot of wrench work in tight spaces.  It also requires the help of our fine utility crew to provide a crane for lifting the disconnects off of the old bearings, so the new ones can be installed.  My part of the job involved going up in the Genie lift to remove  the disconnects from the grounded bus, rigging, and signalling to the crane operator.  Part of our training with Manitoba Hydro involves safe rigging practices, as well as the certification required to legally operate a Genie lift.