Another day another shut…..

    We shut at 7-20 am for 8 hours of planned maintenance.  Shag and I had been given our job by Craig the previous day.  We were to retention the Algas filters.  Not a difficult or heavy job, just plain awkward.  It involved slackening off the bolts retaining each tensioning wire, applying tension to the wire, then tightening the bolts.  There are nine wires to each section and twelve sections in all.  All being well I estimated that the entire job would take us approximately three hours.

    As always when taking on engineering jobs Shag took the lead.  He immediately designated me as the person who would undo and tighten the bolts, while he would be responsible for the tensioning of the wires.  Tensioning the wires involves levering pressure onto the wires with a screwdriver, then holding them tight while the bolts are secured.  Not hard work but finicky.

    We needed a long thin screwdriver and Shag checked everyone I had before he very reluctantly opened his box of treasures and selected one of his.  He seems to have a Golden Rule when it comes to tools.  “Never use one of mine when one of Paul’s will do”

    The first section was going quite well until the socket came off the ratchet and remained balanced on the bolt.  With nimble fingers I quickly retrieved it before it fell into the filter system.  Shag gave me “The Look” and cautioned me to be careful not to let anything fall into the machinery.  Anyway, no harm done.

    On the second section the job started to go pear shaped.  I had loosened a bolt and Shag was performing the levering action when he lost his grip on the screwdriver.  Everything went into slow motion as he frantically tried to catch it before it fell.  The CLANG as it hit the bottom was quickly followed by “BASTARD!”  We climbed down to floor level and looked at the position of the drain valves.  I suggested that perhaps it might swill out with a high pressure hose and was treated to another one of Shag’s Looks.

    Dennis Crookes passed by and Shag, unwilling to risk another of his own screwdrivers, borrowed one from him.  Having considered all options Shag reported to Craig that “WE” had dropped the proverbial “spanner in the works” and were told that it must be retrieved before start up. 

    Shag, pessimistic as always, told me that we would retrieve the screwdriver when we had finished the job.  He was working on the theory that there might be a whole collection of screwdrivers down there before then!

    So, five sections later, it came as little surprise when we were treated to another Clang as Dennis’s screwdriver took the inevitable journey into the bottom of the Algas Tank.  Two down, who knows how many to go.  This time Shag suggested that maybe if we had a piece of wood and some string we could somehow fish them out.  What he had in mind for bait I don’t know.  This time Shag was on the receiving end of The Look.

    Anyway, we managed to finish our job without any further loss of screwdrivers and then needed to get the lost ones back.  We considered various options and eventually decided to take one of the twelve sections out.  These sections are held in place by Allan screws and Shag of course asked me to get my Allan sockets out.  Being wise to Shag's tactics I denied having any and once again he reluctantly went and got his own out.  We removed the filter section and looked at the opening we had created.  I took a step backwards and asked Shag which person was going to be on the "screwdriver retrieval mission".  He replied, "Well I suppose that'll be fucking ME!"  We inched the gap round to the bottom of the tank then Shag climbed up onto the side.  I had thoughtfully given the area he was going to climb into a good swilling out but, whilst it was clean, it was exceedingly slippy.   He gingerly started lowering himself into the side of the tank but before long he had run out of hand and footholds and was dangling there, unable to go forwards or backwards.  He said with rising panic that he was fucking stuck and asked me to help him.   I told him to just let go as he was only a few inches off the bottom and down he went!  After making sure that he was okay I passed him some flat boxes to lie on and a rake to pull the screwdrivers out with.  It didn't take too long before he had the two screwdrivers and he quickly scrambled out of the tank. 

    At this point Craig rang me and asked how the job was going.  I told him that we should be about another half an hour before the job was completed.  Shag overheard this conversation and went Berserk.  He shouted that there was any amount of things that could still go wrong.  I rang Craig back and told him that maybe I had been too optimistic in stating thirty minutes and that we would tell him as soon as we had done.

    I inched the gap back round to the top then went round to help Shag get it back into place.  We picked it up and started manoeuvring it into position.  I could see the locating holes and told Shag that "My End Was In".  I was answered by a grunt as he tried to move the section then "BASTARD!"  I looked where he was looking and saw that he had punctured a small hole in the adjacent filter fabric.  "I fucking told you something else could go wrong didn't I?"   Well we considered our options then sent for Dennis Crookes, the mill authority on patching filter fabrics.  Dennis came and told us how to repair the hole then gave us the equipment we needed to do it.  Applying the patch involved us both getting covered in glue and it was a relief when the hole was repaired and the job almost done.  All that remained was to secure the section we had removed and put the covers on.  Simple?  Right! (In Theory).  Old butterfingers managed to drop one of the square washers.  Not, thank God into the tank, but down into the bottom area where we could not find it.  So then we had to find a piece of stainless steel, cut it to size, grind it smooth, drill a hole in it, before we could call the job complete.

    OH WELL.