042515

The first week of shutdown is over and, somehow, I managed to survive!  I don't think I want to do that again...  What a week.  I'm sore and exhausted.

Monday was a prep day as the laundry was still up and running, cleaning up all of the leftovers from last week so they still had to have the high pressure boiler up.  Since my first job was the condensate system that comes off of the HP boiler, it was sort of necessary that the boiler be shut down before I could do any work.  The float controller, or what is called the "manual alternator", was leaking pretty badly and wasn't controlling the level at all, so the whole mechanism had to be replaced.  That had to happen first.  That took a day since it was fairly complicated.  However, setting the levels for pumps start/stop was not going to happen till I could get some water in the tank and that wasn't happening till I got one of the pump's seals replaced because it started leaking also.  Fortunately, they had the parts on hand.  All I did on Monday was to get ready to tear into the controller on Tuesday Morning.

Arlene came to the temple with a couple of other sisters and set up the storage containers for the new temple missionaries that are coming on Friday.  There is a 4th floor storage area for the whites and other temple clothes for ordinance workers.  She was helping getting that all set up for them.  She is also assigned some of the prep work for the new missionaries and, since I am working all the time during shut down, will be handling that.

Tuesday I was able to remove the old controller, which was a real challenge since it had been in place for many years and was really rusted in place.  Got the new one installed and it sort of adjusted till I could get some water in the tank for the final adjustments.

Wednesday was tackle the pump day.  This required removing the pump from it's mounting,  inspecting the impeller and wear ring.  All of the other parts were going to be replaced so I didn't much care about them.  The impeller was a mess so I opted to replace it and found a new one with a new wear ring.  The motor shaft was very rough with lots of pitting.  It was a 50/50 decision as to whether to replace the motor or not.  The seal rests against the shaft and if it leaks at all, it damages the shaft.  It was obvious it had leaked in the past and the corrosion of the shaft was obvious from previous occurrences.  So, the motor had to be replaced.  They had a spare.  So, new motor, impeller, wear ring, nut, bolt, seal assembly and it was like brand new top to bottom.  Got that all back together.  Fired up the boiler to get some water in the system and waited to adjust things.  Once the water came up, set the start/stop of the pump switch and all seemed to work just fine...except the other pump started making noise....they don't have parts for that one...well, not enough right now anyway.

Thursday was the next project.  In January they had a sprinkler line in the overhead freeze, break and flood the 5th floor sealing room, damaging the room and running all the way down into the fourth floor.  There was a check valve on the 5th floor janitor's closet that should have stopped the glycol from going back into the system that didn't.  So, my job was to replace this check valve.  However, this check valve is in a 2" system.  So, we're not talking about small pipe wrenches.  And, of course, they weren't in the middle of the room but against the wall.  The parts were there so they informed me as to how they wanted the check valve installed and I figured a way to do it but it involved a 36", a 24", and a couple of 18" pipe wrenches plus an assortment of other tools, pipe dope, rags and clean up stuff.  Since this had been installed when the temple was new, it did not come apart very easily and it required a torch and heat to even get it to budge a small amount.  It also took Brother Russ Fellows, a fellow Asst Engineer, to come up and help as it's about all I can do to lift that 36" pipe wrench, let alone use the thing.  Sure wish they had those in aluminum!  Managed to get it all put together by the end of the day and ready to test on Friday.  I was really hopping I wouldn't need to do any more tightening 'cause those joints were hard to tighten in the first place.  It was pretty easy when I was 30 but at 66 this stuff is a bit more difficult when I really want to lay down and take a nap a lot more.

Friday we charged the glycol side with the appropriate fluid and the fire side with water and it didn't have any leaks.  Yeah!  All that plumbing experience pays off!  Hope it still isn't leaking on Monday morning...  In the afternoon I spent almost all the time cleaning up as that was a pretty messy fill process.  The pump wouldn't work unless I loosened the end cap.  When I did that, the pump would turn but the fluid would squirt all over the place so I had to loosen it up, get the pump going, then tighten it back up again so we could pump the fluid up into the stand pipe and into the tower vent, actually all the way up to just under the Angel Moroni!  Took about 30 gallons.  So, I ended up with glycol in my hair, my clothes, just about everywhere (floor, ceiling, etc.) in the janitor's closet, including my mouth (yes, it does taste sweet in case you have ever been curious).

So, because we got a lot done this week, the head engineer gave us Saturday off.  I slept in and got caught up on our blog and working on a couple of laptops for friends here.  Think I'll take a nap.  Oh, and we're going to a dinner for the 38 couples that arrived here for their 6 month missions at the temple yesterday!  Yeah, more people!

Arlene met with an assigned couple and showed them their apartment and some of the area Friday afternoon.  That took a fair part of the day.  The temple president's wife sets up a food basket that is delivered to the apartment by the "Winter" missionaries then they go meet with them to show them around a bit.  We got assigned a couple but, of course, only the engineers are working.  Our wives hafta do this little task while we're working.

Monday we start all over again but I think the big projects are over.  We need to do a fire alarm test, replace any lights that are burned out, and any of the last minute stuff.  The new temple missionaries will be doing endowment sessions on Wednesday/Thursday.  We start the spring schedule the following Monday as this temple does Monday sessions to accommodate the crowds.  However, the engineers are off that day.  Well, the missionary engineers are off that day, anyway.  The full timers aren't.  But, we work Saturdays, they don't so much.