If it Moves, Salute it; if it Doesn't, Paint it.

That bit of wisdom has been in the Navy longer than anyone knows, which means it must be true. I found this past weekend that enginerooms do not move. As such, I spent a good amount of time painting B-4.

The immediate concern was the deckplates. I believe I have failed to mention previously that most of the deckplates on the upper and lower levels of B-4 (on the starboard side) had been painted previously. The entire division, all three of us, were concerned

with the gratings these two past weekends. On the port side of the upper level, rather than solid plates of steel for the deck, there are gratings, basically a catwalk, much like you would see above subway lines for ventilation. The lower level of the port side has solid deckplates. All of the decking, solid or grating, is not fastened down, but sits upon a framework of angle-iron. This allows for easy access to what would otherwise be generally inaccessable areas of the miles of piping that wind throughout the einginerooms.

The gratings had to be lifted out of place, taken up to the deck and then across to the picnic area ashore. After that, Gus and I ran an air line from the manifold in B-3, up to the second (O-1) deck, fastened it to a 20mm gun tub, and then ran it across to shore. Once the gratings were laid out, then the paint sprayer was unleashed on them, Gus and I taking turns changing the dull metal to shipshape gratings worthy of the finest of enginerooms. This was a multi-day project in and of itself.

This past weekend was more of the same. The upper level gratings had been returned to place during the week, and based on the "before" photo you saw, the difference is apparent. The upper level having been done, the same process had to be repeated for the deckplates in lower level.

But the process is a bit more involved than I first stated. Of course the deckplates have to be cleaned up, but to replace them on top of angle-iron that had not itself been chipped and painted would be, well, irresponsible. So most of Saturday found me with a scraper bar and rag going through 60 years worth of paint, oil, and grease. I kid you not, on some of the areas, I removed a 1/4" thick layer of dirt, oil, and grease and an additional 1/8 - 1/4" of paint. But in the end, everything looked fine, with the new paint applied. This Monday, while I'm taking a day off between work and USS SLATER, Gus and Carl will most likely be back at it, painting and then replacing the deckplates. Once that is done, B-4 will look 10 times better, but with still a ways to go.

Next, I think, will be B-3, the engineroom forward of B-4. Recently the welders cut a hole in the bulkhead separating B-4 and B-3, and a watertight door is scheduled to go in the hole. All original accesses to the enginerooms are through small hatches and steep ladders, so these doors will make the spaces more accessable for all our visitors.

Well, since I have been dink in posting, I suppose I have to drop a little teaser here. You see, they are doing some work on one of the 20mm mounts, and I did manage to get a few good photos. But, I'm just too darned tired to post and talk about them now, so I guess you'll just have to stick around and check back...

Fits and Starts

Well, folks, I admit it's been a while since I last posted, and there are a few reasons for that. One is that recently, I really haven't been doing anything other than messing around with the same valves on the mess deck, making them look much better and really taking my time for it. Second, or more of a continuation of first, is that I have been dedicating more of my time for tours recently. My work schedule has put me in Albany more during the week, and most of the maintenance crew comes in on Saturdays. So the maintenance I've been doing recently is light, one-man work; and there's really nothing that exciting about that.

However, I promise that after this coming weekend, there should be more interesting stories to relate and pictures to share. I'll be back down on a weekend, and there should be some more complex and detailed work to be done that will make for better reading and photography. Until then, I hope that you won't be too put off by my apparent leave of absence.

Enter the Trusty Sidekick

Well, it's finally happened. I've finally done it. I got another student in my section down to SLATER, and I think he's hooked. And truth be told, it was really his idea. Most people at work know what I do over my weekends, and often times I get asked about it. "Are you going down to Albany this weekend?" and other variants of that question are not uncommonly asked of me. So when an Electrician's Mate asked me if he could come along the other day, I of course immediately checked with "the Management" and told him to come along.

Due to the work schedule and corresponding screwyness of our sleep schedules, we didn't get down to Albany until about noon. The sun was too hot in my opinion to stay outside painting, and the valves in B-4 and other spaces belowdecks lacked air conditioning, so I made my way down to the mess deck instead and decided that some of the valves down there could use some work. Little did I know what I was getting myself in for.

I removed three valves. The first valve had what looked like solder or a weld bead across the stem, which made removing the handwheel on impossible. In fact, there wasn't even a nut, just these dribbles of once-molten metal fouling the threads and keeping the handwheel in place. Since the handwheel was non-period aluminum, I decided that some "machanical agitation" would not be uncalled for. So I went and retrived a "mechanical agitator" (tr. "large hammer") and proceeded to, er, "remove" the handwheel, with charm, grace, and refinement.

That having been done, I cut the threaded portion away, ground down the top, drilled and tapped the stem for a screw after having taken the various parts to the wire wheel and cleaning them up. Reassembled, the valve went back into place. And that, truth be told, is about all I got done in six hours. The rest of it, fighting with valves that didn't want to come out, didn't want to come apart, and didn't want to co-operate, is pretty much standard operating procedure, and you've heard about it all before. On one of the valves, I even encountered a handwheel nut that was truly welded into place. The handwheel is unique, so I'm going to have to finesse this one over the next few weeks.

In the middle of all of this, the "Electrician for Hire", or EM3, as I'll call him here, was busy delving into the electrical side of things. I showed him the enginerooms and the power distribution switchboards, and then he was introduced to some of the electrical bits aboard, and he spent most of the day, after having initially helped me remove the valves, reading up on and disassembling a set of synchros. Hopefully his intrest has been piqued to the point that he'll be a regular until our class leaves school here.

Well, that's about all I've got for today. The plan is to get B-4 on the tour by next month. Two months ago, I didn't think it'd be possible. But day by day, the pieces come together, and I'm tempted to say that we just might make it.