The weather report for the upcoming week from Modesto, the area I moved from. I've seen it hotter, but not by much. Anything over 105 is like sticking your head in an oven, I don't care if it's 'dry' heat or not.
pansies... here in the big sandy desert south of Vegas, we're under an extreme heat advisory, it has been over 110° since last week, the advisory runs until next Tuesday. Last night it went down to 88°, we were back over 100° before 0900 this morning
I worked in a steel melt shop, making steel for the investment cast industry and for the aerospace industry. The melt floor on the airmelt side was around 150 degrees in the summer. It was about 140 in the winter, if we opened the huge door, but we could not keep it open, due to the cold blowing in and freezing the other parts of the factory, where the workers could get snowed on. Wearing the silver suits like a baked potato, while doing the jobs involved with melting, refining, and casting, plus transferring the steel between all of the various places, was almost unbearable. You could only do it if you became accustomed to it gradually. And we kept a close eye on each other, to ensure that nobody became overheated, with heat stroke or heat exhaustion. We did have a couple of control rooms that we were in during the operations that were built of cement blocks, with windows, that were air conditioned, and were between 75-80 degrees, and so we did have some respite from the heat, but we did spend much of our time on the floor, dealing with ladles, vessels, and furnaces, etc. The hottest job that I did there, was running a vacuum furnace. It was under a huge dome, with an 8,000 pound furnace that melted under high vacuum. The entire process was done via portholes, to view, and a top charger, and a side charger, plus the molds were placed on a circular platform in front of the furnace. Once the heat was ready, it was tapped into the molds which were basically pipes standing on end, and the turntable rotated around, and each pipe was filled individually. After the molds sat for 30-60 minutes depending on the alloy, the dome was opened, and the molds were removed, the turntable cleaned up from splashes and spills, the furnace precharged with what it would hold, new molds loaded, and then the dome closed again, and the whole process started all over. The turntable when we first stepped on it was so hot, that we had to wear wooden sandals strapped onto our shoes, to keep from melting our boots. The ambient temperature was around 300F. We wore coveralls, because if you leaned over and touched any metal you would get burned immediately. I have a spot on the top of my head the size of a 50 cent piece that I accidently touched onto the new molds when I was in the bottom of the furnace and leaned over into them. And I was wearing a welders cap at the time, to protect my head. It burned me through the cap, and made a brown cinder of the portion that touched the mold. We inserted the new molds into the furnace at least 800 degrees to avoid any moisture as it would make it impossible to pump down to the vacuum level that we needed. We normally got down to 5 microns or less.
California Hot. I don't care...I ain't there.
ReplyDeleteAt least it drops down to the 60s at night. In Texas, when we get highs like that, the overnight low is around 80.
ReplyDeleteThis time it does. I've seen it in the 80s at 4 AM before.
DeleteMore Californians moving Eastward. Its hot in Texas please go Maine.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was stationed in Sacramento I rode a motorcycle. In the summer it was like riding in a blast furnace.
ReplyDeletepansies... here in the big sandy desert south of Vegas, we're under an extreme heat advisory, it has been over 110° since last week, the advisory runs until next Tuesday. Last night it went down to 88°, we were back over 100° before 0900 this morning
ReplyDeleteGot to 110 one day in Albany, OR when I was a kid. We all stayed inside and brought the dog with us. He was quite happy right under the window AC.
ReplyDeleteI worked in a steel melt shop, making steel for the investment cast industry and for the aerospace industry. The melt floor on the airmelt side was around 150 degrees in the summer. It was about 140 in the winter, if we opened the huge door, but we could not keep it open, due to the cold blowing in and freezing the other parts of the factory, where the workers could get snowed on.
ReplyDeleteWearing the silver suits like a baked potato, while doing the jobs involved with melting, refining, and casting, plus transferring the steel between all of the various places, was almost unbearable. You could only do it if you became accustomed to it gradually. And we kept a close eye on each other, to ensure that nobody became overheated, with heat stroke or heat exhaustion.
We did have a couple of control rooms that we were in during the operations that were built of cement blocks, with windows, that were air conditioned, and were between 75-80 degrees, and so we did have some respite from the heat, but we did spend much of our time on the floor, dealing with ladles, vessels, and furnaces, etc.
The hottest job that I did there, was running a vacuum furnace. It was under a huge dome, with an 8,000 pound furnace that melted under high vacuum. The entire process was done via portholes, to view, and a top charger, and a side charger, plus the molds were placed on a circular platform in front of the furnace. Once the heat was ready, it was tapped into the molds which were basically pipes standing on end, and the turntable rotated around, and each pipe was filled individually. After the molds sat for 30-60 minutes depending on the alloy, the dome was opened, and the molds were removed, the turntable cleaned up from splashes and spills, the furnace precharged with what it would hold, new molds loaded, and then the dome closed again, and the whole process started all over.
The turntable when we first stepped on it was so hot, that we had to wear wooden sandals strapped onto our shoes, to keep from melting our boots. The ambient temperature was around 300F. We wore coveralls, because if you leaned over and touched any metal you would get burned immediately. I have a spot on the top of my head the size of a 50 cent piece that I accidently touched onto the new molds when I was in the bottom of the furnace and leaned over into them. And I was wearing a welders cap at the time, to protect my head. It burned me through the cap, and made a brown cinder of the portion that touched the mold. We inserted the new molds into the furnace at least 800 degrees to avoid any moisture as it would make it impossible to pump down to the vacuum level that we needed. We normally got down to 5 microns or less.
Most of California was originally a desert GET used to it.
ReplyDelete