Up to Speed: January 2010

So here in the new year, work has begun! Scott and I went to Lasqueti Island, BC for the holidays to be with my son and visit my dear friend Heather Cameron (True Stitches!). She was knitting a pair of socks, and I had never done that before, but I am proud to say that I have nearly finished my first pair of red wool socks for Scott for his birthday on February 16th. Anyways, I returned to my sewing studio in Athens at Mercury Art Works, got down to work on a commission for a performer, and looking for a new job, as I lost my Waffle job when I left for the holidays. After three weeks of effort, getting steadily more and more broke, I decided that the best thing to do was to take Bill up on his offer to come a stay in the "Dome-ocile", the Geo-desic dome in the woods where he lives, find a job here in Cartersville, and be here to work on the trailer steadily. So, here we are, my dog, Coco-Rosie and me. In the first week here my goals were to find a job and finish the nose of the chassis. I applied for 11 jobs, no word yet, and if Scott had not come up to be with us this weekend I don't think I would have finished the nose work, but together, WE DID IT! Bill has been very under the weather, and it has been very cold and windy, not the ideal conditions to weld and cut metal in. I spent two days welding the cross bracket to stabilize the nose and support the future propane tanks, three days making fine and precise cuts and drilling holes to accommodate the tube jack and hitch in the two arms of the chassis that join at the nose, and making a triangular backing plate with a key hole shape to fit around the jack, and to receive the third bolt in the assembly, as well as sandwich the jack plate, hitch plate, and two arms of the tubing together. Sunday we assembled the nose, securing all the bolts ( one of which Scott ground the shoulder of the bolt down because it was too wide after the threads, below the head to fit through the threaded holes of the hitch, and they didn't sell fully threaded bolts long enough to clear the full four layers of material, once the plate I made was included) and then I welded the hitch and the chassis together, and also secured the nose plate. On Monday we used the two ton hoist the move the front end of the chassis further up the driveway, and it is not in position to weld the aft sections, the remaining 12' and then the bumper onto the 20' of chassis we have COMPLETED!

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