Bit of a hiatus recently, sorry folks.
When you start doing something like this you accept that there will be interruptions. All sorts of stuff will intrude and keep the balloon on the ground. I accepted that reality, happy to work around those little problems. However did not expect what happened this week. It's a long story, but it has resulted in my partner ending up on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit of our local hospital with a degree of brain damage. To save me load of writing you can read some of whats gone on here. And here, and also here. (I'm finding that writing about this is useful for me.)
But I need to keep my head in the real world, think ahead and plan for the time that all will be well and we can go off and use the new lifting roof.........so the work continues, and I arranged to go to the welders on Saturday for an hour to get the re-aligned roof section rewelded where I'd cut the joints. It worked just fine. Bit of a bow in the alloy (upwards at each end) where the heat has slightly dipped it but nothing that wont pull out when clipped down. And I still have an inverted L section to bolt longitudinally on each side to act as the support for the roof bars. This will be substantial alloy section and should help to 'flatten' the roof and also provide considerable rigidity. The lifting roof section is so light I can lift it on and off on my own, move it about and generally manipulate it with ease (despite a bad back!).
Cut joint ready for reweld. This is the front end of the lifting portion.
Stevie the welder does the job on Saturday.
Realigned box bracing attached with pop rivet so the roof stays correctly aligned until welded. Drilled them out later. You can see where the old weld was and get an idea of how far out of alignment I managed to get it. Lesson learned! What I should have done was to pop rivet the box sections at each end in the first instance and add the bracing bars across each corner so that it was exactly the shape of the lower section, then when lifted off for welding it would not have 'shifted'.
Cut joint ready for reweld on the rear section of the lifting bit.
Today I got the grinder out and smoothed off all the top welds ready to put the alloy roof skin on, before going back to the hospital - where there is some real progress, my partner has emerged from induced coma and after they switched off the sedative delivery and raised the temp on the 'chiller' (they dramatically lower body temperature to counteract brain swelling) and she is giving big smiles, eyes working, limb movement, comprehension and attempts at speech (but because of the tracheostomy for the ventilator she cant talk). But it is all happening in slow motion for her. But we did not expect this a few days ago. We have been told by doctors to expect ups and downs, they are concerned about fits. But at the moment although starting to 'emerge' she is very very tired - experiencing lots of sadness and elation and confusion as she struggles to understand what happened. One moment she was walking along, and she woke up in ICU three days later connected to a vast array of machinery. Strange days.
When you've parked up your adventure wagon tonight, here's what I suggest. Hug your partner, and tell them you love them. Then go out and plan your next excursion together. And do it. Just go and do it.
When you start doing something like this you accept that there will be interruptions. All sorts of stuff will intrude and keep the balloon on the ground. I accepted that reality, happy to work around those little problems. However did not expect what happened this week. It's a long story, but it has resulted in my partner ending up on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit of our local hospital with a degree of brain damage. To save me load of writing you can read some of whats gone on here. And here, and also here. (I'm finding that writing about this is useful for me.)
But I need to keep my head in the real world, think ahead and plan for the time that all will be well and we can go off and use the new lifting roof.........so the work continues, and I arranged to go to the welders on Saturday for an hour to get the re-aligned roof section rewelded where I'd cut the joints. It worked just fine. Bit of a bow in the alloy (upwards at each end) where the heat has slightly dipped it but nothing that wont pull out when clipped down. And I still have an inverted L section to bolt longitudinally on each side to act as the support for the roof bars. This will be substantial alloy section and should help to 'flatten' the roof and also provide considerable rigidity. The lifting roof section is so light I can lift it on and off on my own, move it about and generally manipulate it with ease (despite a bad back!).
Cut joint ready for reweld. This is the front end of the lifting portion.
Stevie the welder does the job on Saturday.
Realigned box bracing attached with pop rivet so the roof stays correctly aligned until welded. Drilled them out later. You can see where the old weld was and get an idea of how far out of alignment I managed to get it. Lesson learned! What I should have done was to pop rivet the box sections at each end in the first instance and add the bracing bars across each corner so that it was exactly the shape of the lower section, then when lifted off for welding it would not have 'shifted'.
Cut joint ready for reweld on the rear section of the lifting bit.
Today I got the grinder out and smoothed off all the top welds ready to put the alloy roof skin on, before going back to the hospital - where there is some real progress, my partner has emerged from induced coma and after they switched off the sedative delivery and raised the temp on the 'chiller' (they dramatically lower body temperature to counteract brain swelling) and she is giving big smiles, eyes working, limb movement, comprehension and attempts at speech (but because of the tracheostomy for the ventilator she cant talk). But it is all happening in slow motion for her. But we did not expect this a few days ago. We have been told by doctors to expect ups and downs, they are concerned about fits. But at the moment although starting to 'emerge' she is very very tired - experiencing lots of sadness and elation and confusion as she struggles to understand what happened. One moment she was walking along, and she woke up in ICU three days later connected to a vast array of machinery. Strange days.
When you've parked up your adventure wagon tonight, here's what I suggest. Hug your partner, and tell them you love them. Then go out and plan your next excursion together. And do it. Just go and do it.
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