I was up very late on Friday evening helping a friend set up a new notebook computer so I made a very late start on Saturday - about 9.00am out on site.
Having learned from my mistake last week, I made sure I distributed the welding across the length of the steel so that no one section was overheated.
It took me several hours, with a couple of breaks, to weld on 20 cleats.
The end result was very good - no distortion in the beam.
After that I attempted to weld down the corner front column.
A rather ugly result but structurally strong.
I left at 6.00 pm.
Monday
I headed out at 5.00 pm and applied rust converter to the remaining face the main front beam.
I had to rotate it up onto its edge and I was disappointed to see that I had also turned this piece of steel in to a banana.
Again, it will straighten out during installation but still a nuisance.
Tuesday
Again out to site at 5.00 pm and washed off any excess phosporic acid so that the surface will not react with the zinc primer.
I also purchased a tap and die set during the day so that I can install the bracing rods between the front columns.
This will be a precaution to prevent distorting the existing house while straightening the peripheral beams.
