My first job was to carefully clamp the 1 metre extension on to the main front beam to take the length from 12 metres up to 13 metres.

This took about 2 hours to get right and then I applied four tack welds.

Next I took off all the clamps and guides and checked the alignment using a long length of the folded steel stud framing.

The joint was out by a few degrees so I ground out two of the tack welds and adjusted the alignment.

Then I retacked it but somehow it went out of alignment again.

I ended up applying a very heavy piece of angle iron to pull the beam back in to an alignment and luckily, with the application of heat during the welding, it pulled back in to shape.

For some reason I felt really happy with myself - I had made a mistake but I had also worked out how to fix it.

This made me feel more confident in my steel working and welding.