It just rained and rained.

Instead I did some programming work for a client, to catch up on several days lost due to a number of interruptions.

We also went to the cinema ("Last Cab to Darwin" is an excellent movie by the way).

Sunday

The current project is to install a 10 metre PFC 150 across the top of the front face of the street level frame.

This will support the front loft wall over the bay window voids.

I have four excellent pieces of PFC 150 that Ian rescued for me.

Unfortunately they are 400 mm too short meaning that any weld would occur mid bay window span.

This is not a major problem - it just means that I would only trust Ross to do a mid span weld, not myself.

If the weld is sitting over support studs then I am quite comforable with my welding.

With this in mind I headed out to site to see if I had two pieces that were at least 3800 mm long.

My stack of steel is overun with dense, wet weeds.

To avoid soaking my feet I used the brush cutter to clear around the pile.

There were also a lot of rotting leaves to rake away and add to my compost pile.

I spent 3 hours cleaning up and organising the steel so that I could carefully assess it.

I found two piece that were at least 3800 but unfortunately one had a bow in two directions - so was not up to the job.

Thinking that I had to give the job to Ross, I walked out to have a look at the framing at the front of the house.

Looking at it I realised that the left and right nib stud frames gave me an extra 400 mm leeway.

ie I could weld an extra 400 mm on to the steel at home and still have a continuous length across the bay window void.

At the time I thought that I had wasted 3 hours of the day but later realised that many of the steel pieces that I had cleaned up and inspected will in fact be used in the loft floor for other purposes.

Back home I used my flat trolley and the utility to move the good PFCs from the workshop area down to my wood machining area and on to horses.

This took 3 hours and a lot of care to avoid injuring myself as I moved the 40 Kg weights around.

So not a lot of progress over the weekend. However, during the coming week, whenever I take a break, I am well set up to start working on this beam.

I have decided to join the 3 sections together using fish plates.

This will make installation much easier (placing 3 smaller pieces rather than one 10 metre length) and also obviate the need to weld the sections together out on site.