Chapter 28

They had decided to stay in for dinner. This time it was Tess cooking Philippine pork adobo with rice.

After a brief conversation about tomorrow, John asked Marty if she needed anything. After two grand, she was happily playing on John’s laptop. He had no idea of the value of the purchases, but most of it was what she called compilers, whatever the hell that is. He didn’t question it though; his tools were far more expensive. He might get a wire feeder for a couple of grand, but not much more. When she qualified it as work tools, that’s all he and Pixy needed to hear.

Come 0430 John was awakened by the smell of coffee and a warm mouth on his dick. Looking down, he saw Mei was his morning wake up call this time. Relaxing he put his head back and just enjoyed.

“Hurry it up you two, Dad will be here soon” came Pixy’s voice. John had been holding back a bit enjoying the feeling. He stopped trying and soon filled Mei’s mouth.

Looking down at her, he said “Excellent wake up call darling, but it’s time to shake a leg.”

Being a smart ass, she raised one leg in the air and began shaking it.

John chuckled at that, then stood to dress. Walking into the living room, he saw Marty had apparently pulled an all-nighter on whatever it was she was doing.

After getting a cup of coffee, he noted Tess and Mary were already dressed.

John gathered up a folder brimming with a dead tree, and grabbed a couple of *Molletes Mary had made and a piece of bacon to stuff in the middle. They had just finished when Pixy came out and jumped in dressed for work. John looked at her oddly. She answered the unasked question by saying Dad’s request.

Roy pulled up next to John in an old Bronco and passed two welding leathers through the window to Pixy. “Tell those two to try them on before we leave.”

Stepping out, they put the well-fitting leather welding jackets on.

Roy nodded. Beth, watching from the window, waved. Everyone waved at the house.

“Let’s get rolling, follow me in” Roy said through the window.

After passing through farming country side, they could see the plant in the distance over a field of frost covered round hay bales and sleeping cattle.

A few minutes later, John was getting a plant pass for the truck. The other three units of the plant were up and running making a dull roar. Roy rode in with them squeezing Pixy into the middle next to John.

Roy said “ I have a gang box up top for your gear.”

John pulled out a folding hand cart from the tool bed and loaded everything up. A guy wearing a green hardhat came out of the turbine bay John had been instructed to park next to. Seeing everyone in proper protective gear he waved them forward. Inside the bay door was a job trailer that he took everyone into.

What followed was two hours of safety training on Foreign Material Exclusion Zone, Confined Space, and hazardous materials along with general standard safety; all of it standard fare.

When they were done, Roy took them up top via a freight elevator. Looking across the grating that was the floor, John could see the manway for boiler access, already manned by a laborer logging people in and out. Tess seemed fascinated by the view of looking down through the grating floor. Several floors below could be seen. Mary was taking it in stride. Pixy tapped Tess’s hardhat to stop her from looming like a tourist noob.

Roy walked them over to a gang box.

John started unloading gear into the box. He waved Tess and Mary over and asked Mary “Have you ever applied a flow accelerated corrosion grid?”

“Yes, many times.”

John waved Pixy over. “After I give them some gear, I need you take them over to the steam drum, then help them when they get started.”

Grabbing some markers, tape measurers, a chalk line, and *^low stress stamps he handed it all to Mary in a bag.

“The first thing we need to do is grid this thing up. We’ll use a standard FAC pattern to do it. It’s going to be about sixty feet long, so break it up into four quadrants Q1 through Q4 evenly spaced.” Pointing North or at the back side of the boiler, “that is North for your orientation. I’ll be with you as soon as I get the scope ready.”

They headed over to the hatch, logged into the confined space log, then entering the hatch.

Twenty minutes later John was done with the machines and followed them in.

After crawling through the ovoid hatch, he noticed the Steam Drum had been buffed to a shine.

Looking at it, he compared the drawing of it he’d viewed earlier to reality. Something wasn’t right with what he was seeing. Then it dawned on him. He went over to the access hatch for the internals and saw a code plate tack welded to it. Looking over the plate, he noted the rated pressure was for a high-pressure boiler. That was a red flag to him. The plant would have to bring in an ASME R stamp contractor before they could do anything. It also changed the NDE requirements.

Meanwhile, someone came crawling out of the vessel hatch covered in muck. The guy said, “Can you give me a hand” while holding out a grinder and other tools.

So, John helped the guy out while he was wondering who he was and why there was no FME control at the hatch.

After the guy left, John waved Roy over.

“I need to talk to the engineer or plant manager.”

“Why” Roy asked.

John laid his hand on the code stamp plate and said “This is why.”

Roy didn’t have a clue what the significance of it was and just looked at John confused.

“Paragraph U-1© (2)(h) of ASME Section VIII limits the application of this to 15 psi and higher. All the information on the drawings said this was a low-pressure boiler. This plate says otherwise. Further, it changes the code required NDE. I just saw a guy coming out with power tools, in fact he left them at the hatch in that bucket over there. If the plant works on the pressure boundaries of this vessel, they invalidate the stamp. There is a passel full of problems and liabilities with that.”

Roy got the picture and headed out to make some calls. John shone his flashlight through the hole looking for any obvious problems. He saw one immediately. One of the baffle plates in the lower portion had been cut away and was laying in the bottom. Someone had gotten the idea to visually look for problems apparently. They had fucked up by the numbers in doing so.

John called the girls over and told them to stop what they were doing and stand by outside.

After they left, he estimated where the plate had been removed and scanned the area. It was riddled with crack indications. He also noted visually there was some signs of cracking on the outside of the shell.