How to paint a barge part in 105 easy steps!

[Redlined]

Yes... this is how I make a living.

The following is a lighthearted walk through the process of painting your average barge part. In this case the Tankerman's House. (Its the house where the Tankerman lives! Duh!)


Step one. Make a barge part

Step two. blow off, preasure wash, Wirebrush rust,mask off pre-painted parts and weld-zones



Step three. Inspector checks clean-ness and finds Bad welds/unwelded pieces and or pieces welded together that arent supposed to be and calls the welders back.

Steps four through ten. repeat steps two and three until the Buildway supervisor starts getting tetchy about deadlines.

Step eleven. Apply one coat of Bronze Epoxy 10-12 mils (thousandths of an inch) wet thickness.



Step Twelve Apply one coat of Aluminum Epoxy 10-12 mills wet thickness (note that there is no difference between the bronze and aluminum coatings. Their just there so the inspector can tell we actually applied another coat instead of just saying we did).



Steps thirteen & fourteen. Apply two coats white Polyurethane 1-2 mills wet thickness,



Step Fifteen. Apply one coat, by hand, black Epoxy to roof walkway. (note that there is no difference between the black and the bronze and aluminum coatings. Their just there so the inspector can tell we actually applied another coat instead of just saying we did).



Step sixteen. Throw sand on Black Epoxy in the Roof walkway. This is called "Non-skid" its a safety feature and we charge extra for it.



Step Seventeen. Blow excess sand (read "sand that didnt stick to the paint") off of part.

Step eighteen. Apply one coat, again by hand, black Polyurethane to roof and roof walkway.



Steps nineteen through twenty seven. Bits, parts, and brackets that touch the floor receive one coat black Polyurethane and have an approximately one inch boarder cut around them (For overlap when the floor is painted).



Step 28 Heavy lift crew places the Tankerman's House atop the barge.



Step 29. The Tankerman's House is placed on the deck, the welders then trim the bottom for a precision fit!



steps 30 through 57. The tankerman's House is welded to the deck.



The Outfitters are called in and deflowerment begins! Bits



parts



Gizzmos and dohickys are all installed over the fresh paint job.



Welders are by nature excitable creatures that will sometimes set things on fire for no apparent reason.




(to be continued?)

[Florin1]

Cool job!

[kimokalihi]

That's cool. Looks like fun.

[beatersubi]

Cool job, indeed. I like seeing the way thing go together.
Does one need to be an Outfitter in order to engage in deflowerment? Perhaps its just me, but that sounds like fun!

[Legacy777]

Why paint everything and then weld stuff to i?

[206er]

they want a more controlled environment for that work maybe?

[Redlined]

Why paint everything and then weld stuff to i?

We (the paint crew) have been asking that very question for two years. There are some, albit few, places where it has to be done as there is simply no way to get paint there once things are installed.... however this is the exception and not the rule. Much easier just to put everything in a weldable primer and paint everything once its all together. But thats not how management wants it.

[SILINC3R]

non-skid under boots good. non-skid under knuckles bad.

[Redlined]

Continuing.

58. Weld zones are coated in Epoxy. once again leaving a stripe on the deck for "Overlap"





Walls are wiped off then cleaned with paint thiner. Two coats of Polyurathane are applied to weldzones.



deck and floor are final coated and cut in to the walls over the overlap.



Finished



at the Christening a 13 year old girl whacks the Tankermans with a bottle of booze and chips the paint (about a foot above the handrail at the top of the stairs)



Another quality American product brought to you by the East Side Painter Crew

"Stubby" King, Foreman "Its perfectly safe"
"Big Titties" Kaufman "I wanna go home and rub up on some big titties" "Makin it happen"
"Keebler"/"Gizmo" Pantzer "Trying to remember" "Back in Wisconson"
"Cat whiskers" Turner (me) "WAT DA FUK?"
"Junior" "short stroke" "Huge Cock" "Gold Star Painter" Isacson "Later Bitches!" "Thats how they do it at Gunderson"
"Tweaker" Connley "*snort* Allrightguysletsgetthisdone!"

[mx4life]

Nice pics, how does someone get into that? It does look like fun

[Redlined]

depending how you want to do it.

Non-union. Show up and say you want to work. $10-15 per hour Meh benifites

Metal trades. Find a union shop. say you want to work. join union(iron workers/Boilermakers) $13-18 per hour Decent benifites.

Painters Union(international Craftsmanship of Painters and Allied trades). Sign up for the apprentice ship(5 years). Requires 17 years of age and either a GED or Diploma. Start at about $12 per hour and get a % bump every 4000 hours (about 6 months) + cost of living raise every year. Journey painter/blasters earn $21-25 per hour $75 a day per diam if you have to go out of town and pretty good benifites.

As a bonus you might land a Pervailing wage job and your looking at more like $27-30 per hour.

Construction is a fickle beast. You spend as much time off work as you do working. Earn boat loads of cash when you are. Ive learned to live fairly humbly and squirell money away when Im working to take the edge off when im not. The more ambitious can comb the shops and keep working more or less steadily.