2009 Week 29 in Review

News from Alaska
I’m onboard the Catalyst again and I’m meeting boat friends everywhere: the crew from the Liseron, former crewmates Chuck and Nissa from the Mist Cove, and the crew from the Catalyst, who are all being relieved today by a whole new crew. Captain Steve, chef Lisa, deckhand Lia, and I will be [...]

2009 Week 28 in Review

Early Sunday morning, I picked up all the remaining tools from the Arthur Foss, put the yacht back in the driveway, cleaned up my desk, and got back on a plane to Quincy, Illinois.
Back to Quincy
I went back to the Indian Grave Pumpouse despite the bad news that only two sets of piston rings had [...]

2009 Week 25 in Review

This June is a very busy month for Old Tacoma Marine Inc. Right after last week’s great Diesel Engine Theory class, I got back on an airplane for Illinois.
Back to Quincy
I got back in to Quincy and the Indian Grave Pumphouse to pick up where I left off two weeks ago: setting up the [...]

2009 Week 24 in Review

OTM Inc spent most of this week working on the Arthur Foss’s Washington, but first:
Update on the Lightship #83
Following our successful preparation of a Preliminary Engineering Report two years ago, Northwest Seaport has asked OTM Inc to submit a bid to serve as project manager for the Lightship Rehabilitation. We assembled our project management [...]

2009 Week 23 in Review

Still scraping bearings
OTM Inc spent most of this week scraping and fitting rod bearings for the Indian Grave Drainage Pumphouse’s Fairbanks-Morse diesels, and making some fine adjustments to the main bearings. I did this with much relief, after getting satisfactory results when testing the main bearings.
Report on the MV Tuhoe
Old Tacoma Marine Inc’s intrepid [...]

2009 Week 22 in Review

Still scraping bearings
This week in the Indian Grave Drainage District pumphouse, I measured the bearings for Engine One, then bounced from engine to engine lapping, scraping, lapping, scraping, lapping, scraping, and cleaning.
Lia flew out to visit and we had a real Quincy lunch with one of the pumphouse operators – a snapping turtle pulled straight [...]

2009 Week 21 in Review

This week, OTM Inc is still in Illinois, fitting bearings.
Still scraping bearings
Last week, three of us started scraping the re-babbitted bearings into the Fairbanks-Morse diesels in Illinois. We got everything set up and started barring the engine over so that the lapping compound could do its trick, but it was really painful. The [...]

2009 Week 17 in Review

OTM Inc in Illinois
I spent most of this week in the middle of an Illinois corn field, but it sure felt like the bilge. The worksite is called “the bottoms,” a huge area about ten feet below the Mississippi River. It’s part of the Indian Grave Drainage District, and is kept [...]

2009 Week 15 in Review

Back from Mexico!
I got a sunburn, but OTM Inc moved right along.
Calls from Illinois
While I was in Mexico, Dan was fielding a lot of calls from Lamar Construction in Illinois.
They’re coordinating main bearing work on three Fairbanks-Morse diesels that drive water pumps for a drainage system in the middle of corn fields, and of course [...]

2009 Week 7 in Review

Work continues on the Catalyst
This week at OTM Inc, we double-checked the Catalyst’s main caps, just to make sure they weren’t too tight. The main caps are the top half of the main bearing, and on Washington Iron Works engines, they sit right on top of the crankshaft. During normal operation, the caps [...]