JLarson's Shop Projects

[Jlarson]

There's going to be some field service stuff too.

A little about me, I'm an electrician and millright/pipefitter and I also went to school for EE. Grew up learning from a dad that did pipe fitting, fabrication, rigging, industrial mechanical on all sorts of industrial projects. Got into the industrial electrical and instrumentation because of it, liked it and went more that way. Done a nice variety of electrical work on different industrial projects, project management and then Plant maintenance. Now I work in instrument and controls (I&C) for a municipality.

My schedule gives me a good amount of time to devote to my own consulting business. We offer services to industrial and municipal clients. Lots of instrumentation, controls, SCADA work, programming and industrial networking. Also shop and field service, fabrication, welding, we build a lot of control cabinets. I've picked up a lot smaller utilities that don't have the full time support staff or are in remote areas of AZ and can't find the services they need locally.

I'm going to post a variety of electrical, mechanical, welding work.

Some of these are older projects since I'm working on organizing some of our network storage.

 

[Jlarson]

This is a panel I did several months ago for what was pretty much a big baler. Hydraulically operated, starter for the 10hp motor driving the pump, MCR, control relays for directional valves, The PLC replaced a bunch of timers and relays from the old system.

Built up, we use a lot of Drill taps in the shop and tons of 1/2" long 1/4"-20 button heads. We try and avoid using self tappers in control panels for future serviceability reasons.

Wired and labeled. We use Dymo Rino printers for all wire labels, either heat shrink or wrap around depending on specs.

In it's can and wired up. Guys pulled a multi conductor tray cable in to avoid fighting a bunch of 16 or 14 gauge spools.

 

[Jlarson]

Some fab work.

Wastewater customer had a lift station wet well with a steel lid just about totally rotted out, I should have gotten a pic of the underside, it was real sketchy to walk on. Nobody wanted to fall through, that be a real ****** day

Demo'ed the old, had to pull out the electric and cut the scrubber pipe. An SDS spade bit made quick work of busting the old dry pack.

Old steel in-bed anchors got cut off and capped with construction sealant

We built the cover in the shop, got a 5'x5' cut of plate and plasma'ed the circle and cut the door and framed it. We did the openings on site with a mag drill then epoxied the under side. Top got painted with red oxide primer and gloss black industrial enamel per the customers specs. A nice gust of wind messed up the paint

We didn't want to slop grout all over the fresh paint so we packed the gap with spill berms and the guys packed it a few days later.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Looking forward to this; you do great work. Where in AZ are you?

 

[Jlarson]

Thanks, Phoenix is home base but we do work all over, border all the way to the Grand Canyon and the Navajo reservation occasionally.

 

[Jlarson]

A lot of the shop welding is odd ball stainless fittings. We make a ton of chemical injection quills for water treatment.

Kinda a special one, built for a tank a customer installed to achieve the necessary contact time for disinfection. Installed in a hot tap fitting so it could be cleaned, they wanted to swagelok in there so they could separate the quill from the fitting for some reason, so they got a swagelok That one we made in 08 was a prototype and we've made them several since over the years so I guess they work.

 

[Jlarson]

This is a sectionallized panel we did recently. Power on one side and control on the other only thing above 24VDC on the control side is the 120VAC to the PLC power supply and the recep and light. It's sitting on a scetchy slab so we set it on a skid we could level, also doubled as fork pockets for install.

We did a few more very similar for a plant that wanted no 120 in the control side so a DC powered PLC rack supply, sleeved the light wire in conduit from the power side, and put the recep in a box and nippled into the power side. That way their techs could access the control side without flash gear.

 

[Jlarson]

This is a long term project (aka money pit lol) we have an enclosed trailer we use for site work. We had this roll on roll off idea originally. It really just turned into a rolling **** pile, and when parked between jobs accumulated more.

Plenty of stuff just tossed in while parked at the shop.

Dumped it all, either went back where it belonged, found a new home or went bye.

Wood butchery underway

I'm slowly reloading and organizing now. It's about time to take more pics of the progress on this.

 

[matt_i]

Very nice, I was trying to zoom in to see what brand of PLC you are using for the baler?

I have an Automation Direct "Click" PLC that I have outside right now that I'm integrating into the building itself (security, air compressor functions, automating a staircase, future). It seemed fast and easy for the test function that I wired up, I liked the free software part.

Most of the stuff I know is harvested from Al Bradley/Rockwell, which works great but also costs (!) along the way. Not suitable for home operations even if the hardware arrived for free

 

[Jlarson]

It's a Click with a power supply and AC input and output modules added. We use a lot of clicks for relay and timer replacement stuff, and now that they have analog and Ethernet we've been expanding our use of them.

We'll do AB, Automation Direct, Siemens, IDEC, SCADApac mostly. Occasionally we get an Omron/Hitachi/Mitsubishi or a GE project but not often. Used to do some Modicon but pretty much all our customer's interest in those dried up after Schneider bought em.

 

[Jlarson]

A little PLC interfacing to some access control, doing some real time clock stuff and timers. The cabinet was already in the phone closet, we emptied it out and put the sub panel in it. Needed several knock out seals after I ripped a bunch of cables out of it

Quick 316SS Camloc 45

 

[Stuart in MN]

We'll do AB, Automation Direct, Siemens, IDEC, SCADApac mostly. Occasionally we get an Omron/Hitachi/Mitsubishi or a GE project but not often. Used to do some Modicon but pretty much all our customer's interest in those dried up after Schneider bought em.

I'm an EE and work for a consulting firm, mostly doing design for water and wastewater treatment plants. In my area, Allen-Bradley is pretty much the 800 pound gorilla in the room - once in a great while you'll see one of the other brands, but it's rare.

 

[Jlarson]

Yeah that's how it used to be here but more and more people are getting tired of AB's cost and service. We've been swapping a lot of AB drives for ABB and Yaskawa too.

 

[Jlarson]

With the holidays and setting up a new service truck I've been pretty busy and not taking as many job pics as I should be.

I modified the rack that came with the service body, button welded up all the old holes and added alley light mounts and raised the beacon mounts up on little risers.

Looks better in black too

Here's a little field welding repair I just did. Had to pull the trash rack out of the headworks of a small waste water plant to repair some holes that had formed in the thin 304 stainless sheet that was on each side of the rack.

Note the lack of lifting eyes so somebody (me) had to hang over the edge of the structure and place the improvised lifting device, aka a junky C clamp, on it.

A gallon of purple power, a pressure washer and then some good old fashioned 12.5% bleach and a few zip discs and all the old **** got cut off.

I stitched on some 3/16" 316 plate, I also had some SS anchor bolts in the truck so I rigged up some lifting points so nobody (me) had to screw with the C clamp again

 

[Jlarson]

I don't have any projects scheduled this weekend, which is odd cause normally for us holidays are just another day for work

I am trying to cross things off the shop to do list though, today's project was to relocate an on sale POS hose reel from Tractor Supply and a salvage air dryer from their several month resting place on the floor to their final home on the wall.

Yeah I plumbed the shop air with stainless tube and swagelok fittings, every time there are leftovers from a job I continue the process, so far that hose reel and a few IM connectors are all I've actually bought.

 

[cspcrx]

Great work, fellow valley resident. I have that same compressor, now that I have my garage plumbed I wish the tank was a bit larger.

 

[Jlarson]

Yeah I've thought about getting a larger one but that one won't die and I only use it for my hand plasmas and die grinders. I do have a 20 gallon surge tank we use out in the field occasionally when we have to needle scale or whatever that I keep plugged in so really I have 50 gallons.

 

[Jlarson]

Been so busy, guess that's a good thing, on the road a lot, and lots of late nights in the shop too, not much free time. Things are starting to stabilize.

Here's some new lift station piping I welded up last week, on site, all 316 stainless, I wanted to take some more pics but I was the only welder and I was in the groove, just fitting and melting metal. I pulled the old bases and checks and set the new bases and checks in the morning too since not everyone will go in.

Next item for this project is a new 1/4" aluminum deck plate lid to replace the rotting precast lid.

 

[bonneyman]

Nice work!

To be honest I don't know anybody locally in the Old Pueblo who does custom stainless welding work. Last time someone I worked for someone needed such stuff done it was shipped out of town.

 

[Jlarson]

Started a new treatment plant project, all new process/aeration air lines. 316 and 304.

Have to do a few test fit pieces first before we go all out.

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We're taking all the **** joints down on the pieces that are going to be pulled from tanks periodically so there is less to snag a rubber glove on.

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