0:05 now that i'm suited up it's time to head
0:07 to the factory floor and get busy
0:09 galvanizing i hear the sounds of work
0:11 and i'm drawn to it like a moth to a
0:13 flame i know we're gonna get you to work
0:15 real quick awful lot of the steel you
0:17 see outside has been galvanized whether it's
0:18 it's
0:22 shelving or sort of fencing for home use
0:24 or these full-on electrical poles
0:27 it's a process and it works yeah first
0:30 step attach some steel wire to the
0:32 components being galvanized
0:34 how hard can that be you're going to put
0:36 them in that hole right there
0:39 two of them yeah two of them
0:43 all right then you're going to twist
0:46 them three times uh-huh
0:55 you'll make a mistake on the wire
0:58 you have to separate it like this oh
1:03 doing it the wrong way again oh geez
1:05 just one yeah one at a time
1:08 like most seemingly simple tasks this
1:10 one is critical to the job at hand
1:13 and harder than it looks
1:14 that's okay [Music]
1:16 [Music]
1:19 no it's not quick
1:21 much harder actually
1:34 uh you do it wrong i did it wrong yes
1:36 sir what am i looking to do what's the
1:38 goal oh wrap it more maybe oh right
1:40 there right in the burner right there
1:42 i can't decide do these guys make it
1:45 look easy or do i just make it look hard
1:50 now you're making the run again i make
1:52 it wrong yeah let me cut it oh i got i
1:57 got oh crap i did the whole thing wrong
1:59 well the importance is because we're
2:01 gonna lift it with the crane and that's
2:04 gonna weigh around 300 pounds
2:05 and if we don't do it like this it's
2:07 gonna fall into the acids not to
2:09 overstate things but if one of these
2:11 three-ton bundles should happen to drop
2:14 into the acid the resulting splash would
2:16 be very bad uh you did it wrong again no
2:19 come on that's going to be great nope huh
2:27 twisting wire round and round and round
2:28 and round
2:32 now [Music]
2:35 [Music] yeah
2:37 yeah
2:41 it's now oh it's good ah not my sport
2:42 you got it
2:44 well it only took me three and a half tons
2:46 tons
2:47 in an hour
2:50 are you starting am i sweating i know it's
2:50 it's
2:52 let's have a look oh man yes i'm
2:55 sweating me nothing you're nothing for
2:56 you no that's cause you don't have any
2:59 moisture in your body lupe
3:00 these hooks are what hold the components
3:03 together during the galvanizing process
3:05 and like everything else here they're
3:11 [Music]
3:13 if you're just tuning in no i do not
3:15 know what i'm doing
3:17 you're going to put this bar between
3:18 those hooks
3:21 to hold the angles okay
3:22 okay
3:24 hector and lupe are wondering how many
3:25 times it's going to take me to get this right
3:26 right
3:32 [Music] [Applause]
3:35 [Applause] [Music]
3:38 [Music]
3:41 okay you're done god
3:43 so all that
3:46 just so the crane can pick it up yes
3:48 thank you guys all right i feel like i
3:49 learned a lot i feel like i got the last
3:51 one right kinda
3:52 kinda
3:53 i feel like you've got a lot of job
3:55 security you don't have to worry about me
3:56 me
3:59 all right that's asking no business
4:02 salty sodium calcium
4:05 sodium hydroxide solution and is that is
4:07 this where it goes first uh sometimes
4:10 when we see oil in the parts this is
4:11 where we put it
4:13 this chemical is going to dissolve all
4:16 the dirt uh grease paint
4:19 and other impurities and the seal so you
4:23 want this thing as clean as it can be
4:25 yes sir it goes into the next one this
4:28 is nelson hey nelson how are you
4:33 uh so that's the control
4:36 it's all yours man all right
4:38 that's the one thing what he needs to do
4:40 actor i think it's basically pressing
4:42 this button yes sir
4:44 is it lined up alright yes sir
4:45 it's complicated because there's not a
4:46 lot of
4:48 there's no arrows or anything and i
4:50 think they're all configured a little
4:52 differently so there's a
4:54 certain amount of trial and error
4:55 all right so this is probably going to
5:00 which one this guy or this guy
5:02 this is exactly what happens every time
5:06 i try to program my dvr that one [Music]
5:08 [Music]
5:09 you sure
5:11 you're going back
5:13 and move it that way a little bit
5:15 okay it's the thing the terminator crawl
5:16 out of right yep [Music]
5:19 [Music]
5:22 the ph of this bath is around 4.5 you
5:23 got it meaning somewhere between the
5:26 acidity of wine and coffee just let it
5:28 sit for 20 minutes 20 to 35 minutes but
5:31 the acid in question is both toxic and
5:32 sulfuric so i won't be tasting it
5:35 anytime soon the steel angles acid bath
5:37 is finished and we are ready for the
5:40 truly dangerous part of the process good
5:42 thing my apron is trapped on tight i'll
5:44 pick them up next step
5:47 dunk the parts in a 160 degree pre-flux
5:50 bath the preflux will prevent oxidation
5:52 from leaving bare spots on the finished product
5:53 product
5:56 you grab that one i grab this one
5:59 zinc melts at 787 degrees but the zinc
6:02 bath in this plant is even hotter than
6:04 that which makes it one of the most
6:07 hazardous spots in a plant
6:09 full of hazardous spots and this is the
6:12 sink melted
6:14 time now to clean the surface of the
6:16 molten sink how does one clean ash out
6:19 of an 850 degree
6:21 swimming pool we're gonna show you in a minute
6:21 minute [Music]
6:22 [Music]
6:25 he's gonna come to the site
6:27 pick him up
6:30 i'll let him drain a little bit
6:40 so what's happening here
6:41 it's a shovel
6:44 like a sieve and you're scooping into
6:46 the zinc and the the zinc is dripping
6:48 out at 850 degrees
6:50 and the ash stays in sort of and you
6:51 dump the ash that's
6:53 that's the
7:00 i said that's good enough now we're just
7:03 gonna dip your angles good enough
7:05 that's what we're shooting for my angles
7:07 are ready for their zinc bath this is
7:10 where metal meets metal it'll get coated
7:13 with a layer of zinc 35 to 200 microns
7:15 thick roughly the thickness of a human
7:17 hair that thin coating will add between
7:20 four and eight percent to the standard
7:22 weight of the item being galvanized and
7:24 decades of additional life all right
7:25 we're good to go how long does it stay
7:28 in about five minutes or less
7:31 you use your hook right here yep
7:42 and the purpose of this is what just to
7:44 get as much zinc on every square
7:46 millimeter now you are taking all the
7:48 dirt out of it you see all this dirt oh
7:50 yeah it's coming out of the angles so
7:52 the more you shake the cleaner they're
7:54 gonna come out the last thing i want are
7:57 dirty angles once the items are coated
7:58 with zinc they're protected from the
8:00 effects of corrosion and we're going to
8:02 clean them have them ready for the
8:03 customer and ship them right now we have
8:05 to cut them got to cut the
8:08 wires i'm going to enjoy that
8:11 the wires have done their job admirably
8:13 now it's time to get rid of them
8:17 this is gonna cool for two three hours
8:18 and then what's gonna happen somebody's
8:20 gonna pick it up stack it
8:22 ship it yes
8:24 i think it goes without saying that when
8:27 you dip something into molten zinc it's
8:29 not going to come out perfect that's
8:30 where the cleaning comes in everything
8:33 that comes out of that
8:34 zinc pond
8:36 is going to have these little icicles on
8:39 it like this yep so every single piece
8:41 has to be laid out here
8:44 and hand grinded by these guys yes sir
8:45 this is kind of like at the end of a
8:47 haircut when the barber sweeps your neck
8:50 or buzzes off the now noticeable hair
8:51 growing out of your ears
8:54 this this is the object of my attack
8:56 right now all this stuff it's just
8:58 covered with these little
9:00 what do you got little zinc boogers
9:02 right they're everywhere
9:04 hundreds of thousands of them and they
9:07 say they've just got to go
9:08 they've all got to go [Music]
9:10 [Music]
9:19 [Music]
9:21 next time you walk into a building
9:23 you can't see them but
9:25 just remember what you saw here today these
9:26 these
9:27 supports they're everywhere they're
9:29 galvanized they've been dipped in zinc
9:31 probably by hector here and then a team
9:34 of guys with tools like this smooth them
9:35 all off buildings
9:36 buildings
9:39 electrical poles everywhere you look
9:40 well the work might never stop my friend
9:42 but i do
9:44 thank you for your hospitality thanks guys
