Pipe beveling is one
of those things that takes half an hour to explain and many, many hours of practice to learn. The point of pipe beveling is to prepare the ends of a piece of pipe in order to facilitate the strongest and most beautiful weld possible. Zoa, being assembled from an enormous number of small pieces of pipe, requires twice as enormous a number of machine-perfect beveled ends.
Stepping up to the challenge are the Flux Metalheads, many of whom have been coming in to the shop in their free time to learn, practice, and master the art of the bevel. Sitting at the table for hours at a time wrapped in earmuffs, safety glasses, and respirators, these brave souls spray themselves with burning shrapnel in their pursuit of the perfect grind. It’s physically demanding work, requires constant focus, can be frustrating, and to many might be boring, but to these
hardcore Metalheads is a worthwhile effort; as more than one of them have expressed to me, it’s “a way I can contribute more.”
After putting in two, three, and four three-hour practice sessions, many of our Fluxers are just about ready to bevel pipe for Zoa. In fact one of our dedicated volunteers, Laurel, today received the O.K. to do production for the piece. Having seen everyone else’s hard work I can safely say she’ll have at least four more bevelers to keep her company by the end of next week.