Day 5

And so closes the first week, and whilst the traveling had been hard, not to mention the language barriers, it has been great fun. We got to finish out first casting today, and being a 1/2 day every Friday, theres not too much to wright about, so here are some pictures instead.

Classroom

Well equipped computer areas

Ovens in the background

Aluminum oven

Fresh from the cast

And finally cleaned up the flash

Pour hot molten metal in here!

Day 4

Had trouble staying awake this morning, the strains of travelling and 6am starts are getting to me...

Still, this mornings subject was interesting nevertheless. The basic foundations of chemistry used to bind sand together when making molds. Ok, not the most exciting but as I said, interesting, and luckily a lot of the names of things are, if not idetentical, at least recognisable!

Our flasks from yesterday afternoon are still out in the hot area waiting for us to pour the aluminium in, but I don't think that its going to happen today :(

Day 3

Introduction to the machinery we will be expected to use, and let me tell you there is some scary shit in here! Anything than melts iron to 1500 degrees celsius is worthy of careful consideration.

But the first topic of the day was safety equipment. We were given new boots (heat resistant of course) ear protectors, gloves, glasses and of course flameproof clothes.

As part of the walk around of the machines we had the safety chat as to what can go wrong, and how badly it can screw you up if it happens.

The afternoon was a lot more exiting. Got to play with molding for the first time, have made a cast in 2 halves and they are waiting in the morning for some hot aluminum love !

Day 2

First aid training today. It was a mix of the usual CPR and bandaging excersises, mixed in with a slightly more disturbing aspect. Desensitisation to horrific injuries. This involved looking at real life images on the big screen of burns victims of all ages. Clean burns, dirty burns, explosion burns. I cannot go into too much detail, but at one point I really thought I was going to hurl chunks...

That survived, we did get to leave early for the day, and the great accomplishment of course is that I am now a First Aider in a foreign country having learnt what I needed to know in their language.

Day 1 of Training

Learning in a foreign language to your mother tongue is a daunting prospect, especially when the subject matter is so dangerous that a full understanding is essential.

But here I am, so a little background is probably in order to fully bring you up to speed.

A local foundry is looking for more employees, I have been unsuccessfully looking for work, and after a grueling interview selection process taking more than 9 weeks, I was accepted onto the training program. This is a big deal as Swedish is as I said before, not my mother tongue!

The training program is scheduled to take 6 months, and is a hard and punishing schedule of classroom and work placement. Let us not mince words, to work in a foundry is to work in a tough, dirty and dangerous place, not to mention blasted hot.

So, here I am, Day 1, nervous as hell after a 1 hour drive to the the training center. There are 9 others on the course, all swedes, and all of us with one thing in common, a desire to get back into work after a long period of unemployment.

Nothing much to report today, we got taken for lunch by one of the lecturers, and were given a short history of smelting and molding of metals through the ages, which was interesting, lets see what tomorrow brings