Mod One Day Three

Today we learned that we'd be spending all day in the workshop but also found out that we'd be having an assessment on the 7 bends we'd been practicing....although id only done 6 of em!

Our tutor told us that an "assessor" would be marking the accuracy of our bends, which worried us all as we'd only had about an hours practice on each bend, and some of us hadn't even completed the 7th bend.

I manged to get the simple 90 degree and 45 degree bends ok followed by the the 's' bend in 2 planes with in the first 40 minutes. From here on in it started getting tricky!

The next bend proved more difficult! The 45 degree passover failed due to a small amount of "wobble" in the pipe. Since there were 2 bends in the assessment piece, when it was placed flat on the workbench there was a small gap under one of the bends, so when it was pressed at one end, the other end raised itself from the table. Fail.

I wasnt too concerned at the time as i only had 4 more bends to do and i quicky managed to produce another passover which was deemed acceptible by the stickler of a assessor.

So id completed 4 of the 7 and commenced my next bend, the 3 bend passover ( _/\_ ).

This prove more difficult as all 3 bends had to be both accurate in angle and in the same plane. I managed to fluff this bend half way through so didnt even bother getting it assessed. I started another only to find that the clearance under the bend was too great! It was supposed to be just 15mm but mine was nearer 20mm and with an accuracy of 2mm required, this one wasnt even close.

By now im getting quite worried as if i failed to complete all bends accurately, id fail the assessment and have to retake it and pay for the workshop and assessment time. Three bends to go and fortuntely our own tutor returned to mark the rest of our assements. Whilst I felt more comfortable being marked by my tutor, i still managed to mash up my next piece. The 3 bend passover was again a wobbly piece, but i reckoned it was within the 2mm acceptable range.
Unfortuntaly not and another FAIL.

Still 3 bends to go and only an hour left! The 4 bend passover was another fail. Again the clearance under the bend was too great. Two more attempts and it eventually passed.

One more bend to go and 20 minutes left. The 2 bend passover, which i hadnt even magaged to practice during the monday and tuesday workshop demos!
Attempt one was a fail. Attempt two was a fail and that was time up. I was now quite concened that id have to pay to resit the assessment, however our tutor allowed those who hadn't completed the last bend (about 5 of us) to stay in the workshop and attempt it over lunch.

I duely stayed behind and spent the next hour atempting to manufacture 4 of the required bends. I wasnt going to fail this assessment! After lunch, the first bend i submitted was accepted and the assessment was complete. Phew.

After lunch we then were introduced to Mr Propane Torch. We had a demo of how to complete a soldered joint after which we could attempt our own joints. The afternoon passed quickly and i was quite pleased with my efforts at soldering.