Trap Repair In Michigan

We had a commercial customer in Michigan that had a few problems on their trap. They had a lane that was down because a chamber was so full of material it was spilling out of the mouth and into the range. This was only the beginning!

They also had a problem with chewed up deflectors...

There were warped T1s and B1s...

As well as some issues with chamber hooks and S1 plates that were collecting material forcing the corners out, away from the trap. Our goal was to repair all those items and get this trap back into service. We also needed a solution for mouths closing on some of the other chambers so we cam up with a bridge design to eliminate mouth sagging. We started with prepping the chambers with holes drilled in the reinforcement gusset on the mouth plate of each chamber. These were done to accept the fastener that would hold the span of the bridge across the chamber wall. We started with that while we waited for the equipment to remove the chamber to be delivered. Then, once all the holes were prepped and ready we received the machine we used to move a 6200 pound chamber full of lead and hate! This was one of the heaviest chambers we have seen in a very long time. In order to get to the chamber we had to "dangle" the DCU that was installed above it from the ceiling. We got the machine into place and began the removal process to get the weight of the chamber onto the machine and before we knew it the weight of the chamber actually folded it in half! In order to safely lower the chamber from where it was we had to use 3+ ton jacks onto an overly engineered pallet that we referred to as the tank.

With the chamber finally in place and able to breath fresh air, we called in a telehandler to remove from the building and placed in a recycling truck. Now, to get the new chamber from outside the building to the inside and about 20 feet down range to be installed where the new hole was.

The empty weight of a chamber that size is roughly 500 pounds, so it was light comparatively. We moved the new chamber into place, pushed the mouth of it on the funnel and reinstalled the legs and hardware. Finally, a new chamber to shoot into. The next order of business was to remove and reinstall the deflector plates between each seam.

We systematically were able to get this accomplished with one tech inside the range and another behind the trap tightening fasteners. Our next step was to install the bridges that we prepped for. This is done by spanning the bridge from chamber wall to chamber wall then fastening the torque screw into place while another tech is hammer a wedge into the mouth of the chamber to "pop" the mouth open.

Once the wedge is in place the torque screw is tightened and torqued a little bit further in order to get the wedges out of the mouth. Easier said than done. With all of the bridges in place, it was time to work on the S1 material blockage.

The S1s on this trap are positioned directly next to the walls on both sides so no power tools can be used to remove hardware. The hardware in this case are stover nut. So, to remove these devils you need to remove the seam cover on each corner and have two techs again. One to hold the screw head on the range side and one behind the trap to remove the nut. With the hardware removed the lead build up can be removed and chiseled out in order to get the S1 corner pushed back tightly against the trap. With this mission accomplished we were able to move on to the T1s that were bowed and cupped. Originally, the plan was to swap the T1 with the B1 to get a better angle for the T1 to direct traffic into the mouth of the trap. Unfortunately, that could not be accomplished because the B1 was just as warped as the T1. We needed a solution to get the T1 straight in the funnel position with the rest of the trap. To do this we had to use some of the broken chamber hook positions and weld some all-thread into those positions and force the angle of the plate back to its original position. That killed 2 birds with one stone because there were a lot of broken bolts on those plates where the T1 meets the mouth of the chamber. Once that was completed we were able to get everything put back together and cleaned up and ready for use. Another glorious mission accomplished by the range service team at Sentinel Range Service. If you or someone you know is having some issues with your steel trap call us @ 801-669-2138. These traps are our specialty and we love doing them.