We're in Nashville, Tennessee, at as galvanizing to see if galvanizing is a dirty
job or just another way to perish on prime time.
All right.
That's AC. No, this is caustic sodium caustic sodium.
Hydroxide.
Solution. And this is just where it goes first.
Sometimes when we see oil in the parks, this is where we put it.
This chemical is going to dissolve all the dirt, grease, paint and other impurities in
the steel.
So you want this thing as clean as it can be before?
Yes, sir. It goes into the next one.
The plant's safety police officer has arrived.
His name is Cornell, and he's going to keep me in one piece.
This is an apron.
Yeah. It'll keep any acid off of your suit here?
Yeah, in case we have a splash of any kind.
I mean, I got to say, this seems like a fairly minimal it seems minimal.
So your head goes through that middle one.
This thing looks more like it's for eating lobster and less for making sure acid doesn't
dissolve me where I stand.
But whatever.
We'll tie it up.
And Cornell, I got to tell you, I never felt safer.
Let's get him a trash bag.
He'll be fine. Yeah.
There you go.
You're set. All right. Thanks.
With my garbage bag properly affixed, we proceed to my next stop.
A crane does the heavy lifting.
Fingers crossed on my wire work.
It's a big moment in terms of learning.
If Mike's twisty things were done right.
So far, so good.
My wire work is holding.
Wonder if they'll let me operate the crane.
So this is Nelson.
Hey, Nelson. How are you? Nice to meet you.
I'm Mike. So that's the control.
That's all yours, man. All right.
That's the one. Explain to him.
What he needs to do. Hector.
I think it's basically pressing this button.
Yes, sir.
Because it lined up all right.
Yes, sir.
It's complicated because there's not a lot of there's no arrows or anything.
And I think they're all configured a little differently.
So there's a certain amount of trial and error.
All right. So this this is probably going to take it up.
Which one? This guy or this guy.
This is exactly what happens every time I try to program my DVR.
That one.
You sure you're going back and move it that way a little bit?
Okay. It's the thing the Terminator crawl out of, right?
Yeah. The PH of this bath is around 4.5.
You got it. Meaning somewhere between the acidity of wine and coffee.
Let it sit for 20 minutes.
20 to 35 minutes.
But the acid in question is both toxic and sulfuric, so I won't be tasting it any time
soon. All right. So while we wait for the stuff that I wired together to get its acid
bath, Daniel is going to take me to the J Press where there's a filter that is
apparently sucking up all the particulate that comes out of this.
This thing? Yes, sir.
Let's do that. Yeah.
I've actually seen presses like this in breweries.
I wonder if Daniel makes beer in here on the weekends.
And this is where it goes.
It goes through that pump into this system and filters through here.
And each one of these plates.
Yeah. Has that particulate in it.
So what we're going to do is we're going to open the machine up and then we're going to
pull these plates back and we're going to clean them and dump them into these bins.
Got it. One of us to get on one side and one of us to get on the other, and we're going.
To be doing this.
Clean the particulate out.
And tell me again what the particulate is.
It is steel.
It is little bits of steel that have been floating around in that zinc ammonium
chloride solution.
All right.
So to recap, you're going to go on that side.
I'm going to go on this side. We're going to take these filters one at a time.
We're going to.
Pull it at a time, and then we're going to and then we're going to dig the mud out of
it.
Let's do it, man. I can't wait.
And by mud, you mean scraps of metal.
Well, they they actually call it filter cake.
More like mud. Look.
Yeah, Anytime somebody calls something cake that doesn't come out of an oven, Right?
They're selling something or they're selling.
Something or they're lying to you.
This goes all the way right over to here.
And then we take these little paddles and we start scraping.
Not only is Daniel responsible for the maintenance in this place, he also has a
flair for construction.
He built this room specifically to house the press.
He's a proud Navy veteran who's taken care of everything in this place from floor to
ceiling for the past two decades.
So if anyone knows where the bodies are buried, it's Daniel.
This right here is Dissolved Steel.
And this tool, this device was designed especially for the task at hand.
Or is this.
This is a boat paddle.
Really, Cornell, you weren't.
You run $1 billion operation here and you give the man a boat paddle, whatever works.
That's exactly right. Actually, this works better than that one.
That's the one that comes with it.
Yeah, that's the one that actually came with the machine.
I tell you, man, every time I think I got a handle on what's going on here.
Let me see that thing for a sec.
Just how Daniel's brain works, right?
This is the thing that came with the machine.
It's okay.
I mean, it gets it done.
But to get it done properly, you got to.
You got to improvise.
So he gets himself an oar.
So what now?
Now we go over to the end and we close it.
The sound we're about to hear is the Haskell pump.
The Haskell pump is applying £5,000 of pressure per square inch and the press is
closing ever so slowly.
This is not the place to put your finger right now.
According to Daniel, it will vanish.
In the press.
Next step, dunk the parts in a 160 degree pre flux bath.
The pre flux will prevent oxidation from leaving bare spots on the finished product.
You grab that one, grab this one.
Zinc melts at 787 degrees, but the zinc bath and this plant is even hotter than that,
which makes it one of the most hazardous spots in a plant full of hazardous spots.
And this is the zinc melted.
Time now to clean the surface of the molten zinc.
How does one clean ash out of an 850 degree swimming pool?
We're going to show you in a minute.
You're going to come to the side.
Pick them up and let them drain a little bit and put it right there.
See the thing coming out.
I do.
So what's happening here?
It's a shovel like a sieve.
And you're scooping into the zinc and the zinc is dripping out at 850 degrees and the
ash stays in sort of.
And you dump the ash. That's.
That's the that's the idea.
I would say that's good enough.
Now we're just going to dip your ankles.
Good enough.
That's what we're shooting for.
My ankles are ready for their zinc bath.
This is where metal meets metal.
It'll get coated with a layer of zinc 35 to 200 microns thick, roughly the thickness of a
human hair. That thin coating will add between 4 and 8% to the standard weight of
the item being galvanized and decades of additional life.
All right. We're good to go.
How long does it stay in?
About five minutes or less.
You use your hook right here?
Yep. You just keep pulling.
And the purpose of this is what?
Just to get as much zinc on every square millimetre.
Now you are taking all the dirt out of it.
You see all this dirt?
Oh, yeah. It's coming out of the angles.
So the more you shake, the cleaner, they're going to come out.
The last thing I want are dirty angles.
Once the items are coated with zinc, they're protected from the effects of corrosion.
And we're going to clean them, have them ready for the customer and ship them.
Right now we have to cut them.
Got to cut the wires.
I'm going to enjoy that.
The wires have done their job admirably.
Now it's time to get rid of them.
This is going to cool for 2 to 3 hours.
Uh huh. And then what's going to happen?
Something's going to pick it up.
Stack it, Ship it.
Yes, sir. I think it goes without saying that when you dip something into molten zinc,
it's not going to come out perfect.
That's where the cleaning comes in.
Everything that comes out of that zinc pond is going to have these little icicles on it.
Like this? Yep.
So every single piece has to be laid out here and hand grinded by these guys.
Yes, sir.
This is kind of like at the end of a haircut when the barber sweeps your neck or buzzes
off the now noticeable hair growing out of your ears.
This this is the object of my attack right now.
All this stuff, it's just covered with these little, what do you call it?
Little zinc boogers, right?
They're everywhere.
There are hundreds of thousands of them, and they've just got to go.
They've all got to go.
Starting with this one.
Next time you walk into a building, you can't see him.
But just remember what you saw here today.
These supports, they're everywhere.
They're galvanized. They've been dipped in zinc, probably by Hector here.
And then a team of guys with tools like this smoothed them all off.
Buildings, electrical poles, everywhere you look.
Well, the work might never stop, my friend, but I do thank you for your hospitality.
Thanks, guys.