Torque of the Town

Without exaggeration, it has been one crazy day, one crazy week.  Add on top of that the imminent arrival of the Torque Workcentre, and, well, talk about riding the troughs and peaks.

The Workcentre was meant to arrive today initially, as I confirmed yesterday afternoon with the courier, and was told that there had been so many express deliveries, that my express delivery had been delayed, and was now due in Melbourne lunchtime, which meant a probably delivery of Monday.  However, checking this morning and instead the new message was that it had arrived in Melbourne already, and the truck was coming out today, and by the way how was I planning on getting the two parcels off the truck, given that they weight 112kg and 140kg respectively and the driver is allowed to lift a maximum of 20kg?

Hmm, guess having a forklift in the backyard might be typical in some quarters, but certainly not around here.  For all the deliveries I’ve ever had, I’ve never before been expected to unload the truck myself.  That might hold true for businesses, but not for private addresses IMHO.

So after dwelling on it for a while, I was able to arrange for the delivery to be diverted to a company with a forklift who were happy to help out – thanks guys – much appreciated!  Being diverted meant it should again arrive on Monday, but the courier company to their credit was able to get the delivery happening today, so late this afternoon I picked up the TWC and drove it home.

I started unwrapping the unit, but after having a chat with Torque by phone, another complication came up.  When the unit was boxed and left the company, it had 6x16mm MDF sides (inc top and base).  By the time it arrived here, 4 of the 6 sides had vanished and had been replaced with metal banding and shrinkwrap, as was another unit delivered today apparently (which developed a case of missing parts).

The mysterious wrapping

I had started cutting the shrinkwrap – it was fully around the unit , rather than what is seen here.  The sides have vanished, and who knows if the load is now still complete.  Furthermore, the metal banding wasn’t there when the package left the manufacturers.

Parts

Not sure how a 16mm MDF box was broken, and mine wasn’t the only one for the day apparently.  These are normally strong enough to have one stacked on top of another.  What did they do? Drop it on an edge? Then patch it up in the hopes I wouldn’t know better?

Anyway, past all that – we will find out tomorrow if it is still all complete.

Got the rails out (different package) and placed them on the artificial turf alongside the house.

Rails

And yes, if that toy looks familiar, it is most likely exactly what you think it is – the original kid’s toy made on, and for Triton (not by me), and the toymaker competition it used to sponsor at the original woodshows.  I rescued it when the Triton factory was being demolished.

Torque 1300mm bar

So, assembly begins tomorrow!