Former competitors: Question about "safety day"?

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To Jeff, JustJay, and all the other former competitors who are here:

JustJay mentioned a "Safety Day" between building day and the day we actually saw the contraptions being tried out. I haven't heard of this before. I always thought (and I think the show leads one to believe) that it's build one day, compete the next.

What happens on Safety Day? Is there more construction? Do experts come in to check out your product to make sure it won't explode?

I also want to say - it's so great to be able to communicate directly with the people who actually were on the show! You guys are great!

-- Pam (pamisonline@ivillage.com), January 05, 2001

Answers

Basically they learned that life is a lot saner if you have a dead day between the build and the test. It gives the crew a chance to move the machines to the testing site (in daylight even), get any "set" built (like the sheds on fireboats, the gates on submarines) lighting in place if needed, etc.

The other thing that happens that day is a safety check. Before you stick it on the truck, a health and safety inspector goes over the machines, and if stuff needs to change, the team gets to make the changes. You aren't supposed to be finishing the machine, you are just supposed to make it safe. (and in fact, us NERDS took that to heart. On the fireboat, It was the honorable thing to not "find" time to make the wheels into paddles, they weren't a safety issue, and we had legitimately not finished them on the build day)

For example, with the steam car, he had us install a grab bar for the back seat passengers, and cut away what was left of the body work on the drivers side, so Crash would have a clear escape route should a steam line go. (the motormans seat was already so constructed).

The steam car also had to get a real boiler and pipework inspection by a chartered boiler inspector.

In the case of the fire boat, all we had to change was to install a scatter sheild over the driveshaft, and give the paddles a "no spinters" finish on their shafts. We did take the time to name the monster (Major Leak). We also "supervised" its loading on the flatbed that was to take it down to the tank range that we used to test.

(we also watched the loading of "Frobette" the steam car, and it was VERY good that I did so, as I caught the tow truck driver about to connect his tie down to the tie rod. We would have been left without steering, when the bumps caused it to get torn off)

It also provides a little social time for the teams. We get to work with the gate between shops open. I joke, but I know why its there, its to keep us from helping each other on build day, as the temtation (for the people we got to know) is just too great. And we setup meeting for dinner -- The brothers have a great strategy, they count on their years of army experience to try to leave the other team with the bigger hangover on test day.

-dp- The NERDS

-- Jeff - The NERDS (dp@the-nerds.org), January 05, 2001.


Thanks Jeff for taking time out of your schedule to answer questions for us. My friends (also engineers) and myself enjoyed the episodes the N.E.R.D.S. were on. Will your team compete again?

Jay

-- Jay Lopes (lope9578@uidaho.edu), January 05, 2001.


One: Drop the periods. We are NERDS, not N.E.R.D.S.

Two: Instead of whining about the host, call TLC, and email RDF and chant "REMATCH" at them.

We have already told them "We haven't cut a car lengthwise yet". Despite the butchery in the edits (in the sub build, we had a loose cannon, but it wasn't me) its just too much fun.

-dp-

-- Jeff - The NERDS (dp@the-nerds.org), January 05, 2001.


It was a little different on series 4, we were not allowed to return for safety day, our expert Waddy was allowed to be there, to make sure everything passed muster. You see our cannon was considered a weapon in England and had to be shipped in pieces to the firing range. So Waddy had to be there to supervise it's re assembly. JustJay

-- justjay-Captain-Three Rusty Juveniles (justjay@neo.rr.com), January 05, 2001.

DP, Took care of points one (sorry about that) and two. Would you consider being a consultant to the show or being the fourth member (expert) to a team if presented?

Thanks,

Jay

-- lope9578@uidaho.edu (lope9578@uidaho.edu), January 05, 2001.



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