Bringing the Lab to UNM
The High Pressure Lab was moved from its former home in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science office at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, during July and August, 2002, while its new home in the basement of Northrop Hall was being renovated. We gratefully acknowledge the University of New Mexico's College of Arts and Sciences for making this move possible.
On this page you can view photographs of this ambitious undertaking. To view a photo, click on the small "thumbnail" version, and when you are done viewing it, use your browser's Back button to return to this page. Should you wish to save an image on your own computer, right-click (Mac users click-and-hold) on the image and choose "Save Picture As..." or similar and specify a location on your machine.
Jump from here to sections on packing lab at JSC or delivering gear to UNM.
Renovating B17 Northrop Hall
B17 was formerly a communal office for graduate students, who were moved to new digs in Rm 116 of Northrop Hall. This section shows progress in turning the emptied room into the new lab once the student office cubicles were removed.
The corner of the floor where the multianvil press sits had to be broken out and reinforced to hold the 29,000-pound weight of the big press.
The broken concrete was removed and a new two-foot deep hole dug.
The hole was lined with re-bar.
The hole was then filled with new concrete.
The concrete was smoothed and left to cure.
Meanwhile, a team of electricians began fitting out the lab with the power lines it needs.
Fortunately, the power mains are close by the room.
New air-conditioning units were also installed.
By this time, the room is a major mess!
The next big job was to install a new door through which the large presses could be brought. First they had to cut the existing wall...
...and remove the window...
Then came the fun of bashing down the wall...
...and installing a new door frame, covered by plywood until all the new gear was moved into the room.
Voila! The new door.
The final stages of renovation included finishing up painting the walls and ceiling, creating an unholy mess...
...and when most of that was done, a first cut on cleaning the floors was completed.
Finally the furniture could be arranged into their final configuration, and the room finally starts to look like a lab.
At this point delivery of all the boxed gear could be scheduled.
Packing up the lab at JSC
Packing up and preparing the lab to move from JSC to UNM got underway during May and June of 2002, and the actual shipping of the gear took place during August 2002 after B17 had its new patch of floor and its new doorway.
It was a big job to pack up all the gear...
...and took me several weeks to finish.
Loading up took place on two successive days. On day one, all the boxed and crated gear was loaded onto one truck.
With the boxes gone, the riggers could get access to the large equipment to load it onto a second truck on day two.
A flatbed truck with a retractable cover was used to ship the presses and workbenches.
Rigging out the heavy gear was a gradual and careful process that took place in several steps, starting with staging the big press by the door to the highbay in JSC's bldg. 31.
A huge forklift was then used to pick up the multianvil and slowly drive it to the flatbed.
The big press was placed in just the right spot on the flatbed to distribute its weight properly.
By comparison, putting the piston-cylinder on the truck was very simple.
Finally, the work tables and pumps were loaded onto the truck.
We needed pretty much the entire flatbed to hold all of the big gear.
The former lab at JSC sure looked empty without all this stuff!
Leaving the empty lab was a bittersweet experience, to be sure.
Delivery of Presses to UNM
Just two days after the presses, pumps, and work tables were loaded at JSC, they were delivered outside Northrop Hall on the UNM campus, in the pre-dawn hours of 15 August, just four days before the start of classes for the '02-'03 academic year. The nick of time! By about noon, the flatbed full of equipment was inside the new lab.
The north end of B17 was painted and cleared to make room for the two presses.
The local rigging company contracted for this job, Machine Services Inc., got busy positioning the crane they brought to load the presses into B17.
I don't care what the sign says, I doubt anybody will be towing these guys away!
Just another beautiful New Mexico dawn (with a big crane).
First the work tables were unloaded to provide clear access to the multianvil.
Next, the piston-cylinder was forklifted out of the way.
The flatbed truck was backed into position where it could be reached by the crane.
The crane was used to lift the multianvil off the flatbed...
...and set it down onto the sidewalk as the first step of the operation. Note the metal plates to protect the concrete.
While the flatbed truck was pulled back out to the parking lot, the rigging crew prepared to hoist the piston-cylinder into the lab, since its spot is further inside the lab.
The piston-cylinder was lifted and slowly swung into position to be lowered to the new doorway.
Finally the p-c was placed onto a pallet jack, which was used to bring it through the doorway.
The p-c was then driven into its final position.
Next the multianvil was lifted and began its slow swing into position above the doorway.
The rigging crew made this formidable task look nearly effortless. These guys really know what they're doing.
From this angle, it looks like there's no way that press can make it through the door!
Finally the press returned to earth...
With the press positioned in the doorway, the riggers drew it carefully inside, eventually using an anchor and winch affixed to the floor of the lab inside.
The last step was to bring the work tables and pumps into the lab.
