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Radcliffe
The factory at Radcliffe was where the agricultural, food and textile machinery and heavy fabrication was based.
I spent two weeks in Millwrights from 21st March to 4th April 1977. In my training record I scored "usefulness and interest to me" 9/10 and "usefulness and productivity to the company" 8/10.
There was a lot of pipework being fabricated during my time at Radcliffe and I was set to work on cutting a welding chamfer on all edges of some ½" thick pipe that was to be welded. The tool that did this was called a nibbler. It was a 3hp hand-held tool; it was very heavy and was difficult to control as its reciprocating cutting ram nibbled away at the pipe edge.
One of the most messy jobs I undertook anywhere in M+P was attaching self-amalgamating tape to the machined edges of large fabricated items to prevent them from rusting. The green sticky goo got everywhere. These items also had to have their order number and part numbers stamped on them. They were large parts and each clout with the hammer and letter stamp caused a loud dull boing that embarrassed me, but no one else seem to be bothered.
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