June 2002,
trip report for SK rebuilding (from BU crew of Ed, Jim, & Chris).
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![](00-pmt-enclosure.jpg) |
An example of the new PMT covering: fiberglas shell in back,
clear acrylic dome in front. Apparently there was a mishap where in the
molding process, a residue of material not transparent to UV was left on
the acrylic. Some number of domes have to be remade. |
![](01-inner-pmt-preparation.jpg) |
Our Japanese colleagues working on the inner PMT preparation
assembly line. |
![](02-outer-top-pmt-work.jpg) |
Students at work on top outer detector tubes and Tyvek. |
![](03-chris-bill-pipes-on-cruiser.jpg) |
We needed new pipes for attaching the Tyvek. Finding a vendor was an
adventure starting at a local home store, going to a commercial supplier
(who did indeed deliver these to the mine entrance), and even after the
mission was accomplished, we ended up 'discovering' the holy grail of
hardware stores- comparable to Tsukuba's famous Joyful Honda.
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![](04-pipes-off-cruiser.jpg) |
The ropes were a little too loose and the driving was a little
to fast. |
![](05-jim-in-trunk.jpg) |
Mission #2 to the hatrdware store (Musashi) required bringing
back three stainless steel pipes each 4 meters long. That's a little too
long for our car, but Jim takes a stab at modifying the back seat. (In the
end we lashed them to the side). |
![](06-chris-jim-inner-detector.jpg) |
Chris and Jim on the floating floor inside the inner detector. |
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Yes, the ladder down is hanging by ropes.
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![](13-od-pmt-wls-plate.jpg) |
Reference shot of the front of an OD PMT. |
![](08-rear-of-od-pmt.jpg) |
Reference shot of the back of an OD PMT. |
![](09-chris-ishida-monjayaki.jpg) |
We went to Kamioka for dinner and ran into Ohtsubo-san. She
sent us to a new (for us) restaurant with an okonomoyaki variant called
manjoyaki. |
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A lot of the effort revolved around designing a setup to align
and hoist 3 panels of 1-meter wide Tyvek (the widest we could procure in
Japan). |
![](11-pet-giant-beetle.jpg) |
At the hardware store, you can also buy pet giant beetles. |
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Since the top of the tank is practically inaccessible, we
are hanging the new Tyvek starting a few meters down. After much debate
on how to accomplish this, we bit the bullet and asked (paid for) Mitsui
to weld new brackets. |
![](13-brackets-ready-for-sept.jpg) |
Then we extended the old Tyvek, suitably cutoff, and wired
it in place. Here is the final installation, ready for new rolls to hang
down sometime in September. |
![](15-hank-painting.jpg) |
Outside the tunnel, Hank and crew took apart the Radon Hut.
It will be replaced with a simpler scheme drawing fresh air from far away
from the tunnel entrance (now that the landowner has agreed). Here is Hank
in some snappy painting gear. |
![](16-wooden-dam.jpg) |
Chris wants to know how this dam, seemingly built out of wood
planks, can possibly hold up. Well, it is leaking quite a bit... |