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Well, after the inventory of parts was completed, our service engineer got the replacement scope up and running and imaging Wednesday afternoon. The original date to remove the damaged unit was friday, but the movers had a conflict with that date and moved it up a day. This initially caused some concern on our part because we want to be sure everything we need off the damaged scope before it leaves. But Alex is confident he has everything we will need so I'm OK letting it go today.
Well, the instrument finally arrived @ 2:00PM Tuesday May 6 and in much better condition than the first. The movers were much more professional than the first crew and the scope was properly stowed in the back of the delivery truck. It was uncrated, but wrapped in bubble wrap and cardboard. The unit was on blocking and unstrapped in the back of the truck but supported by padding from side to side across the truck.
The movers rolled the unit on a pallet jack onto the lift gate of the truck and they were much more careful about how they rolled the unit over the end gate of the truck. It was only a bit scary to see the thing rolling onto the gate to within about 6" of the edge. When they went to lower the gate with the unit it went down much more quickly than they anticipated which gave all of us a bit of a scare, but all came out OK. The movement from the truck, through the planetarium entrance and to LifeSci 93 went very smoothly.
Getting the unit onto the floor from the pallet jack was a bit interesting. They blocked the unit at the center and balanced it on 4 2x4 pieces of lumber. The pallet jack was removed and a single 2x4 was placed on the right side of the unit. The unit was then tipped onto the right side and a J-bar was used to lift the unit off the center blocks and they were removed. The whole unit was then lowered to the floor with the J-bar very smoothly. The cardboard and bubble wrap were removed and everything looked good, a bit dusty but good.
Well, today is the second big day here at the UMD SEM lab. Our damaged JSM-6490LV is being replaced by a (hopefully) undamaged unit. Hopes are high and we expect to have images by the end of the week. The plan is for the service engineer begin the process of packing the damaged instrument and clear it out of the room. Then he will go to a warehouse here in Duluth where the instrument should be waiting and check it over. If all looks good, it will be moved over here and the new will be swapped for the damaged.
That's the plan so far.... I'll just wait and see what happens.
So, things have changed a bit, but probably for the better.
The report back from the warehouse is good. The instrument was shipped in a rugged wooden crate and arrived unscathed. There was a bit of rubbing on one of the exterior panels from some of the packing foam used in the crate. The instrument was removed from the crate and taken from the pallet using a forklift and now happily rests on the floor at the warehouse. The plan is for our engineer to breakdown and ready the damaged instrument for shipping today and tomorow AM. The new unit will arrive tomorrow PM either at the Planetarium entrance or the Kirby loading dock with the planetarium being the preferred option.
Both instruments will remain on campus until the new instrument is completely installed and all the bits and pieces are in place as ordered. Then the damaged unit will be removed from campus.