The beginnings of the weekly, but expanded to be capture current status as of this afternoon (Angus, Giles, Travis, Gary, Betsy, Norna):

In the last week, we dismounted the ITMy main chain metal dummy masses and installed the glass PUM and ITMy optic.  See Resource Space for pictures of the maneuvers which utilized the ergo arm.  Roll, pointing, and positions of the masses were adjusted in the structure such that the ITMy and PUM were in proper orientations relative to each other for fiber welding.  The newly introduced loop segment on the PUM showed a reproducible pointing from the metal hang at that stage.  Weld equipment from the LSB fiber lab was moved in numerous loads to the LVEA fiber lab and fit checked.  The welder and chiller were hooked up and alignment was checked.  Fibers in storage tubes have been moved to the LVEA.

During these operations, it was noticed that there was a small chip on one of the PUM Ear horns.  Since the chip was determined to in-fact be a chip and not a fracture, Angus and Giles annealed the area to repair/smooth out the imperfection.  Note, the ears can be reused roughly 3 times (in the event of fiber or weld failures) provided that there is not a fracture or damage higher up in the ear, so this smoothing operation is a somewhat known technique.

Welding commenced on the ear late in the afternoon with the first weld operation attaching a fiber to an aLIGO monolithic suspension!  (There are 8 welds on a suspension to attach 4 fibers, so stay tuned...)