Do I have the most intersting job in the world? I doubt it....

[Dirtroad]

Holy !! How did I miss your location? Did you update your profile after I logged out to head to work (3rd shift) or was I so worn out I didn't notice?

If you're in Lowell, we're next door neighbors. I'm in Vergennes township, on Parnell rd. Roughly where are you?

Haha we talked about this in another thread. Im on lincoln lake between 3 mile and 4 mile on the east side of the road.

 

[mckutzy]

As a young teen worked at a trucking company as a grease monkey mechanic helper. Did all sort of helping jobs, washed and cleaned trucks, was the only one who could weld(pretty good for a 17yo and stick at that), learned about electrical and oil and fuel filter/service changes,(was short enough to fit comfortably under the front set of springs and able to handle a 2l bottle sized filter that was hot and full of really bad oil, diesel just stinks compared to gasoline).

Did some injection molding for a few years, we made small and delicate parts, medical, mechanical and marine electrical stuff. (these aren't our products we just mold them for the costumer) (I can elaborate but since people get squirmy about these things I wont go into much detail about the medical...If some one wants to know I see if Im able to tell)

The medical stuff, I helped set a process, QC inspection, operation and inspection cleanliness procedure all approved by the medical company,(We weren't/nor have a clean room, but all parts weren't handled by human touch, all gloved and cleaned by alcohol). The medical company assembles,QC and sterilizes the devices. The Most part I was involved in, was attaching(over-molding essentially) A thin perfectly ground stainless rod with a plastic fitting at the end. It was essential to maintain a level of height(OAL) as this is essential to the device working correctly. This was for a one use thing, like a needle.
At my leaving I had made aprox, 250K of these parts, one part=one device= potential one life saved. I have a medic friend(works with US, Canadian and other forces) who has directly saved peoples lives with this device and swears by it.
It was a medical device that was marketed to military medics hospitals,EMT and other personal types, currently in use with all US medics and and few other personal. A few other countries around the world use this in their armed forces.

If you have a higher end boat or RV, It most likely has some electrical parts made by the company I worked for. The electrical stuff was top notch stuff, the material they wanted and standards are really high. Like most companies today they do push for high standards and low low prices, but we still maintained that level they wanted. I have a big switch I made, I was going to make an electric bar-stool racer before I made my bike, cause I knew what I need in a good system for it.

Did some work for a turbo company, Aftermarket, mostly for big machines or heavy equipment. Worked in the precision grinding area. Turbos are pretty **** picky devices, little ones are about the worst, cause of there size. Heat and cold and atmospheric conditions can effect the grinding that day. It is hard to maintain a .0015" on a rainy day, just due to the stones over night absorbing some water from the air, thats the hot side.
This is the manual work, no CNC here for this work.
The cold side, has a aluminum finned turbine, the arbor it is used to hold it, is ground usually to(AFAIR) .0002", and we would have to hit .0001" run out on the CNC grinder.
These shafts (arbors) help balance the turbine precisely, or a catastrophic failure will rapidly occur. they spin at 100-250K rpm
Really trick stuff and needs a good steady hand.

Worked in a machine shop. Just a general job shop, hired as a welder, also did some machining. Got all the metal I wanted and learned a few things, Helped build my bike.

I also did some electrical motor repair, I worked on mostly big pumps and alternators. We did all sorts of motors, mainly elevators and pumps.

Thing people mostly take for granted these days as more higher buildings are going up.
People need to crap and don't want to take the stairs.
Sump pumps and elevators need to work with out fail, if so there delay must be kept to a minimal or the masses get upset.
We have been all babied by all this in our lives, if it makes you feel better, guess who has to drag the motor... Yes drag.. up all those stairs to the top of the building for the fixing of your elevator. Even better the guy who is tasked to fetch the dropped chain of the broken pump of the sewer pit.......... Now If there was any respect given to any people automatically, these people should be on the top of your list.... IE dont get on there sh!t list. They will make it stay that way for a while.....

 

[machinist@large]

As a young teen worked at a trucking company as a grease monkey mechanic helper. Did all sort of helping jobs, washed and cleaned trucks, was the only one who could weld(pretty good for a 17yo and stick at that), learned about electrical and oil and fuel filter/service changes,(was short enough to fit comfortably under the front set of springs and able to handle a 2l bottle sized filter that was hot and full of really bad oil, diesel just stinks compared to gasoline).

Did some injection molding for a few years, we made small and delicate parts, medical, mechanical and marine electrical stuff. (these aren't our products we just mold them for the costumer) (I can elaborate but since people get squirmy about these things I wont go into much detail about the medical...If some one wants to know I see if Im able to tell)

The medical stuff, I helped set a process, QC inspection, operation and inspection cleanliness procedure all approved by the medical company,(We weren't/nor have a clean room, but all parts weren't handled by human touch, all gloved and cleaned by alcohol). The medical company assembles,QC and sterilizes the devices. The Most part I was involved in, was attaching(over-molding essentially) A thin perfectly ground stainless rod with a plastic fitting at the end. It was essential to maintain a level of height(OAL) as this is essential to the device working correctly. This was for a one use thing, like a needle.
At my leaving I had made aprox, 250K of these parts, one part=one device= potential one life saved. I have a medic friend(works with US, Canadian and other forces) who has directly saved peoples lives with this device and swears by it.
It was a medical device that was marketed to military medics hospitals,EMT and other personal types, currently in use with all US medics and and few other personal. A few other countries around the world use this in their armed forces.

If you have a higher end boat or RV, It most likely has some electrical parts made by the company I worked for. The electrical stuff was top notch stuff, the material they wanted and standards are really high. Like most companies today they do push for high standards and low low prices, but we still maintained that level they wanted. I have a big switch I made, I was going to make an electric bar-stool racer before I made my bike, cause I knew what I need in a good system for it.

Did some work for a turbo company, Aftermarket, mostly for big machines or heavy equipment. Worked in the precision grinding area. Turbos are pretty **** picky devices, little ones are about the worst, cause of there size. Heat and cold and atmospheric conditions can effect the grinding that day. It is hard to maintain a .0015" on a rainy day, just due to the stones over night absorbing some water from the air, thats the hot side.
This is the manual work, no CNC here for this work.
The cold side, has a aluminum finned turbine, the arbor it is used to hold it, is ground usually to(AFAIR) .0002", and we would have to hit .0001" run out on the CNC grinder.
These shafts (arbors) help balance the turbine precisely, or a catastrophic failure will rapidly occur. they spin at 100-250K rpm
Really trick stuff and needs a good steady hand.

Worked in a machine shop. Just a general job shop, hired as a welder, also did some machining. Got all the metal I wanted and learned a few things, Helped build my bike.

I also did some electrical motor repair, I worked on mostly big pumps and alternators. We did all sorts of motors, mainly elevators and pumps.

Thing people mostly take for granted these days as more higher buildings are going up.
People need to crap and don't want to take the stairs.
Sump pumps and elevators need to work with out fail, if so there delay must be kept to a minimal or the masses get upset.
We have been all babied by all this in our lives, if it makes you feel better, guess who has to drag the motor... Yes drag.. up all those stairs to the top of the building for the fixing of your elevator. Even better the guy who is tasked to fetch the dropped chain of the broken pump of the sewer pit.......... Now If there was any respect given to any people automatically, these people should be on the top of your list.... IE dont get on there sh!t list. They will make it stay that way for a while.....

It never ceases to amaze me how many engineers take for granted the grunt work of the folks on the shop floor; if it works properly, they claim it was their efforts and idea's the made it happen. If it's all circling the drain, the sentence usually goes something along the lines of "THOSE out there are worthless!!! They can't do anything!!!! Etc....."

I've only dabbled with cylindrical grinding; it's a bigger pain in the than most machinist's think it is. And your description of where you've had to go to work on an electric motor makes me wonder if there is a secret engineering hand book for how to make servicing almost anything as difficult as possible; you know, things like "If possible, construct the building around the motor, and make sure you delete any means of easing future maintenance as a 'cost saving measure'." "If the above is not possible, place the unit in a blind corner where you need a periscope to even inspect it, and the maintenance people will have to cut a hole in the wall to actually gain access for even routine service, thus guaranteeing the the unit will have zero preventative maintenance......"

Pat

 

[OzFab]

how do you folks do this stuff? I've got a pretty spaced out set of tools, which I've had to assemble to do my job along the way; what blows me away is when I've run across a true artist in sheet metal, they seem to wander in with a couple of really tatty hammers and a pair of tin snips in their back pocket, search thru the gravel on the driveway for a funny looking rock, and then tell me to leave "that" particular pile of scrap to them. I blink my eyes a couple of times, and it's like "Here comes Jay Leno, to pick up his latest concourse winner!!!!"

It's happened enough times to start to get annoying. :toetap05: :toetap05: :toetap05:

A sheet metal worker learns how to bend metal a certain way to create usable pieces; a panel beater learns how to manipulate the same material into any shape he needs; it takes a little bit of work & a lot of imagination...

As you probably know, auto body panels are pressed using large, heavy dies & an even bigger press but, panel beaters need to know how to recreate the same shape by hand. The only reason some panels are changed as opposed to repaired is because it's cheaper & quicker...

Below are pics of one of the "theory" tasks (well, actually about 4), a simple replica tailgate, made using a sheet metal hand bender & other various hand tools; no one else worked on this but me, start to finish...

Notice, in pic 3, there is a repaired section, now see if you can pick the corner in pic 1...

 

[machinist@large]

A sheet metal worker learns how to bend metal a certain way to create usable pieces; a panel beater learns how to manipulate the same material into any shape he needs; it takes a little bit of work & a lot of imagination...

As you probably know, auto body panels are pressed using large, heavy dies & an even bigger press but, panel beaters need to know how to recreate the same shape by hand. The only reason some panels are changed as opposed to repaired is because it's cheaper & quicker...

Below are pics of one of the "theory" tasks (well, actually about 4), a simple replica tailgate, made using a sheet metal hand bender & other various hand tools; no one else worked on this but me, start to finish...

Notice, in pic 3, there is a repaired section, now see if you can pick the corner in pic 1...

At first glance, you would think the lower RH corner; but seeing as you're teasing us with this, I'm leaning toward the lower LH corner. You really can't make out the other two due to the camera angle.

Did I get it right? Pat

 

[OzFab]

Simple symmetry will tell you it's not the RH corner, it is, in fact, the lower LH corner, good guess


Click to watch vid

 

[mckutzy]

Oh Pat, that was mainly the most modern motors. Some of the old.. OLD motors, like you said built a room to house the thing. A bunker/bank vault like structure if you will.

There is a hotel downtown Vancouver, about a hundred years old or so. Way way up upon the heights of the roof line. There is a room that when they constructed the building they moved the motor in. A very modern motor(at the time) banks of relays, transformers ect and the large beast they call the car hoist. Later when it was time to finish the room( Ie roof the room/building) they inadvertently(on purpose really) sealed the motor in. It will be there untill the building comes crashing down, or if they invent a teleportation device to remove it. Actually one could take it out... in pieces if they want. I was even offered the piece(s), if I could get it out. (there is a whole host of papers to go with including the damage report if you even touch the wall with it, the armature itself about 2000+lbs I think). I wasnt too interested after that, but it would be still cool to have.
When it is this big they dont like being disassembled and re assembled in various manners, like if I cut it apart and welded it back together. Just huge castings and massed of ancient metal.

Now the motor comes apart in many small pieces, "easily" handeled by a number of guys and put into just as small or difficult spaces. The electronic(electrical) part is really smaller. no relays(or lot less of them) and more space to work.
Oh the days of old.....

 

[firemanjim]

I left school and home at 17 thinking I knew it all, well, enough to make it on my own. Didnt do anything really productive for a year. My uncle in Houston (We were living in St.Louis at the time)sent for me, telling me if I wouldnt go home to my parents, to come back to Texas and be with family. So, I moved back to Houston, with a few jobs already to pick from. Started with construction,then got bored with it. Then my dumba§§ thought I could make a good living selling the newspaper door to door. Just wasnt enough.... Worked for A+ transmissions doing R&R and running parts. Quickly realized how SHADY (read "crooks") businesses can be. I left after telling a customer (outside with no one looking) that he got screwed for $3000 when there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with his trans. He blew a line, thats it! Boss charged him for NEW everything..... I never even PULLED THE TRANS.....
After that, I became a hoodrat for a while I suppose. Hooked uo with a chick, partied all the time.... She got prego, so we settled down and I took a job as a machinist helper where my uncle worked. Within a few months,I was running a machine,been doing it ever since. Started on a manual,now run and program a CNC.... I machine various parts of drilling equipment for the oil industry. Its fun and challenging at times. I do work for the big guys like Exxon-Mobil, Baker-Hughes, NOV, BP Phillips to name a few. Ive kinda gotten bored after 20 years.....
So..... I decided to become a fireman! Definatley NOT boring...... Car fires,structure fires, medical calls.....YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THE CALL WILL BE! For example, got a medic call one night. R P says "he was bit,bit HARD..... it hurts it hurts..... I dont know where it went! Srnd help! Help......".. (radio relay of RP's complaint......) So dispatch sends a swarm of S O's and constables,..... a medic unit, and me in our booster/medical truck..... I get there, cops n guns everywhere , and as we calm him down and ask him, "sir what bit you, where at, and where did "it" go?"..... He tells us a BUG bit his A$$!!!! A **** BUG! THEN DEMANDS transport to the ER..... Cops told us to take him or they would......
During all that time, we had a kid then divorced, then I remarried someone new,had 2 kids,then divorced. Now on marriage #3 with 3 more kids..... and life goes on....
Ill find some pics or videos I can post for y'all to see....

 

[J_Walker]

I left school and home at 17 thinking I knew it all, well, enough to make it on my own. Didnt do anything really productive for a year. My uncle in Houston (We were living in St.Louis at the time)sent for me, telling me if I wouldnt go home to my parents, to come back to Texas and be with family. So, I moved back to Houston, with a few jobs already to pick from. Started with construction,then got bored with it. Then my dumba§§ thought I could make a good living selling the newspaper door to door. Just wasnt enough.... Worked for A+ transmissions doing R&R and running parts. Quickly realized how SHADY (read "crooks") businesses can be. I left after telling a customer (outside with no one looking) that he got screwed for $3000 when there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with his trans. He blew a line, thats it! Boss charged him for NEW everything..... I never even PULLED THE TRANS.....
After that, I became a hoodrat for a while I suppose. Hooked uo with a chick, partied all the time.... She got prego, so we settled down and I took a job as a machinist helper where my uncle worked. Within a few months,I was running a machine,been doing it ever since. Started on a manual,now run and program a CNC.... I machine various parts of drilling equipment for the oil industry. Its fun and challenging at times. I do work for the big guys like Exxon-Mobil, Baker-Hughes, NOV, BP Phillips to name a few. Ive kinda gotten bored after 20 years.....
So..... I decided to become a fireman! Definatley NOT boring...... Car fires,structure fires, medical calls.....YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THE CALL WILL BE! For example, got a medic call one night. R P says "he was bit,bit HARD..... it hurts it hurts..... I dont know where it went! Srnd help! Help......".. (radio relay of RP's complaint......) So dispatch sends a swarm of S O's and constables,..... a medic unit, and me in our booster/medical truck..... I get there, cops n guns everywhere , and as we calm him down and ask him, "sir what bit you, where at, and where did "it" go?"..... He tells us a BUG bit his A$$!!!! A **** BUG! THEN DEMANDS transport to the ER..... Cops told us to take him or they would......
During all that time, we had a kid then divorced, then I remarried someone new,had 2 kids,then divorced. Now on marriage #3 with 3 more kids..... and life goes on....
Ill find some pics or videos I can post for y'all to see....

How exactly do you become a fireman? I've always wondered.. Do you just walk down to the firehouse and be like "Give me a job!" or is there some sort of state application?

 

[firemanjim]

J Walker, its.pretty much that easy. BUT THE JOB IS NOT! After passing a sign at the local volunteer fire station SEVERAL SEVERAL times and reading, "help wanted", it kinda stuck in the back of my head. One day,on our way home, I passed by again and the sign read "help wanted, heroes needed, no cape required".... my wife n I just laughed. We got home, the wife n kids got out and I told her Id be back. I went back to that station, and asked how you apply. The Asst.Chief looked at me kinda crazy like, handed me an application and said return it filled out..... Told me a brief job description, and then I left..... I heard one guy say, "ehh we dont need no long hair hippie freaks" and some of them laughed. At this point in my life, I grew LONG hair to donate to Locks of Love and never really shaved much..... Well,next morning,after church,I stopped and got a SHORT hair cut,clran shaved, and returned to that station with my application. The Asst.Chief kept staring at me, then asked, who did you talk to when you came in? Did ya get to go on any rides? I told him that he gave it to me the day before, and said he didnt recognise me. I hung out for a couple hours and got to go to a MVA (car wreck)... I was hooked.
Since then ,I've had over 2000 hours of training, hold state and national certifications for fire service related stuff, rope and safety rescue, extracation tech levels 1&2, and am currently taking a medical course to satisfy state and national mandates. Ive done this on my own time,all in just 2 years. Its been a huge sacrifice for me and my family, but when I get to pull a screaming child from a car I just cut apart and she hugs me, or the lady who lost it all in a house fire 2 days BEFORE Christmas, and gathered up food and warm drink for us as we cleaned up. It was cold and raining and she lost ALL she had,but was concerned for OUR well being...... Thats my pay check right there buddy! Thats my payback for all the hard work and training I went through. The cuts,bruises, sore muscles. .... makes it all worth it.....
O yeah, them schmucks that laughed that first day,....... Im now their Lieutenant (boss) and lets jusy say I got the last laugh..... Repeatedly..... See, when its time to reload 5"LDH , a 1000 feet of it per truck, guess who the first guy to "volunteer" is.... yep, mr. we dont need no long hair hippies ...... I dont pick on this guy, we are good friends now, but, he still gets volunteered..... I always tell him to lead by example. One day,he will become an Lt. like me, but then I'll be Captain by then..... ehh ehh ehh lol
In all seriousness, go to your local volunteerstation and apply. It is a life changing eexperience and will open your eyes to what life is REALLY about. Do it! You'll thank me later. Over 70% of fire depts in the US are volunteer. I think its closer to 77% but not sure..... We need volunteers. EVERYWHERE! The average volunteer will only stay for 2 years, and unless new people come in, manpower just dwindles. At one point last year, its was 3 officers that made all the calls all tje time. My Asst.chief,my capt. and me... thats it. We had 18 members, but it was only us 3 that really did anything. We had the second highest call run total forour county, and we are close to the smallest dept. We clown the neighboring big city (not Houston F D ) dept by over 500 runs. We are busy, and under staffed. In my area, I might be the only first responder for several minutes.... And THATS why I train as much as possible. I need to know medical stuff too. What if you're unconsciou, unresponsive.... If I didnt know CPR and other stuff, you'd be kinda screwed. This is where lifes REAL lessons come into play..
Go apply, Its a job like no other.... it dont pay but you cant seem to want to quit. It becomes who you are..... O and where Im at, I get to have lights and siren, run hot and pass cops.... lol gotta love it. (Ive taken an EVOC course several times, for fun)
LoL long haired, now long winded....

 

[firemanjim]

Here is a couple traing pics...

 

[rocketkart]

sounds like a lot of fun. god bless you. god bless america!!! thanks man.

 

[machinist@large]

Monday, monday......(OUCH)



Oh, man. What a day. As I believe I stated (somewhere) in this thread, I'm a new hire at a shop that machines propellers. Working third shift, my Monday is over. (Personally, I had a decent night gnawing on a pair of $6,000.00 wheels). What has me posting right now is the 5 ft diameter object that just became one of the biggest one piece paperweights I've ever seen...

Basically, my supervisor shut down the machine when he found the porous spots when he came to check the machine (all of us run at least two machines, some run three).

Photo 1 is a starting pic showing the general area around the machining center that as running the part; photo 2 shows the porous section as taken by my phone, and photo 3 is the zoom job my computer gave me. For a rally chintzy camera in a cheap phone, it does pretty well.

The cost of this object at this point? The lowest figure I heard being bandied about was north of $45,000.00 US dollars.....

 

[OzFab]

Porosity is never a good thing, it's worse on something like that...

It makes you think, if that's the prop, how big is the boat?

 

[firemanjim]

This is a "hole opener', used to open up a hole to 48"..... As it sits, it is at 34". It has the rollers cut off so that it will swing over the bed ways.... The rollers are "massive" (lol) and covered in carbide. They are heavy...... I got some other interesting pics somewhere..... I have some videos showing the cnc thread an external connection. Im not sure whats interesting, to y'all. ..... Ive done this so long ,its kinda, well, ho hum...... ....

 

[machinist@large]

Porosity is never a good thing, it's worse on something like that...

It makes you think, if that's the prop, how big is the boat?

Tony, I wish i could tell you what size the boat is; seeing as I just started my third week, I have no clue who the first tier customer is, let alone the final customer. All I've been told is that this one is part of a five ship order of ten props, five RH/ five LH. Apparently the customer is someone who puts together "Power Packs" for ships as a turn key.....

This is a "hole opener', used to open up a hole to 48"..... As it sits, it is at 34". It has the rollers cut off so that it will swing over the bed ways.... The rollers are "massive" (lol) and covered in carbide. They are heavy...... I got some other interesting pics somewhere..... I have some videos showing the cnc thread an external connection. Im not sure whats interesting, to y'all. ..... Ive done this so long ,its kinda, well, ho hum...... ....

Jim, I can only speak for myself; if it's a real industrial product (the bigger/ more complex, the better) then I'm going to be interested. All we ask is that it meets the family friendly rules (if it involves advertizing for your new line of "Leisure Apparel", you're on your own......)


Pat

 

[OzFab]

Im not sure whats interesting, to y'all. ..... Ive done this so long ,its kinda, well, ho hum...... ....

Well, since this thread is about what people do for a living, anything to do with your job would be interesting...

Remember, apart from a select few, the skill set here isn't that high (no offence to anyone)

Tony, I wish i could tell you what size the boat is

I wasn't expecting you would, I was just thinking out loud...

 

[Rustydog2010]

Remember, apart from a select few, the skill set here isn't that high (no offence to anyone)

I'm not sure what to make of that?

 

[J_Walker]

*snip*

That's really neat, and I would do it. but I need something that pays.. sadly life isn't run on good feelings and helping others. Its run on the green stuff.

My father was a firefighter on board ship for about 4 years.. so I know a little bit about it. it was actually him when I was around 7 years old, that I learned about pumps and valves and all that good fancy pool stuff. But I didn't learn how to run a pool, oh gawd. he taught me how to pretty much single handily run a freakin aircraft carrier! LOL! It's funny when a 10 year old skinny kid can hold a fire hose better then a 180LB adult!

but in all seriousness, me and like 7 other guys cannot get a job for the life's of us. we've all worked in food service, and equally hate it.. and retail places won't hire us... for what ever reason. I even got a haircut!! I would love to get a job at lowes, only cause it's my kind of jazz, but they never call me back.. and online applying.. Oh gawd. I hate it! I feel as if I get just passed through some filter system and they never get the application!

And back on topic.

I worked as a bathroom attendant in an old club once.. it closed down, it was terrible money anyway. tip based.

 

[OzFab]

I'm not sure what to make of that?

All I was saying is that the majority of members are in the younger age brackets & are, as yet, not as experienced as others; for example, some may find what I can do mundane, other may be fascinated by it based on their own skills & experience.

I wasn't trying to dis anyone