| RKDinOKC |
07-24-2013 09:24 AM |
Worked my way up at the company I worked for since 12 yo. That's 41 years, however, only started full time to get seniority in 1981 so it's officially ONLY 32 years. Started doing the lawn care. Did electronics assembly and design, soldering, welding, etc. After college moved to machine shop. Started sweeping, then drill presses, lathes, CNC machines, mills, up thru tool and die. Then moved into drafting and graphic arts department. Brought in computers for graphic arts and design and became engineering manager while also managing network, email, and web site. Not only was first to use personal computers, ran the first wires to network computers in my department for printing and file sharing. Everyone else was using coax and AS400 green screen terminals. Was the engineering director, art director, and internet administrator. Then my two nephews got into power and have been slowly demoted down to where all I am doing now is email administrator and do graphics for employee/board meetings and notices that go up on kiosk terminals for announcements.
The founder of the company did all his designs in his home shop which included a small lathe, a Shop Smith, a drill press, a vice and welding torches. Seriously. that is all he needed to make anything. After designing a product he would build a model in wood first then metal.
When I was managing the art department he took all of the product photos with is large format speed graphics camera. We would set up a studio with light tents in his den, develop the film and prints in his basement dark room. He dug the basement under his house after moving in. At one point we were making large color prints to use at trade shows (this was before the large format printers like Glen uses). We built a print processor that would develop and wash the large prints automatically like the kiosk film printers available at most photo places today.
At one point I designed a molding machine for the foundry the company owned and ran. It would use the patterns to make the molds of a specific size by pressing sand into the top and bottom of the mold and put the halves together. Then it would move them to a pouring station where the metal was poured in, then it would move them through a rail system that was long enough the castings would cool so one would go into the mold separating machine as a newly poured mold would be added. Then the molds were separated and a big shaker machine would separate the castings from the sad. The molds and sand would be reused. It was kinda fun. So glad I don't work in a foundry, it is very hot, and dirty, and dangerous as heck. Most of the workers had gotten some kind of burn or broken bone. One of the guys putting together the molding machine and cooling tram tracks lost half his foot and another his index finger, just from not paying attention and being out of the way when the machine indexed. And they were the ones that gave the signal to index the machine to make sure it was working correctly.
Also wrote the database program used to schedule the foundry.
The foundry had and induction furnace. The metal was melted by creating a big short through a coil around the big ladle or melt pot. Because of the drain it put on the electrical grid it could only be run at night. Under the furnace was a room full of fuses and relays that operated the furnace. Even when the furnace was completely off just walking into the room would cause all the hair on your body to stand on end like touching a tesla coil.
|
