The Front Porch Swing

[LindaB220]

Deb, that was lovely! Glad I had a tissue handy!

Today was so incredibly gorgeous and tonight is beautiful, with every star in the sky and a soft warm breeze. I had a wonderful day here by myself, except I wasn't by myself...I had the Father, who was with me all day long as I worked and walked over this land. I stopped this evening to sing some praises to Him and the animals all listened like they always do. I think they worship along with me sometimes. The meaty chicks seemed soothed and nodded off in a pool of sunlight in the coop and the new dog, Ben, was glad to attend the service too, except he wanted me to pet him all the way through it.

I hope you all had a blessedly peaceful day like the one I had. I can't begin to describe how beautiful it was or how the breeze felt like a kiss from the Father each time it caressed my face, but suffice to say that it was like walking on a cushion of air all day long. I don't think my feet ever touched the ground. I'm going to go look at the stars a bit before I go to bed and talk to Him again before I lay down my head. I hope you all pause in your evening to speak to the Father and tell Him what a good job He is doing in your life, because He is praiseworthy indeed!

'nite, all!

Bee, I feel like I just got out of church. That was lovely.

Edited for content: I had a great day also. Stove up from shopping yesterday and lifting stuff but was able to do some digging and fertilize my pot plants and bushes with Azomite. Didn't do a thang with the garden . ha

 

[Ms Jellybean]

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[lindz8504]

Oh, and I forgot with the chicks hatching! My two bantam cochins are both laying finally!!! They hatched in Sept, so I've been waiting for awhile!

 

[BCMaraniac]

Oh, and I forgot with the chicks hatching! My two bantam cochins are both laying finally!!! They hatched in Sept, so I've been waiting for awhile!

Pullet eggs are so cute....I can only imagine how cute bantam pullet eggs are.

 

[lindz8504]

Quote: BCM pullet egg, and the bantam pullet eggs.... compared to a quarter....

 

[Blooie]

Oh, my! Just got back from a dinner/meeting and once again I'm a day late and a dollar short!

The chicks are adorable! Great job, Mama Hen! And it's exciting that your hens laid such cute little eggs today!

Bee, lovely, just lovely. I can see the peace and feel the breeze on my face!

Deb, just how many other surprises do you have tucked up your sleeve?

Gonna get these clothes off and my flannel jammies on. Hate getting dressed up - feel like a mule in a buggy harness!

Love to all, prayers for those who want them, and welcome to so many new Porch Sitters. Story tomorrow, promise!

 

[Triple Willow]

Listening to the news today I was stunned to hear that Boeing is shutting down their Long Beach plant that builds C-17s...  Sniff sniff they have built their last one.

Back when I was about 24-25  I was part of a design team that built the Assembly Jig for the Aft one third of the C-17.  The tool was a foot ball field long and three stories tall.  Mostly work platforms for access but it also held in place the fuselage and the cargo door and the tail for assembly.  Gawd that was 35 years ago.  Only female in an aircraft hanger full of Men who specialized in building airplanes....  Scared to death they wouln't find out how much I didnt know and excited to be working in history.

Teledyne Ryan had a fabrication plant that was part of the Lindbergh hanger for Charles Lindbergh himself.  It used to be situated at the end of the runway for the Big International Airport Lindbergh Field.   Old buildings tell such tales when you wander about.  This was no exception....  HUGE design room that once held Aviation History being made.  We had a portion of that room for our drafting tables.  Oh design was being done on computer but Drafting by hand was quicker  still is if you have a designer that knows what is is doing. 

Everyone had two drafting tables clamped together with C-clamps and each table had two drafting machines.   Because our drawings were seventeen feet long.  1/20th scale....  for drawings that represented the whole tool.  the rest were 1/10th and 1/4   especially for details.  

My dad was part of the design team who designed the tooling to hold the Cargo door.  The aft one third of the plane had to be completely structurally sound wether the door was open or closed.  We used tooling balls for presice locations of componets...  Just a ball on a screw that is very very precise...  machined to 1/1000 of an inch....  Even temperature changes could change its accuracy...  Most times wed use them for small Jigs and fixtures to make sure things would assmble to the next component.... those were a quarter inch in diameter.  The ones dad used were Three inches in diameter.

I learned quick how to fill a niche in that group.   The were drawing so fast to meet deadlines they ddint have time to actually read the design specifications that McDonnel Douglas required for Boeings tools.   So I read the manual cover to cover and by the end of the first month. The Old timers were coming to ME to answer questions about drawing format....

So I did that and alot of detail drawings....  Detail Drafting is the grunt work of most Design fields.   It has to be done but its time consuming.  They were essentially drawings of little areas so the fabrication people would know how they go together.  I remember one time I did a cut list for the wing join area Painstakinly filled out.... because the work platform had to belevel for the workers  but the floor sloped 1 inch in 12 feet.  And the specifications were that we were not allowed to make adjustable legs.  Each leg had to be drawn to within an inch of the floor.

The wing join area was long enough to cause a foot and a half difference between legs on each end.  Those drawings were checked by a fellow whose sole job was to check form fit and function.  He called me over to take me to task for my bad work.  Red pen marks on your drawing are "mistakes"  Yellow was good and green over red ment you had made the changes correctly.  I saw my drawing was Covered in red marks.   I double checked them and he was wrong.

So I went back to the "Checker" he looked like a used car salesman...  Black hair slicked back and a black mustache but not enough lip to carry one....  His name was Lloyd Moberly.   I told him he was wrong and I got a sarcastic stare down his nose...  "Really"  he said.  And then I told him why.  and showed him my calculations.  He took the drawing and calculations and went back to his desk.   He came back about an hour later and told me in NO uncertain terms so that the rest of the Designers could hear....  

"I have NEVER been shown HOW Wrong I was so profoundly....  I apologize..."  HE showed me some normal mistakes to be corrected.... Whew.  The deal was I was only making a few dollars an hour....  The rest of those guys were the cream of the cream and they were making three figures per year. 

When the contract ended for most of them they moved on to the next tool design job.  Loyd Started his own company designing tools for repairing Jet Engine components.  He hired me away as a sort of apprentice.

It was an exciting time in my life...  

deb

Deb, with your skill you should be at least a millionaire. I am sure that a lot of people would love to get their hands on you. Next time make them pay you what your worth!

 

[theawesomechick]

Quote: Just goes to show that it's not what you know and experienced that's important... it's your willingness to learn and experience.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: The world of design is closed for me now. I can reflect on the exciting times but That door closed when they let me go at Qualcomm. After the C-17 job ended I worked learning how to make tools for repairing Jet engines. Specifically Jet engine blades. Then I got pregnant with my son.... By that time my dad was working with Lloyd and true to my first assessment of Lloyd he did some unethical things and fired me and my dad.... By then my son was six months old. I was on unemployment the world of design was going toward CAD and I had to get my feet wet into that before it passed me up.

So someone gave me a copy of AutoCad. I had been playing around with another cad system so I pretty much knew how to work a user interface.... So an Engineer needed two drawings converted to AutoCad so he could get them approved by a client. He gave me the drawings in good faith I had two weeks over Christmas vacation for him to convert them to Autocad... An easy peasy Job.... Only problem was I had to teach myself the cad system in the process of converting the drawings. A cad system that some took three months to learn in college.

BY the time I had the drawngs done I knew more about Autocad than the Engineer. He hired me. While I worked there I learned the nuts and bolts of a Maquiladora. Designing and building tooling for injection molding and lead casting for a Battery manufacturing company. That's where I started learning to be a Manufacturing Engineer. Um er learning to do a Manufacturing engineer's job.

Every where I go I strive to learn something new. I go beyond what is expected of me and sometimes that gets me into trouble... Doing the right things at the wrong time.... or doing the wrong things at the right time.

I can prove None of it... When people ask me to sign a non disclosure agreement I take it seriously. There fore while most people put together a portfolio of the drawings and projects they have worked on for proof.... I did none of that. Bad mistake. I should have broken the law to put together a portfolio.

IN 2000 Qualcomm let me go as they were re organizing.... Moving all manufacturing either to South America or Taiwan or China... They began to "outsource" their mechanical design as well. The trend is to move toward people who have Engineering Degrees for the things I had done in the past. Or So many hours experience With Cad software. During the course of time I had gotten my hands on every Cad software I could find and gone through their self tutorials.... But it takes 5000 hours of experience per year of cad software to qualify for some jobs.... The jobs I would want require at least 15000 hours experience in lieu of a degree.

I hit a glass ceiling of sorts. So I had a nervous break down. Went to work at ARCO pumping gas and doing duties in a convenience store.... AND LOVED IT. Minimum wage 30 hours a week... barely paid my Mortgage. I went back to school on grants and student loans and got my degree at ITT Tech in Drafting and design. Didn't do a lick of good. and I found out very quickly I could have taught all but one class.

It was a kind of Validation for me. Grandma thought It was a waste of time... And kept asking why I didn't put my application back in at Qualcomm.... they were hiring.... Or better yet why don't I get a good job with the Government they are stable and you get retirement pay..... I never could make her understand this is a different world than when she worked for the government.

My last engineering job was from 2007 to 2011 ish. Working in the mechanical end of the Bio-med industry.... Converting designs over to the ROHS standards in Europe... Their version EPA requires no lead to be used in printed circuit board manufacture nor can any component have lead in them... with the exception of batteries. It was a search and replace job mostly on the Internet... then when components were found to be equivalent ALL instances of the old component had to be swapped for the new one. There were ten or twelve of us to start.... some people I knew from other jobs so we formed a kind of loose family. The data base was HUGE. IT was supposed to take three months. Three months contract renewed several times... As a contract worker you get compensated for vacation time but no actual time off unless the company you are contracting with takes time off.

I literally burned out there. It wasn't design work it was Engineering Change Orders. Following documentation pracices that are required for ISO 9001 certification.... ISO 9001 requires a paper trail showes every design change process change including failures and Prototypes and eventually first articles and testing. Every revision has to have approvals.... And being a Bio-med company everything had to pass inspections by the EPA, CSA, ROHS, FDA, OSHA.... You name it.

When I had had it with that job they layed me off... Not going back to that.

What I would like to do is work for a small manufacturing company do detail drawings some engineering and work through some of those standards to bring them into the larger world of manufacturing... so they can expand. I don't need a lot of money so would be willing to work it out to be a part of their (work) family... Where I can make a difference for the family... where we can all take pride in what we make.

So here i am working for everyone who asks for help here on BYC. Solving problems offering up suggestions.... its my nature... a part of me that craves to express itself some how. I don't do politics, I don't do religion, I have never been part of a large family, .... Sitting on a porch sippin on tea and listening to other peoples stories is about as social as I get.

There is an open door out there I am sure... just not ready to step through it yet.

Sorry to be rambling... Up late couldnt sleep and the COMPUTER IS RUNNING... dang it.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Just goes to show that it's not what you know and experienced that's important... it's your willingness to learn and experience.
I used to work for a fellow who said when you are Green you grow when you are Ripe you rot.... LOL.

He was a funny fellow lots of wisdom wrapped up in an irreverent state of being. He used to be a lot of things like many of the Designers I have met from the old school. While he was desiging for Aerospace he also had a business going teaching A and P mechanics. Airframe and Power plant. He ran a school out at Gillespe Field. smoked a pipe so long his jaw was a bit crooked and his teeth worn.

He was always pulling pranks. ONe year he had had it with an upstart Designer who had graduated from Design school and knew nothing of design.... Jim had been a Design Checker at this particular company. So when the "kid" wasnt looking he stamped in white out on the back of his drawing... little feet he had whittled out of the end of an eraser.... All over the back of the drawing... didnt show till blueprints were made.... OMG.

Dad was a prankster too, probably why he and Jim hit it off so well. When my dad was working for EG&G and going in and out of Area 51 he was tired of one of his coworkers never being at his desk actually working. So dad made a spider web maker using a small motor and the end of a cannister of quaker oats. He poked holes in the cannister and bolted it to the motor. then he filled the cannister with rubber cement. When his co-worker was yet again away from his desk He took the spider web machine filled it with rubber cement and turned the motor on.

It spewd webs all over the guys lamp and papers and pens and even the coffee cup.... instantly drying into what looked like a spider web. When the boss came through looking for "So and SO" Dad said... I dont know I havent seen him for a while. When the boss looked at the empty desk There were all these cobwebs.... The light was on too... He shook his head and walked off. Pranking was pretty common in that group.

deb