I started out tearing things apart and trying to see what made them tick. Not always worried about getting them back together. Unless of course it belonged to my Father! Heheh! Having a compulsive bit of intrigue on anything mechanical or electro-mechanical I found all shop classes a big play ground for a young mind. Between the shiny machines, precision instruments, electronics projects and reading about making R/C engines, I was hooked.
In some form or another, I have always been in manufacturing.
1 yr part time in a Heat Treat Plant to support my first car!
1 yr burr bench, chip technician
4 yrs at a sweat shop cranking manual handles on mills and lathes.
6 yrs in Steel Wire products plant (otherwise known as Hell on earth)
4 yrs of night school to get a 2 yr AA degree in Electronics/Robotics
5 yrs in a FAA Prop Overhaul Facility.
3 1/2 yrs in a Thermal Form Plastics shop as a Tool Maker/Maintenance
1 yr of Community College for AutoCAd, Production tooling, and Job Shop quoting.
5 yrs OEM CNC Field Service Machine Tool Tech.
6 yrs to date as a Machine designer/Tool Maker/Maint. Tech.
This all lead me to my current position, which is as a Machine Designer/Tool Maker/Machine Tool Technician, one of which could change at any given moment without the convenience of a telephone booth! Not much different than industrial process engineering?
My main function is to design machines and tooling for secondary production processes by Blind employees. It is by far one of the finest facilities, with the kindest people I have ever had the honor to work with. There rarely seems to be a limit on the technology I get to play around with that supports our main goals. This is my 6th year and I really enjoy what I am doing. It is an awesome blend to get to draw my design for an assembly in AutoCad or Solidworks, program it via CAM or conversational to the machine, then make it come to life with mechanical, electronics and software developed to give a level of independence to the operator.
A true waste of hard earned skills would be by not passing them on to someone else.
I have my own well equiped shop at home for side jobs and hobby stuff.
DC