• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

My New job

Share this page

SilentUnicorn

SilentUnicorn

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
Well I have taken a plunge and gone to work for an engineering firm about 50 miles away called Olympic Precision. My first day was the monday before Thanksgiving. Tommorow i head for Connecticut, for three days training on Solidworks. I have been hired as a Technician Machinist and will be doing support as well, hence the software training. We are currently in tempory quarters, and will be breaking ground for a new Precision Manufacturing Center in Windsor I am still getting settled into this job and environs. It is somewhat different for me as i have been production oriented for all of my career. I now have a desk and brand new computer. The last week about all i have done is begin to familarize myself with the software, make reseverations for the trip and do some reading.
I have attached a pic of my first excercise in SW, you model folks might get a kick out of what i chose to draw and assemble. It is a jpeg of a Radial 5 aircraft engine. It even spins and you can see the pistons moving, pretty neat stuff.

This is (i hope) a Really big opportunity for me and i hope i can cut it. I am the least formally educated employee of about 7 people. I do however have better than 12 years job shop experience in machining (manual and cnc) with good problem solving skills and there isnt a machine built that i cant run. The rest of the people are engineers, and we all know about engineers. Still i figure i might have something to contribute. Plus Being the first man in the door doesnt hurt.

The commute is already starting to be boring (one hour and 15 minutes). I have been driving the 122, but last week it ate a rear wheel bearing, so it is currently on the disabled list. I did drive the Midget for a couple of days after the oil line that feeds the guage in the 122 decided to give out at the connection to the block one morning, putting all of its oil on the driveway while i let it warm up . So i am back to driving my Nissan, which is also nearing its last legs, runs like a top but the rest of it is getting tired. My plan is to purchase a much better ride hopefully buy the end of the month. I am thinking suubby outback.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif


mark




Links

article


https://leahy.senate.gov/press/200603/032206a.html
 
Thanx Rick, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

mark
 
I've always loved that area. I presume Windsor is still part of what's been known for years as the "Precision Valley". There were some great old companies in that general area - J&L (lathes), Bryant (grinders), Fellows (gear shapers), Cone Blanchard (grinders etc) and some others I've forgotten. I had several customers down in Springfield (VT) over the years (including J&L (ages ago) and Bryant) and I always loved working with those guys.

The whole area has a long history of precision manufacturing (& includes an outstanding museum devoted to just that). I hope you love the work and what the heck - there's far worse countryside to commute through.

Good luck with it.

(Start lobbying now - get them to send you to Eastec next year so we can get together).
 
Way to go on the new job score!
 
Nice to have a desk and a computer, beats standing in front of a machine forever. Grats.
 
Congrats. I took a small class in solidworks as a sales pitch for my co to buy it. Amazing what you can do with it. I am not proficient at all with it as I do not use it a lot but man it gets you thinking what you can make with it. I do most of my work with OMAX for the waterjet and have a ton of fun creating with it.
 
Congrats!

I used to live and work in that area... worked in Windsor Locks and lived in both Enfield and East Granby. Would go back at any time if the opportunity presented itself.
 
Ahh The Precision musuem, Fantastic place! i have spent some time there and i am sure i will again. I am well aware of the history of this area having grown up here. It also runs in the family. My father worked for Cone Blanchard and Heald Machine as an engineer. He also recieved this years award for lifetime achievent from tha ASPE. My grandfather worked for printing press company in Rhode island (Cotrell?) as a quality control man. I really enjoy making *things* and being able to expand, which had mostly come to a halt at the old job. I told myself the safe thing to do would be to stay there and not take the chance. Not much on deadends. So i am off and running. thanx for all the well Wishes

mark
 
Fantastic, Mark! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

Don't sweat the education level thing. First, you've gotta remember that "PhD" is shorthand for "Piled Higher and Deeper". These folks wouldn't have hired you if they didn't realize the value of a good hands-on operations guy. I can tell you from direct, first-hand experience that the synergies (sorry for using such foul language, BTW, but the word is appropriate here) - that the synergies gained from this mix of experience makes the organization stronger.

Their skills and book-larnin' will likely stretch you a bit, and your skills and hands-on experience will do the same for them. Plus, I've got a hunch you know a whole bunch more theory and pure engineering than you may realize. You don't get to the top of your game without that, no matter your "formal" educational level. (Ask me how I know: In civilian life I'm a GS-15 Operations Director, and don't have a 4-year degree.)

Trust me - you're there because those folks figured you're the right guy. And with a core group that small, this was a personal decision - not just an exercise in filling billets.

Now - Get those cars runnin'! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

R.
 
Congrats on the job, I see you come from good stock, there was a time when almost every magazine printed in the US was printed on a Cottrell printing press. I think your grandfather's old factory is a Brewery now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Good on ya, Mark. It's nice to see when one of us old timers adapts to the new systems. In my heart, I'm still a hand crank and vernier guy, but the new way is certainly better.
Best of luck!
Jeff
 
Congrats on the new job. My son is an expert on Solidworks. He designs pistons for the Midget on a laptop while watching TV. He told me he registered as a BCF member but I don't know his online name.
 
That hour and 15 mintues commute is about the same as mine...After 25 years it's starting to get to me, and traffic is only getting worse.For the first 5 years or so I drove Spitfire, then an MGB. The majority of the remaining years I drove the Camaro, which served me very well, but when I bought the Jag it did help to make the drive a little more bearable. Now I alternate between the Jag in the summer and the caddy in the winter. Long commutes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif
 
Congrats on the new job! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Hey?! What’s that about engineers? Oh, wait a minute. You’re right. Never mind. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif


PC.
 
Good deal!
I don't think you'll regret your decision. Everytime I've "stuck my neck out", it's worked out well for me. I have several friends who never changed jobs and "played it safe", and I think I'd regret that type of choice in the long run.

It was great to here about your family work-history too. A lot of the American "can-do" attitude came from companies in the Windsor area.

As for the commute, get a VW diesel!

Regarding Solidworks, I'm looking it over right now. I teach AutoCAD and Inventor and we have just gotten in a license to teach ProEngineer. But to me, Solidworks looks the most user-friendly of all the parametric CAD programs. I think it's a great choice. A bunch of my FIRST robotics kids use it and they love it (Solidworks has been very supportive of the FIRST Robotics concept).

By the by, some engineering kids do learn the CNC stuff. All my community college kids learn it (we're doing nested loops and Canned cycles in the Fanuc turning system this week). We also use MasterCAM and PowerStation post-processing software (we typically use this for converting DXF-CAD files to actual CNC programs)...very cool stuff and a huge time-saver.
 
Congrats, Mark! And a little warning about a contractor such as yourself associating with engineers:

"An architect is said to be one who knows a very little about a great deal and keeps knowing less and less about more and more until he knows practically nothing about everything, whereas on the other hand, an engineer is one who knows a great deal about very little and who goes along knowing more and more about less and less until finally he knows practically everything about nothing.

A contractor starts out knowing practically everything about everything, but ends up knowing nothing about anything, due to his association with architects and engineers." (anon.)

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif Mickey
 
Congratulations on the job. Now you can design that steering wheel hub for the Moto-Lita.
With a small group I have found that the most important thing is for everyone to know what they don't know and for that to be OK in the organization (i.e check the egos at the door). You obviously have they skills that they are lacking and that is why they hired you. Good luck.
 
Neat. Congrats!
 
Congratulations... and what everyone else said. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif I like the outback too... I've been looking at getting another vehicle myself... both my sportscars are down at the moment, and the toyota needs a few minor repairs (plus it eats a lot of gas).
 
Back
Top