>>111636
My coworker, the physicist, got a job offer working for a government contractor outside of DC, making more than twice what she's been making here. There was an attempt to get her hired on with a contractor that does a lot of work on base, with similar pay, so she could justify continuing to do what she's been doing, but I found out today that that fell through. She hadn't even been looking for another position. This company found her info on Indeed, brought her in, and basically said, "You are what we want to hire. What would it take for you to leave what you're doing, come here, and work for us?" She gave them what she thought was an insane number, and they went for it. So she basically had no choice but to take the job, at that point.

We've also lost a more recent hire in our group to private industry elsewhere.

The skills the government needs for what we are doing are worth a lot in industry, and the government pay system just isn't set up to account for that. My boss has been trying to make the case that he should be able to get his employees paid more, but he has to show that we've already lost people to industry. It doesn't sound like there's a way to act preemptively. And now we're losing someone that was doing a lot of important stuff, one of the two people who've been working in the labs day to day for this group for more than six months.

>>111699
But, but, women get paid less than men do! Wage gap!

Sorta related:

> coworker calls me
> CW: Hey man, you'll never guess who just called me?
> Me: Santa Claus?
> CW not phased: It was our old coworker who's now the plant manager at the hospital. He's asking if I knew anyone who'd be interested in a job as their turbine / general maintenance guy.

This coworker is not someone who's well connected...

> Me: Hah! He was asking if YOU wanted the job.
> CW: Yeah what's what I thought!

A few hours later...

> Plant Manager guy calls me
> PM: Hey Avgas, how's it going? What have you been up to?
> Me: Hey PM, I heard you've been doing some poaching.
> PM: What? Naw. Who told you that?
> Me: I heard you were trying to get CW.
> PM: Who told you that, was it John?
> Me: What? No, CW told me.
> PM: I was just seeing if anyone was interested, and just lettin' you know there was a job opening.

Right. I've heard our customers, as part of the standard terms and conditions, have to agree not to try to steal our employees.

Also, I hate that fucking place. I previously told him "Not for all the tea in China."

Alright, I got one for you IHC.

>get nail in tire
>oh fuck whatever I can just put the spare on
>pull back into garage because at this point I'm gonna plug the shit anyway
>set the jack at the position marked under the car and in the manual
>start jacking the car up, jack is almost maxed out
>turns out Dodge/Chrysler just fucking hands out the same goddamned jacks regardless of make/model
>UrbanProne(TM) beside the car
>watch the jack fucking flex and go sailing past my head at Mach 5
>dent in drywall from impact

And that's when I found out my fucking car is literally 50lbs short of a Dodge Ram Quadcab with the same engine and they supplied the same fucking jack I had for the neon. (which back in the day mind you, didn't fucking fit underneath it when it was fully compressed)

And I keep a goddamned three ton in the fucking thing because of it.

Another one?
Another one.

>6 months after acquisition of new vehicle
>keep getting calls from dealership
>"Hi, we're just calling to notify you that it might be time to change your oil."
>well okay, I can do that myself but alright it's free so fuck it
>take car to dealership
>20 minutes later they come back out
>not bad
>3 months later it's fucking leaking from the filter
>go back and ask them why they fucked up putting an oil filter on the car

I'm not even fucking joking
Dude looks me square in the face and says
>well it's supposed to leak when you have to change it, that's how it notifies you that it's time to change it
>PotentialManslaughter.jpg
>we can take the keys from you and replace it for fort-
>Go fuck yourselves.

Fuck Dodge.
I love my car even though it's absolutely a psychotic tank of a car and relatively bullet resistant.
Which leads me to a local story

>some urban dude's wife decided to sell his car without him knowing
>dude walking up the main road in town sees his car with some random broad driving it
>tries to flag her down
>she turns into the nearest chicken joint
>dude decides an easy way to get the weird bitch out of the car is to just draw his motherfucking hipoint and start laying rounds into it
>5/10 rounds connect with vehicle
>three were deflected by the rear windshield
>one got stuck in the backseat through the trunk
>one punched through the windshield area (this was roughly 20-30m mind you
>bullet stopped in drivers seat headrest

Pretty sure it's just the US going into rampancy because I swear to god there's gunfights everyday in neighboring cities, we're getting a bit more firearms related goofy shit happening.

Like gyms getting shot the fuck up and cops not giving weapons charges to the shooter because of how lulzy the whole situation was.

Oh and to get all four fucking tires off the ground, the car has to be three feet off the goddamned ground.

Suspension is like a weird fucking monster truck.
Though hitting a ramp at 70 in it is comfortable as shit, fuck working on the thing.

Let me tell you about my girlfriends car though, it's a mashup of 6, no shit, 6 different vehicles.
It's the frankencar.

And there's no drain plug for the oil.
There are 5 of these things aside from hers we interact with, like friends cars.

So like, her's is the only one that's got this particular problem.
It's so fucked up, Ford is a shit.

>>111710
Dude, change your damn garage, those guys sound like a liability.

My turn:

>Driving my diesel Alfa
>Taking then GF for meal out
>Engine suddenly sounds like it's eaten 4 spanners with no grease
>almost no power
>AlfaProblems.png
>Pull over pop bonnet
>nothing lose or leaking
>ok. home time.
>Stop outside house, kill engine, as doing so think I should pull this to the local garage
>local garage is 500m from front door
>turn key
>HAHAHA Alfa says no.

FUUUU

>get car into garage.
>"3 things it's most likely to be"
>timing sensor
>cranks
>dead piston

Knowing my luck...

>Timing sensor is a no go. FMAL
>"Head off time AB"
>O-ok
>"I'm hoping to see a twisted lug on the cams, easy fix"
>NOPE.jpg
>"Engine is like new, (88 thou) no scoring on the piston, piston is fine, everything is fine just no compression..."

Just my luck

>Choice is new (read salvaged) lump or he chases it round the engine (£££)
>Lump swap it is
>most places want ~£1500 for a shagged pos lump.

Ouch

>find breaker with a 40k Lump for 900 with guarantee,
>fucking buy it.
>lump delivered
>My garage tries to turn it over with a bar before fitting.
>NOPE_AGAIN.exe

My motor is on the ramp with no engine and some Northern Money has sold me a duff engine.

Apparently he sent the wrong lump by 'mistake' sending the other one now.

Bloody Hell. >:(

At work. First time I've ever been unable to watch the super bowl.

>>111737
Count yourself lucky. I regularly miss 6 Nations games.

Welp I only have a few days of work left. New job, will be moving to another province, so shit will be weird for a while.

Last little workpost for the foreseeable near future, I assume.

>get to work
>old guy that used to own the shop wants me to make these things
>says they NEED this tiny little slot that's super deep and has a radius at the bottom
>long story short, tool required is over 12 times long as it is wide
>in steel
>order tools
>put them in collet tool holder
>check concentricity
>0.0012 TIR
>that's fucking TERRIBLE
>fiddle with the obvious fixes
>get it down to 0.0007
>still terrible
>actual solution is order a few precision collets
>no time since I'm gone next week
>hmmm
>index spindle
>put a sharpie marker dot on the "high spot" (most eccentric part of the rotation)
>disassemble tool
>paint sharpie marker on the inside surfaces of the tool, collet, and holder in the "eccentric" spots
>reassemble tool
>0.00005 TIR concentric
>bad but acceptable

thickness of sharpie ink ftw

Still chipped the flutes but the part is acceptable.

>>111803
Huh. Never would have thought of that. Of course around here our machines are so beat .0015" TIR is considered good. I had a tool running out .005" because the taper is fucked that I got down to .0017" by yanking on the holder. Yay rigidity.

>>111804
The smaller the tool, the more concentricity matters. Some operations might be a little more forgiving, but when the tool is both long and skinny, best = no measurable runout.

I've done some really crazy shit to reduce runout. SOP at another shop that was better equipped in cutting tools, but still old machines/old tool holders was to say "hold my beer" and ATC to previous tool, ATC to current tool, dial it, mark the high spot. This ensured the tool would be seated exactly as it would be when the program ran. Then you actually tap the tool itself with a hammer, ATC to previous and ATC back to the tool you're working on. Dial it and see if it changed. If it didn't, tap it harder. If it did and it moved the correct way, you're getting warmer. There's a definite art to this, you usually hold the tool in your fingers with the left hand to dampen the vibrations while also holding a little brass punch against the tool body to prevent damage to cutting edges, then give it a little tap.

You can dial shit perfectly and consistently like this. I've actually only broken one solid carbide 0.125" reamer this way out of dialing tools probably a hundred times. At one job they couldn't get their 0.125 +/-0.0001 hole in (ran oversized), only had on-size spares, and no undersized. After the one broken reamer I had it spinning with no measurable runout with about five minutes of ATC swaps and hammertime.

I did give it a go with the tools I mentioned (10 to 12x extended sub-0.060" diameter shit) but I quickly gave up. I may have a decent bit of experience in precision percussive calibration, but fuck I don't have spares and those things are tiny.

Then there was that time I woke up an old tape-drive CNC Matsuura vertical milling machine for another job. It would chatter on any tool in any feed/speed, I scratched my head for a while before putting a bit of layout dye on a tool holder taper. Ran the tool for a few seconds, when I pulled it out of the spindle, there was clear rubbing around the taper, getting really bad at the larger diameter of the taper. Machine spindle taper was wallered right out (it's why that machine hadn't been turned on in years, the guys that knew this were long gone). Hotdog down a hallway.

Now the correct course of action is to get a spindle regrind. However, they declined this request and so I asked them to hold my beer. Then I used six small squares of masking tape on the tool holder taper to provide points of contact (three points at the bottom of the taper and three points at the top of the taper) and we were able to mill over 2000 feet of slots (slotting with an endmill) without a single whimper of chatter.

I actually don't know how concentric the tape was but it wasn't a super precision job and the tool wasn't very small so I guess it was gud 'nuf.

>>111805
Oh I'm no stranger to fixing runout with a hammer. I've used stainless shim stock between the holder and the spindle taper too. I'm lucky in that it's very rare I need to use a tool under 3/16 diameter, and if I do it's usually just for engraving.

>>111806
Good to know I'm not completely mad and that this kind of thing has been done before. I've gotten so many funny rooms hitting shit with hammers, I was starting to question stuff.

  Working with this guy again. >>111645 (the Master of Disaster aka MOD)

So for the last 2 weeks I've been troubleshooting our start motor VFD. VFD = Variable Frequency Drive. (aka "the drive") VFDs work on a combination of PWM and PFM. Pulse width modulation and pure fucking magic. Nobody really understands them, and as such the drives get blamed for everything.

> gone for a week
> MOD: Hey man, we removed that jumper from the drive. It's the one you have to remove to enable the station communication card.
> Me: Ok....

> power up drive
> Inverter communication fault
> check manual
> says to check fiber optic cable
> shine flashlight through, no kinks or damage
> looks gud...
> pull out fiber interface card and transceivers
> go with Nintendo method of troubleshooting
> pull the card out, blow on it, put it back in
> Inverter communication fault
> electrical inspector has been bored out of his mind for this whole job
> he elbows his way into start ripping stuff apart and replacing station wiring
> mess with it for a while
> Inverter communication fault + Safety board fault
> fuck

  Continued from >>111811

FF to 2:37 for drive internals.

> replace the entirely too thicc station wiring with actually flexible stranded wire
> dig more into the drive, getting to know it pretty well
> wait a week for parts
> install new fiber optic cable and transceivers
> Inverter communication fault + Safety board fault
> fuck

> MOD: Hey man lets trying moving the Input Output card to a different slot, it doesn't matter if it's in 4 or 5.
> Me: k whatevs
> I/O card in 4, move to 5
> doesn't help

> pull up every manual and spec sheet
> trying to figure out Safety Board fault
> check settings and dip switches, set correctly
> manual says switch 1 on, switch 2 off, install enable jumper

> Me: What was that jumper you guys removed?
> MOD: This one here.
> "ENABLE"
> removed
> install "ENABLE" jumper
> Safety board fault
> fuck, it didn't fix the safety board fault
> Me: Wait, did the inverter comm fault go away?
> MOD: Nah, I don't think that has anything to do with it.
> call mfg tech support
> TS: Yah I think yer safety board is fried
> Me: By the way, with [this configuration] does that enable jumper matter?
> TS: Oh yeah, that'll cause your inverter comm fault.
What kind of fucked up error is that?

> last friday
> 1 of 2 safety boards arrive
> install
> no change

> today
> 2 of 2 safety boards arrive
> suspect the old one got fucked up from the electrical inspector being rough with it and every random asshole picking it up and playing with it
> really careful to prevent static electricity by grounding myself on the drive
> MOD: I don't think this is going to work.
> it works
> now only a configuration error

> MOD: I think we better get a replacement drive on order.
> 6 week lead time and $20,000+
> Me: What the fuck? Dude we just got the hardware issues worked out. The drive is happy, this is just our configuration.
> MOD: I don't think so man.

> working through our configurating software
> slot 4 configuration error, slot 6 error...
> slot 4...
> didn't we move the I/O card?
> MOD: That shouldn't matter. You can move those cards around.
> move I/O card back to slot 4
> works

> configure drive
> test crank engine
> CLUNK
> vvvvvrrrrrrrrr
> stop crank

Oh shit it worked. (And didn't blow up!)

> check for rotation, actually correct
> crank engine up to normal test crank speed

Score!

> tell site boss
> every asshole on site shows up to see the thing crank
> hit the button
> Inverter over-temp fault
???

> check motor control center
> warm as fuck because someone turned up the heater
> open doors, let ventilate
> fault clears

> test crank engine
> vvvvvvrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRR
> yay
> kill it before the thing over-temp's again

> check drive
> only 1 of 4 cooling fans are actually running
> fuck
> tomorrow's project

Man, I've never had a tenth as many problems with one of these. Normally you turn the damn thing on, hit configure, hit start, and don't worry about it until the roof leaks directly on to the drive 5 years from now...

>>111812
Those high-power drives and soft starters are touchy things, it seems. We just blew one recently, while testing our switchboard on our final inspection before shipping out.

Apparently Schneider Electric has some assembling facilities in China as well. This engine soft starter is different from others we used to install before - it is not enclosed completely for better ventilation and the circuit board is exposed to the elements (on the photo the front cover is removed).

I'm not responsible for the testing itself at any part, and I'm not on the test site when everything happens. But I'm part of designing subdivision, but I still have to correct minor errors in schematics, if they find one.

>final inspection team is testing the starters after they finished with the rest of the installation
>our schematics for this includes separate microprocessor command and control unit
>and also some relays to transmit external signals
>yet this time the program is not loaded, so they do it in the manual mode
>click on relay test button and watch the starter work out
>the soft starter is supposed to have internal safeguards anyway, including protection and control

>test team programmed the starters for low-power, and used testing engine from the facility
>test team starts clicking in tests with first unit, starting the engine
>received some errors, cleared them
>on third attempt they hear loud "pop" and see a single spark flying out of the unit
>the unit "blew up"
>luckily, in low power mode you practically can not burn anything seriously

They called out to us. After an hour of investigating we found no fault on our side, so we assume it is a manufacturer error. We really hope that no one did something wrong during assembly and testing because we are doing those same units for years already with no problem.

>starting to test second engine
>cleared more warnings and errors again
>who knows wtf really they are doing
>engine starts normally
>rest of the engines start normally
>testing is over and we can not wait any longer before shipping out
>we dismount the burned unit and send the rest of the switchboard off
>other people should figure it out between our supplier and our client from now on

This thing costs more than my year worth of earnings anyway, and there's no way we are fiddling with it trying to fix anything. And, I suppose, it is a good thing it blew up on us, not on site under 100+ kW load.

Sometimes I have the coolest job in the world.

>>111889

And other times I wonder why the gods have forsaken us so.

Caught four counterfeit $10s today. Matching serial numbers. Got in a yelling match after keeping the bills, and yelled loud enough to make them leave. LVMPD took info and directed me to call secret service.

>>111891
Secret
Service
INFORMANT!!1one

Seriously, good catch though. I've never been lucky enough to get passed fakes, but a friend of mine who owns a business downtown caught some fake hundreds a year or two back.

>>111890
Marlin I think?

>>111894
Marlin has been clipazines for ages, it rustles me to no end because I quite like a lot of their guns.

>>111894
>>111895

Savage, actually. Specifically a Rascal kids .22. A single shot, lol. I guess they use generic boxes.

>>111896
>savage is doing it too

>client asks for all the raw data from the database for 2015
>developer responds before I can reply
>dev: here you go here's all the raw data
>client: what is this I can't read this
>dev: it's the raw data from 2015
>client: this is just a giant excel sheet, and I need 2015 to now not just 2015
>*angry developer noises*
>client: I don't see what the problem is why do you have an attitude
>me: "Hello, what information are you looking for specifically perhaps we can prepare a report?"

Never let your code monkeys talk to clients

Everytime.

The new guy at work bought his BMW by slinging dope, does coke, and works for an illegal bookie, and I know all this because he told me. "I can tell you're cool though, bro. I can tell with people." While his antics started out as amusing (getting drunk at work, being socially oblivious to the irritation he causes others, going on a bender and losing his car. Like literally lost. He couldn't find it), things took a darker turn tonight. He's mentioned earlier that he doesn't like snitches. I assumed he just meant tattling to the store manager about store shit. But tonight I saw him handling his "business" in the store, soliciting customers, having bettors visit him at work, threatening people over the phone that owe. His oft stated opinion on snitches was reiterated several times tonight. I stiffened when drunkenly threw an arm around my shoulder and again reassured me "but you're cool, man. I can tell with people."
I want my fucking guns back.

>>111924
Well fuck. So much for that job.

Interview for Teaching Assistant on Thursday.

>>111929
New job yet?

>>111430 >>111095
The West Virginia job strikes back. Shot a 3-gun a few weeks ago and my knees went to shit. Probably all the standing and running around after sitting on my ass for a month with no jobs. Shot a rifle class on Saturday where I had to sit down any time I wasn't doing rifle things. I figured if it didn't get any better I'd go see a doctor, which would most likely result in surgery and my ass being down for months.

My knees started feeling better Sunday, and have been doing ok this week at work, even doing maintenance with a good amount of climbing up and down. If it gets worse, I'll go see a doc.

Other than that, last week was pretty sweet.
Mon, drive 5 hours
Tue, defensive driving class
Wed, first aid class and performance review (with better than average raise)
Thu, job canceled, chilling at home
Fri, trouble call, had it fixed in 5 minutes, talked about guns for 4 hours
Sat, rifle class

For the defensive driving class, we got to learn from racing drivers how to hustle some crown vics around a race track, how to brake, drift, and avoid plastic children. Lulz were had. Apparently they had some cops in one of the previous classes and recorded video of them doing one of the events.

> instructor, 2 officers, 1 chief in the car
> chief is driving
> chief is not a wheel man
> object is to speed into a section of cones at 55 mph, swerve to avoid a plastic child, then come to a stop in the box after the cones.

They played the audio for us:

> *engine revving*
> *tires screeching*
> *thump thump thump*
> *officers laughing*
> *thump thump thump*
> *officers break into raucous laughter*
> *thump thump thump*
> Chief: SHUT THE FUCK UP CHARLIE!
> *officers positively losing their shit*

The rifle class was not work related. The guy who runs events for our club was career Army and did some high speed stuff, and this was the "advanced" class. Did a lot of transitioning between pistol and rifle, shooting from cover, shooting weak side, and communicating with others. Nothing too crazy, but definitely good stuff.

My shirt smells like jet fuel... I probably should take a shower...

I want to take a titanium (jewelry) ring and make two cuts, effectively removing a portion of the loop. I'd like the line distance between the two cuts to be 5.5mm. Tolerance for this dimension is "the closer the better" as I'm going to adhere magnets to the cut edges and want to maximize pull force between them. not sure yet the wiggle room because I don't have the magnets here. would prefer a clean cut if possible without deforming the ring.

the thickness of ring is 1.2 mm. bonus I only have a bench vise, a hand micrometer, some cash, and social skills to work with i.e. I can find stuff. figured one of you might be able to chime in with something inexpensive and effective.

pic unrelated

>>112063
You can get pretty damn close with a hacksaw and a file. oh, and dial calipers are your friend.
Actually, make that two files; one coarse-pitch for hogging out materiel, and a fine-pitch for getting to final dimension.

The hacksaw won't make a very clean cut, but that's what the files are for.
Cut your gap as close to the 5.5mm as you're comfortable with (and remember the saw will cut wider than the thickness of the blade!) then file it the rest of the way.

>Tolerance for this dimension is "the closer the better"
Dial calipers are accurate to within ±.001" (that's 0.0254mm)

I'm sure there's somebody smarter'n me that'll come up with a better method (like milling it on a clapped out Bridgeport) but hey, this will work if you're careful and patient.

>>112063
You should mill it on a clapped out bridgeport.

>>112063
I'll second a little hacksaw and files. You have one single thing to do, not a huge amount of material to remove, and you're on a budget. Make sure your vise setup is very solid, it'll make everything easy and painless. Use a fine tooth metal cutting blade, don't bother with a super magic carbide fantastic expensive shit, you don't have much material to cut. Just stroke slowly and you'll never burn the teeth on regular saw blade. Titanium isn't magic, it can be cut by HSS or even hardened high carbon steel just fine.

Paint over the target area with a sharpie and scratch an approximate 5.5mm so you can stay between the lines. You can use a file to make a score on the ring at the spot you want to start the saw cut so the saw doesn't wander when you're starting the cut.

One thing though, when you cut the ring through with the saw, remove it from the vise. It may have some internal stress and spring in some direction or another, so make sure it can move around before cutting the approximate gap and filing it to size. It might not move at all but it's better to check than cut it all nice and then undo the vise for the part to suddenly banana in some way.

>>111044
Ever since this was pointed out to me, I get self conscious everytime a black customer asks me "where you from?" It happens a lot. Three times just tonight.

My year contract isn't getting renewed with the university I work at. Reason being a "business decision" probably means they're on a stricter budget now. I either have 3 or 6 months left depending on when they give me a final notice. Shit sucks because I was a week away from moving out finally and now I can't afford to. The apartment hasn't given me an answer on getting my security deposit back but knows I'm canceling my lease.

>>112095
Damn dude.

>>108836
> get email from boss
> fw: kentucky
> watch out for food borne and sexually transmitted disease outbreak
> Hep A

> Symptoms
> Hepatitis A signs and symptoms typically don't appear until you've had the virus for a few weeks. But not everyone with hepatitis A develops them. If you do, hepatitis signs and symptoms can include:

> Fatigue, Sudden nausea and vomiting, Abdominal pain or discomfort, especially on the upper right side beneath your lower ribs (by your liver), Clay-colored bowel movements, Loss of appetite, Low-grade fever, Dark urine, Joint pain, Yellowing of the skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice), Intense itching

Emperor damn it.

Four days off. Flying back to Oklahoma to see my mom and brother. Everytime I go home, it hurts.

>>112095
Where've you been looking?

>>112097
I applied to one local here in NY but I applied to a few in PA, OH, one in TX and one in NC. I'm going to try to use this to get out of NY for good. But if no one wants me out of state in the next 3-6 months I'll only stick to local applications. I look about every day on indeed and linkedin.

I'm getting sick of this shit.

>>112064
>>112066
>>112067

So because it would be rude if I were not to share after receiving solid advice, here's what I was going to do with it:

The ring is/was made of surgical titanium and also involved in the project, had it progressed to the actual making, were really, really tiny neodymium magnets.

1/4

Seriously these things are the smallest things

http://zigmystermagnets.com/product-category/rare-earth-magnets-ceramic-magnets/micro-magnets/

2/4

So I was going to adhere the magnets to the ring to make basically a homebrew magentic earring. Why? 'Cause shit would have been cash, to put it succinctly. For reasons, I was going to roll down my right ear and secure with two attracting magnets to resist the force of the ear wanting to unroll.

I was actually going to get a legit piercing, had the dosh, and went around asking piercers what they thought. I In my mind, the force from the ear-in-a-blanket wanting to unroll would have been negligible; every piercer I asked said, no, that's a terribad idea because the force against the thin piercing surface will probably tear through your cartilage. Hmm.


3/4

And pic is what I ended up doing because not only was it easier but I just so happened to have this thin-gauge copper lying around the garage. And no I abandoned the ear-in-a-blanket idea but wear the earring pictured at my forward-most helix.

4/4

>>112112

> last night
> boss calls: Hey can you go to Baldymore tomorrow and fix their display computer?
> sure thing boss
> today
> probably fix computer, bullshitting with customer
> boss calls: Hey, can you go down to Southern Maryland, their generator dun work
> sure thing boss
> raining like hell
> traffic sucks
> go through security
> view data log
> normal procedure: unit starts, has some voltage from residual magnetism as generator speeds up , hits 80% speed, energizes field, voltage quickly ramps to 14,000 volts
> log data: start, some voltage, 80% speed, still same voltage
> no excitation
> check fuse, blown
> replace fuse, starts unit successfully

One of the site guys was troubleshooting it earlier. And by troubleshooting, I mean just guessing and replacing parts randomly. He replaced the relay and had the original in his pocket. I think he was pretty embarrassed that I fixed it in 5 minutes.

I don't really care though, I'm just glad it was an easy fix.

I had an interview for a company in PA over a week ago. Drove down after 2 phone interviews. They seemed to like me and it was more of a getting to know my personality type interview instead of hard-line technical questions. I really hope I get it. But as for my current job, our second most experienced analyst in my group resigned overnight, so with him gone I might not lose my current job. However I'd take the one in PA in a heartbeat since they seem like a great place to work.

I was booking a hotel in Manasses VA and everything was full except for the King Whirlpool Suite, so got that. To my surprise, this also included two showers... that faced each other. I'm not sure what the intention was putting two shower heads in one shower, but I feel this is something few people really get to experience. Naturally I set one to cold and the other to hot, and turned around after like two minutes on a side.

Achievement Unlocked: Took two showers at once.

>>112126
So these guys called back.

> Customer: Hey our shit broke what are you going to do about it you didnt fix it
> Me: ... hmmm, well what else was going on?
> Cust: Oh, we lost the whole plant and generator tripped on reverse power
(Oh, SLIGHT, VERY MINOR DETAIL THERE.)
> Me: Send me a picture of your fault log.
> literally nothing wrong with the generator, an oil pump was getting weak so a switch didn't transfer
> talk site guys through adjusting the switch, and ordering replacement pump for later
> unit fires right up

> finish up easy maintenance, go help other guys
> back breaking work through Memorial Day weekend
> shoot 3-gun on Monday, Memorial Day, did pretty well, rifle worked this time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIPzjJBj3HU

> tuesday back to easy maintenance
> trouble call tuesday night at 2030
> customer pissed, unit doesn't accelerate in hot weather
> another guy was there recently working on it
> get there, different problem all together
> unit hot shutdown and physically locked up
> 3 hours later when I arrived, it'd cooled down enough to turn over with a ratchet
> roll out and get home at 0100
> backing into driveway, rear view camera looking down
> ???
> oh fuck, left the tail gate open for the 1.5 hour drive home
> and didn't lose anything!

> more maintenance
> friday, same customer, unit doesn't accelerate
> call engineer for help, gives pointers
> roll over there, turn some turbine shit
> unit fires right up in even hotter temperatures
> get home at 2200

> saturday
> scheduled replacement of lube oil regulator block
> it's never the regulator block
> it's always the air-to-oil cooler
> but we pay for the block, they customer pays for the cooler
> do it anyway

> sunday
> pass the fuck out

> monday
> tuning giant fucking engine
> software is bugged
> in automatic horsepower control, the unit can decrease speed to match the setpoint, but it wont increase
> have to increase manually
> wtf mate
> user interface screens are confusing as shit
> second shift calls me at 1904, 4 minutes into their shift asking what the hell to do

> tuesday
> rewrite horsepower control software and redo the screens
> no calls
> no news is good news

> wednesday
> new startup project
> unit sitting on jacking bolts on a concrete cube in the middle of an open area
> standard practice to pour the foundation, drop the unit on it, then build the building around it
> level the units to within 0.005" per foot

> thursday
> me and another guy use the sweet ass laser alignment tools to position the equipment to within 0.002" of bore and face of rotating shafts
> guy running a excavator with a jackhammer attachment about 30 ft away from us
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Excavator_jackhammer.jpg/1200px-Excavator_jackhammer.jpg
> can see our alignment numbers changing as he hammers
> uh, hey man, can you go hammer somewhere else for a little while? thx
> finish alignments
> 1700, boss calls
> hey can you head up to the middle of PA to fix some computer shit, if you don't fix it the customer is going to call the Director of our company
> sure thing boss

> friday
> more driving
> really confusing ass software
> toggling a fan on and off 30 times a second
> event log entirely filled with FAN ON - FAN OFF - FAN ON - FAN OFF - FAN ON - FAN OFF - FAN ON - FAN OFF - FAN ON - FAN OFF - FAN ON - FAN OFF...
> event log so full the display computer grinds to a halt
> put deadband on fan activation
> turns on at 5% command, off at 1% command
> the valve control screen for unit 2 doesn't work
> turns out it's controlling unit 1
> whoopsie
> fix dem pointers

People make careers out of single things I do.

>>112205
Did you have a shower beer while in it?

Place I interviewed for in PA called saying they filled the position with someone internal. I'm not too bummed since it wasn't another external applicant who got it seeing that companies generally like to promote internal people. Anyone happen to know of any networking/VOIP related jobs in the Pittsburgh area or western PA in general paying $56k/year? The reason I'm looking there is I already know the area pretty well from visiting a friend for a few years when he was living there.

So, been a spell since I posted here. Got trained and certified as a heat treater for our facility. I don't ever do the job but to cover for the night shift heat treater when he's on vacation or out sick or something, which is to say, twice in the last five months, but it's something. I'm actually in a really good position right now because both of our bid-holding heat treaters are nearing retirement, and there's only me and one other guy who is on day shift who have the certification (who aren't also supervisors). So...I'm very likely to get into that bid here in the next couple years if nothing goes awry....or unless I get lucky, because...

I'm in the early stages of selection for our electrician apprenticeship program. I have a spacial awareness test later this week, and a math test the next day. The math test has me a bit worried since I haven't studied math since high school and have never really studied it at the level I'm seeing on some of my study guides. But, studying I am and hoping I can at least get a score that doesn't immediately disqualify me. And if I dont' get it this year, there's always next year, and I will have a better idea on the algebra they're looking to have me know and I can study more effectively.

On an unrelated note, I shot a pistol competition on Saturday and had a blast. No scores yet, and there were some serious team shooters and very accomplished SWAT cops and what not in the mix. I know I didn't win by a long shot, but I'm hoping to be in the top 20% or so. 150 shooters, spread across Limited, Open, and PCC categories.

I sold beer and vodka to a guy I think may have been on coke. Maybe it was the sniffing, or the sweating, or the way he said "Damn! That's good fucking coke!"