Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Yes sir, he is one of the best around. When he does things for me, most of the time he puts primer under it

 

The blasting and prep is the hard part.

 

I made this frame a couple months ago, boss had the top plate lasered out and I checked with him to make sure which way it went before welding it on because of the offset slots. The customer came by and looked at it and my boss told me it's wrong. I told him I don’t want to cut it off can I just extend the slots? He said can you?

 

God dammit fellas I was trying to be nice.

 

Drill for the radius end, cutoff wheel for the slot and a hand job with the dremel to blend it in.

 

Hand job?

 

You would show up

 

Was just asking for a friend

 

So I've been working on a proposed lab renovation that the occupants are applying for a national grant to renovate.

We were asked for a plan showing the proposed renovation. No problem.



Then they said the needed a demo plan. Never needed that for a grant before but whatever:



Next up was dimensions, square footage and foot candles. Piece of cake:



Then yesterday they needed sinks and receptacles laid out (there was a TON more receptacles in this lab than I thought there would be!):



Boss man had a meeting with them this morning with everything I've drawn up for them and they said that these plans are "second rate" and that they "need first class to be able to sell it". Basically, they want photo realistic renderings, done for free no less, for a grant they probably won't get anyway.

Call me pessimistic, and probably a little bitter, but the work I've put into this (which admittedly isn't all that much compared to some of the projects I've done here! ) isn't even appreciated enough to offer constructive criticism, they are simply discarded as inadequate.

Boss man told them that if that's what they want, they'll need to give us money to hire an architect for them.

Frickin' ingrates.

Is it 4:00 yet so I can take my frustration out on the gym equipment?

 

My uncle works at an ice cream plant, he's the head maintenance guy. He has my boss coming out to look at something in the deep freezer. He told him to bring a pencil to write with because a pen will freeze and to bring lots of clothes because it's -35 degrees

 

That is crazy they would say that and not be appreciative. If they aren't paying for the drawings, you should color them some with crayons and see how they like that

 

Heat wave!

No idea what goes into them but we have some freezers on campus that are -80. Hopefully not ice cream!

 

My uncle told me the quicker they can get ice cream to freeze the less air bubbles it has in it.

And -80, how do you get stuff that low without the equipment doing it freezing?

 

Jeez man, your plans look pretty great to me, especially under the circumstances you described. Im glad it seems like your boss backed you up. My boss has no problem telling people with unrealistic expectations to F off. God, if those plans are second rate, I dont even think there's a classification low enough to describe the designs we get from people who want us to make something for them. Plus, when they are first rate drawings, they scan a print of it multiple times before it reaches me and I cant read it anyway.

 

At this point, I'm a little disappointed I didn't just scan my scribbles and give them those.

 

In a college campus environment, bureaucracy gets a little difficult since you can't exactly just tell someone to fuck off.

In talking to one of my coworkers, it sounds like about 12 years ago the same people were applying for probably the same grant for the same rooms and didn't get it then, either.

Usually I try to bend over at least a little backwards to get people what they need and want. Making contacts and greasing the wheels has served me well so far in my tenure here. No interest in doing that for these guys anymore.

 

I work in erosion and sediment control. 9 times out of 10 I'll have guys on the ground just email me a grading plan, tell me to markup by hand / make sense of everything, and send back to them in an hour so they can start building accordingly

Disclaimer: I am not and engineer, but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night.

 

Me delayed package left the boro this morning. I thought cool, I’ll get it today because the boro and where it’s headed is only 20 minutes away. Wrong. Don’t even know where it’s going

 

I agree with your strategy, there's no pleasing some people but trying hard anyway seems like the best approach. What else is there to do anyway?

Our biggest hassle is honestly the larger part of our company which is in Ohio (were in Louisiana). They process all of our orders so they're the ones scanning drawings and sending them even though they know ill just be calling for clarification later. I rewrite and redraw designs for myself now and keep them for when the orders come up again. Way easier than getting on the phone and playing the same game all over again every time.

 

Been there! I hate it when someone doesn’t appreciate the background work that is involved to make things happen. A lot of time I get a rough shape rendering of a part that a customer is requesting, no details on thickness, or where or how things are joined together, nothing but an overall shape, they often want it quoted and a lead time from this.
The problem is, how can we accurately quote this and make sure we can build it if there are no details!?!???
And I know if we just throw a number at it, they’ll bite, and then we will still need to figure out the details.
Not only that, but it’s one thing to draw it up, but another to make shop manufacturing drawings that our fabricators can work from. They never understand that this all happens in the background and when you charge them a “1 time Cad/programming fee” they get all bent out of shape, because they said they provided a file, lol.
Something we sometimes do is offer an incentive to the potential customer. If it has potential to bring repeat work from it, we will charge them the upfront cost with the written in promise of a prorated refund based on the return of their repeat orders.
Don’t let it get you down man!