The Lair

Thanks Bae. I'm excited for house mods.

 

They're good when they're done. Unfucking people's fuckups is a tad infuriating.

 

Congrats on the new little one Randy!

I just did a lot of page scrolling to get myself caught up - haven't been browsing forums in a hot minute. Was seriously considering doing a 6month rotation in Tucson for the rotational program I'm in at work. The engines we make here get put into mining trucks that get tested out there because they're too heavy for ground that isn't all rock lol. Ended up not choosing that one for something that better aligned with my career goals

 

Great to hear from you Ryan! What program did you end up choosing?

 

I’m at Caterpillar in Lafayette, IN currently. We make 30-300L engines at this plant, which is pretty epic. Like the big ones make 5-6,000HP on a tune that is good for running all day every day for like 30k hours before rebuild. They’re for natural gas pumping, gensets, tug boats, generators, and the like. Some of these engines are actually too big to go into Caterpillar equipment, which is kind of a crazy concept

In my program, all the rotations are supposed to relate-ish to your “home group” which is where you end up after completing the rotations. My home group is in a valvetrain design group for large engines , so I’ve done 3 rotations within this facility that are supposed to directly relate to the home group. The last rotation gets to be a cross functional/do whatever you want thing, so I was considering either the Tucson or Clayton, NC options. I ended up selecting on in North Carolina where they design and make small and medium wheel loaders. Doesn’t really relate at all to the home role because they use much smaller engines, but it aligns with my long term goals of getting closer to being a machine designer than engine designer. And it’s much closer to home. Not exactly wanting to stay in Indiana forever - not enough trees haha.

 

That's really cool! How long are the rotations? It's sort of similar to my wife's residency. Four years of med school, with the first being classroom and the rest being four week rotations. She rotated around the hospital, trying allllll the different areas of medicine because it a) teaches you a ton and b) helps you know what you like and don't like. After that four years, then she picks the specialty to pursue, in this case pediatrics, so three years of residency which is just all rotations, but only pediatric rotations.

 

We are looking for a 110 for my 10 year old and a 70 for my 7 year old! People just think they are made of gold!

 

Congrats man!!! That is so exciting!!! #2 is easy compared to the 1st! We are currently contemplating #4...if we could guarantee a girl it would be a for sure thing. But neither of us are sure we can handle a 4th boy...

The house looks beautiful! I would love to have a pool in the backyard! So is the buying an indication the orders aren't changing anytime soon for the Dr. mrs?

 

We really wanted a girl, but not enough to try for a third when the time comes. Can't have em outnumbering us!

At worst, we'll have to leave the area for a couple of years from '27-'29 but will just rent it out and come back afterwards. If that's the case, we're going to aim for Tucson so we're not too far.

 

Thats pretty neat! Our rotations are 3-6 months each and 4-5 of them, so a bit shorter. But similar deal where you see a lot to learn faster and figure out what you do and don't like. Like right now I'm doing a rotation with the largest engine platform (Cat 3600 / Cat C280), which is cool because its so massive, powerful, and torquy of an engine that is hard for me to comprehend. It has 5 gallon bucket size pistons and can be configured in a V16. But the work in this rotation specifically isn't too thrilling because were managing all of the component level designs that make up the engine. Which turns out is a bit like herding cats (no pun intended lol).

 

I did a similar program in the aerospace industry and it set me up well for the future. From one Hokie to another, I know you'll do well.

Good job looking at the longer term goals than taking the short term fun, it'll pay dividends. Make as many contacts with big titles as you can while you're exposed to them in rotational roles, it's surprising how often they'll pop back into your life, current company and elsewhere, later on in your career.

 

Do you have any recommendations on quality lights that shouldn't interfere with the garage door opener? We're about to close on a place and I want some nice lighting in there that doesn't impact opener range. It'll be hardwired in.

 

Well, it all depends on two things... like most tasks. What is your budget and what end result are you looking for...

 

A decently lit garage (2 cars) and maybe $400? Is that crazy low with the types of lights you work with? I was thinking two tube lights would suffice. I don’t need it crazy bright since I don’t really wrench much.

 

You can get LED 4' strip lights from a reputable company like Lithonia or Cooper for about $75 each. If you are not looking for extreme lighting levels for doing detail work and such you could just go with a few of those spread evenly throughout the garage.

 

Detailing friend of mine has recommended these to me: https://www.primelights.com/

 

Thanks for the brand recs, I’ll check out their offerings.

Good to know, thanks.

 

Signed all the closing documents on our house today and it took a solid 45 minutes. Insanity! We get keys tomorrow.

 

Do we have keys? We need a tour of the new digs!

 

Soon! Keys will be in hand within the hour.