You Know You Are Old When

[thepumpguysc]

That’s a good feeling isn’t it Oaktree.??
On the last day of my 2 weeks notice, my boss offered me “anything you want”.. name your salary, you don’t have to work any overtime, 1 hr lunch, instead of the normal 30 minutes, he said he’ll be moving up in a couple of months and I could have his office and position..
After he got done begging, I said, You had 2 weeks to approach me with this.. thanks but no thanks, I’ve already taken another position..
Good luck to ya..

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I think back on a few factory jobs I had in the early 70s. One made mylar capacitors. The machines were air pneumatic, about size of a pickup truck. Wire spools, mylar & aluminum spools. They were wound, then wire pressed in each side, cut, tested, dipped, stamped...amazing machines but LOUD. So loud you had to yell in someones ear to talk.
Someone said it was 127db. I was a mechanic but left after 2 weeks, no hearing protection & probably why I'm almost deaf today.
Another made oven cavities. The steel shell went through the "pickle" room, acid wash & electroplated. Then dipped (blue porcelain) and my job the white stipple. It's not for looks but helps temperature transfer. Then into a 2400°F oven...everything by conveyor overhead we hooked on. Again no protection anywhere. I sprayed no respirator. An oven always getting stuck at the 450°F air-lock and someone would run into baking oven covered with wet paper towels! In seconds the towels would fly off & burn as the worker would stagger back and collapse.
We were always racing each other on Clark propane fork lifts...those things would fly!
I remember a guy running out of the pickle room, a 55 gallon drum of acid spilled over onto his jeans which those & his boots disintegrating as we water hosed him off.
I always wonder how many of these guys are still alive!!!
Sorry the long post...just reminiscing.

 

[jyoutz]

I think back on a few factory jobs I had in the early 70s. One made mylar capacitors. The machines were air pneumatic, about size of a pickup truck. Wire spools, mylar & aluminum spools. They were wound, then wire pressed in each side, cut, tested, dipped, stamped...amazing machines but LOUD. So loud you had to yell in someones ear to talk.
Someone said it was 127db. I was a mechanic but left after 2 weeks, no hearing protection & probably why I'm almost deaf today.
Another made oven cavities. The steel shell went through the "pickle" room, acid wash & electroplated. Then dipped (blue porcelain) and my job the white stipple. It's not for looks but helps temperature transfer. Then into a 2400°F oven...everything by conveyor overhead we hooked on. Again no protection anywhere. I sprayed no respirator. An oven always getting stuck at the 450°F air-lock and someone would run into baking oven covered with wet paper towels! In seconds the towels would fly off & burn as the worker would stagger back and collapse.
We were always racing each other on Clark propane fork lifts...those things would fly!
I remember a guy running out of the pickle room, a 55 gallon drum of acid spilled over onto his jeans which those & his boots disintegrating as we water hosed him off.
I always wonder how many of these guys are still alive!!!
Sorry the long post...just reminiscing.

Wow. Sounds like this pre-dated OSHA.

 

[WinterDeere]

I think back on a few factory jobs I had in the early 70s. One made mylar capacitors.

One of my internships in college was working for a company that made robotic equipment for manufacturing, and one of their customers was Silicon Power Corp, who made these crazy huge 5000 amp diodes used in mag lev trains and some classified military applications. My job as the FNG was being in the customer's factory overnight (usually alone), working on our automated test and manufacturing equipment, while the factory was closed in order to not interrupt their normal production.

They'd leave these diodes running on their automated test and burn-in systems overnight while I was working, and the test systems consisted of these room-sized racks built out of 2x4 framing, holding hundreds or thousands of coffee can-sized electrolytic capacitors, big Farad-sized jobs. The capacitors would charge for maybe ten minutes, and then all discharge in a single impulse through these diodes meant to handle 5000 amps continuous current and impulses probably several hundred thousand amps (classified, I don't really know). Each time one would fire off, it sounded like someone had fired a Howitzer right there in the room with you. It was recipe for a heart attack, or at least crapping your pants.

The trouble was, there were dozens of these systems in this big dark factory, all charging and discharging on seemingly-random schedule. The huge wooden racks holding these banks of capacitors would groan and creak as the caps were charging up, to the point where you could start to get a sense when one would be ready to fire off... but that only made the anticipation worse!

One thing I remember vividly, was that the "wire" through which these capacitors discharged into the diode under test, was about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" diameter stranded wire, and as stiff as any 1/2" rebar you ever tried to bend. I remember trying to bend a length of it over my knee with limited success, when cold, but the stuff would whip like a piece of yarn each time those capacitors discharged through it.

I was so glad when that contract was completed, and I could stop working nights in that creepy factory. But I have to admit, no loud noise startles me, anymore.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

One of my internships in college was working for a company that made robotic equipment for manufacturing, and one of their customers was Silicon Power Corp, who made these crazy huge 5000 amp diodes used in mag lev trains and some classified military applications. My job as the FNG was being in the customer's factory overnight (usually alone), working on our automated test and manufacturing equipment, while the factory was closed in order to not interrupt their normal production.

They'd leave these diodes running on their automated test and burn-in systems overnight while I was working, and the test systems consisted of these room-sized racks built out of 2x4 framing, holding hundreds or thousands of coffee can-sized electrolytic capacitors, big Farad-sized jobs. The capacitors would charge for maybe ten minutes, and then all discharge in a single impulse through these diodes meant to handle 5000 amps continuous current and impulses probably several hundred thousand amps (classified, I don't really know). Each time one would fire off, it sounded like someone had fired a Howitzer right there in the room with you. It was recipe for a heart attack, or at least crapping your pants.

The trouble was, there were dozens of these systems in this big dark factory, all charging and discharging on seemingly-random schedule. The huge wooden racks holding these banks of capacitors would groan and creak as the caps were charging up, to the point where you could start to get a sense when one would be ready to fire off... but that only made the anticipation worse!

One thing I remember vividly, was that the "wire" through which these capacitors discharged into the diode under test, was about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" diameter stranded wire, and as stiff as any 1/2" rebar you ever tried to bend. I remember trying to bend a length of it over my knee with limited success, when cold, but the stuff would whip like a piece of yarn each time those capacitors discharged through it.

I was so glad when that contract was completed, and I could stop working nights in that creepy factory. But I have to admit, no loud noise startles me, anymore.

Even a small 10ufd cap reverse polarity connected goes off like a firecracker. Those multi-farads would be a stick of dynamite!

 

[WinterDeere]

Even a small 10ufd cap reverse polarity connected goes off like a firecracker. Those multi-farads would be a stick of dynamite!

I'd bet the total capacity on some of those test rigs had to have been close to 1000 Farads. I don't recall the voltage, maybe not even that terribly high, but I do recall now my boss saying that one of their rigs was able to peak over a million amps. Big stuff.

The diodes looked like tuna cans, with a 4" diameter anode terminal on one side and a 4" diameter cathode terminal on the other. My job was working on the equipment that tested the thousands of parallel pn junctions within, and scraped away the solder paste on the bad ones prior to assembly.

 

[drssg]

The land of million dollar starter homes?

I recently traveled to Honolulu, and they just might have you guys beat. Their version of an affordable housing project is a massive apartment tower. For about $1M, you can own a one bedroom apartment in that beehive.

 

[ultrarunner]

I’ve never understood rigorous onboarding and compensation negotiation, inking the agreement including title, etc. only to later have corp change just about all the terms down the road.

It seems the signed agreement is really one sided because unless there is a parachute clause the employer is free to change terms but employee not so free barring leaving.

 

[WinterDeere]

I’ve never understood rigorous onboarding and compensation negotiation, inking the agreement including title, etc. only to later have corp change just about all the terms down the road.

It seems the signed agreement is really one sided because unless there is a parachute clause the employer is free to change terms but employee not so free barring leaving.

Agreed, but it’s still worth the effort, as typically your biggest “raises” occur when changing companies. Once you’re in the fold, it’s less common to see large increases, as the employer doesn’t usually need to offer as much incentive to keep you there as to get you there.

 

[MossRoad]

25 years salaried and then with new ownership punching a time clock…

It was very difficult for me to transition but I do earn more and after hour calls not as frequent…

In 2017 I was told not to worry… it will all get settled shortly but here we are… night differential, weekend differential, holiday pay, overtime, etc…

Another thing I liked about salary was I got paid a month in advance. So every 1st of the month I got a check and felt like I owed them.... towards the end of the month, I'd get to feeling like we were getting pretty close to even.