Back to Work...

Well, it has been a long time since I have had a full-time job, but I'm giving up on self-employment and going back to heat exchanger work.

The last full-time job I had was actually working for a place called Signal International where I was doing drafting work and CNC cutting machine programming. I only worked there for a short time though.

The job before that I was working at a well known, Southern heat exchanger fabrication shop where I was a draftsman, a CNC programmer, and a computer programmer. I was there for nearly 3 years.

During that time I developed a custom CNC programming system using AutoCAD AutoLISP, MS-DOS batch files, and Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. It was a very sophisticated CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Drafting/Computer Aided Manufacturing) system designed specifically for heat exchanger CNC related processes. The program extracted critical machining data from the relevant AutoCAD drawings and converted that data into information that the CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machines could understand.

The software also performed multiple checking operations to ensure that mistakes were caught prior to the machining process. The software functioned so well that many drafting and engineering mistakes were caught prior to the initial release of the drawings to the shop.

It all came to an end when certain people at the company had issues with me and basically fired me in a way to make it look like I quit (so I couldn't draw unemployment benefits). It has been nearly two years since I left that company and since then I have not been able to find a job in the same industry doing the exact same type of work... Hmmm... Wonder if that has anything to do with the CEO of the company, or the Engineering Manager? If I am ever able to prove that this is the reason then I'll sue them for two years salary, so if you guys happen to read this you better hope I never find out that this is the case :)

That is a shame too, because I loved that job, so much that I worked night and day both at home and at work on things for the job, just ask my wife and my friends. How else could all that I accomplished there have worked so wonderfully in such a short amount of time? Nobody there ever put 2+2 together on that subject though. All most of them saw were the negative things, which by-the-way were a direct result of many stressful things going on in my life at that time. Shame on me!

Well, now I'm going back to work for their competition where I will perform many of the same tasks for them. I will help them streamline their drilling and machining methods in any way possible. I will develop a new programming system for them if they want it, in order to cut down production time and eliminate mistakes in their programs and on their drawings, and I will show them other advantages of alternate methods for drilling. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make those other guys wish they would have never let me go!