Well I'm forcibly retard

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67Dart273

67Dart273

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The POS place I worked for the last 4 years building electronics layed me off. During the "pandemic" I've been working at home building up the last (ever) of the now obsolete drive modules. The thing that's stupid is, that now they will only be selling chairs with 3rd party electronics, so the only work up in electronics will be various switchboxes and interconnect cables. VASTLY reduced workload. The last few times I've been out there the woman (who doesn't GAS and makes lots of mistakes) has been running around trying to look busy---she's full time. So naturally they fired me and kept her. Would have been the perfect thing for me to carry on---work 2 days a week, if I got behind, could work 3 for a couple weeks. Oh well.......................................

Some time ago, "in the home bunker" building hand controls

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Building module power cables at home. The last 6 or 8 were built by "the other woman"---and I had to tear them apart as they were made WRONG

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Building a drive module Took the last two that will ever be built to work this morning, they were 48V

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So go to work for a local parts store part time . You have know how and somebody will recognize and appreciate that .
 
I cannot be on my feet long, but I want nothing to do with working with the pubic. "In a previous life" I sold parts at two different stores for about 15 years. Since modern stores are heavily "corporate" I want nothing to do that that end either. Old friend of mine from the old parts days worked for Oh'Reallys for a few years and he got tired of it quick

Believe it or not, we used to keep track of brake drum and rotor "turns" by inventory just like a part. I've turned more than a thousand rotors and drums. And made hundreds of hydraulic hoses. I've relined a few brake shoes and winch drum brakes. The second plae I worked we sold chain, wire, and rigging and log chokers. I've cut thousands of feet of winch line. We carried up to 7/8 some of it known as "heavy lube," a real PITA
 
It is their loss.
They will need 3 paycheck collectors to replace you.
 
fishmens67 said:
It is their loss.
They will need 3 paycheck collectors to replace you.
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Thanks. I know I did quality work. I've made a few mistakes, but unlike their current "employee" she never learns from hers. And the firing of my previous supervisor was steeped in BS too. What happened is, the CEO ran into a previous employee from about a ? decade ago who has shop CNC experience. And some younger. So they fired my super, who'd been with them 20-25 years, and hired him, he "runs" the electronics bay 3 days a week and goes to the machine shop for 2. So they got a "2 in 1" deal.

Idaho is a "right to work" state. Nobody "needs" a reason to hire and fire, and if they do, they make something up

I am not terribly upset. The money was "handy" but not essential. Of course with Biden's inflation, that may change........
 
Sorry to read Del, I know 1st hand your quality of work. Me being cynical, I could see this place going tits up and then pointing the blame elsewhere instead of the internal mistakes they make.
 
Slap Stick said:
Maybe you mean "employ at will". Right to work only means you cannot be forced to join a union as a requirement of employment.
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Ha ! You can still taste that Cool Aide they fed you can't you ?

Have you ever read the actual bill ?
It was all about keeping cheap labor in Idaho ... and it worked !
 
Del , maybe you could rebuild clusters and radios etc ...that way you male your own schedule and are doing something yoh like/know.
FABO alone would keep you busy !
 
I’m so sorry to hear about this del. I def feel your pain. Maybe it’s just our generation that gets fed up with the corporate bullshit. I still love the work and the guys but the corporate crap is now sooo overwhelming that I’m ready to call it a day. 50 emails a day that have nothing to do with the core and lots to do with know nothing types justifying their existence by trying to let you how much better they are at your job...a job they’ve never done and never will do. Safety...forget about it...just make the numbers work. Rant over. Thank you.
 
Most places are desperately in need of a handyman for small jobs. You could probably make some good walking around money (cash) fixing doorbells and installing light fixtures. And you never have to work on a good fishing day....
 
CFD244 said:
Have ever considered working on vintage equipment like guitar amps and such?
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Funny you should mention that. My former super is doing just that. In his "misdirected yute" he played in a band around the local area, and has picked a guitar in some way ever since. He is a hell of a tech, about my age (around 70) and knows what a guitar amp should sound like.

Guitar amps are a special breed. They are intentionally not hif fidelity. They intentionally use distortion to introduce the "sound" you want

He is also working on a couple of designs of his own, and if anyone can do it, I bet he can.
 
mbaird said:
So go to work for a local parts store part time . You have know how and somebody will recognize and appreciate that .
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Well that's the 1st agreeable statement you've made ! Nice.
 
Just look at the quality work in those boards up there ^^^^^ I don't even know "WHAT" I'm lookin at but look at the organization. It's totally their loss, Del.
 
Get into engine management (ie. adapted EFI) custom harness fabrication. They get a mint for plug and play MS3-Pro or other controllers to GEN3/Coyote/LS builds. Could make your own line or do custom jobs with a modular construction with added circuits chosen by the customer through a web site.
 
Too bad you're not local to me. We are dying to hire good electronic repair and assembly techs.
 
mbaird said:
Del , maybe you could rebuild clusters and radios etc ...that way you male your own schedule and are doing something yoh like/know.
FABO alone would keep you busy !
Click to expand...

pishta said:
Get into engine management (ie. adapted EFI) custom harness fabrication. They get a mint for plug and play MS3-Pro or other controllers to GEN3/Coyote/LS builds. Could make your own line or do custom jobs with a modular construction with added circuits chosen by the customer through a web site.
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Both of these sound like good ideas. Building better cluster boards would be helpful to lots of Mopar owners.
 
I saw some SMT parts on the one board. Your work area is larger than mine. I guess you gave me "Lab Envy"!
 
We don't do a lot of SMT. The boards are "mostly" populated when the company gets them. There are a number of components that I added and a few more "select" components to convert a 24V board to 48V What was intended to be the "new" hand control was all SM and we did a few prototypes. But when it came down that the system was to be obsoleted, the development on that stalled. Frankly, the entire system was behind, and the biggest problem was water ingress, which would have required a "start over" design for the enclosures.........of all three units, the drive module, the power seating module, and the hand control. And the CABLES would have had to been updated, none of the connectors were water resistant

A lot of the FDA requirements leave me 'huh'. Compare to cars--------you all know "everybody" expects autos to be able to negotiate SOME water. But how much? An inch? 3? 16? THREE FEET? Same deal with a chair. How much is practically acceptable?
 
You keep thinking that the dumb basturds will wake up, but they seldom do. I am dealing with two sources at the moment, one is supposed to be the guy, and he can not answer the problem that he has. The other one is using his wife? As a message go between, we just seem to be playing ping pong and no one winning, yet.
You hang in there, I know that you know your stuff. You were probably just doing this to keep your hand in the game, and the extra money didn't hurt, and it's always a good feeling to have done a job well, pride in your work. I did that with several jobs for 37 years , taking all of the crap, and then just walked away.
 
Way too often a company needs an electronics expert and hire the guy with the most impressive resume. However, this guy never did a single thing in the arena the company deals in. He (she) may know electronics, per se, but will do "crap" that can never survive a warrantee in the real world. I try to stay in the fields where when a client asks for "crap", I know enough about their business to 'strongly suggest' a different approach.
 
We are a dying breed. No real electronics techs out there much younger than 50. They just don't seem to be teaching it anymore.

I landed a temp job a couple of months ago (should go through the end of the year). They wanted my skills at a severely discounted rate. I wanted $5/hr more than the top they wanted to pay and that was still a discount. They came $4 in my direction. Now my boss seems a little upset that they didn't go higher...I'm doing mostly 24 volt electrical and pneumatics, but it's fun and, for the most part, I'm working in an isolated room with nobody bothering me...
 
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