What do you do?

So that company I interviewed for is now requesting references. Just keep the process long I guess... Been a month now.

Also at the post office you could roll over unlimited sick time. They just had a guy take off 30 weeks straight.

Went to a demonstration where they ran a machine similar to the first one in the video. Use for structural shapes like beams, tubing (like the video), pipes, angles, channels etc...

There were a lot of ohh and ahhh types there. I was the only person who can draw anything so I was drafted to run an "in house" sample to show how great it was. Bad idea. I've worked on a similar machine and know what they can and can't do in the real world outside of a demo.

I crashed it twice in the first 5 minutes and showed a few examples where the machine literally stops and waits for you to come up with a better solution. They always leave those parts out. Guessing I'm not getting a christmas card.

Apparently they haven't grasped the concept of the torch head is 4"+ in diameter and you need to cut to within 2" or less on the inside (not outside like video).

Wonder if the guy who staged the demostration as part of a sales deal gets canned for losing control of the machine in a demo. The most often heard comment of 40 or so there as they left was "not ready for prime time".



It won't make the following cut in a beam - a "rathole" which is one of the most common cuts. I feel like I saved some people a shitload of money tho.

It will, but if the head is 4" wide you can't cut on the inside of a beam any closer than 2".

This cut is the most common cut on a beam. If the dept of that cut is less than about 2-1/2 to 3" deep it won't make that cut because the the head gets in the way. It has to be a straight cut not angled and the inside corner has to be radiused to an inch radius.

From the couple I've dealt with and their salesman and install teams they have a lot of smart people who have spent very little time in a shop where they want to sell them.

No point loading a beam on a roller to go thru the machine only to have to unload it and reload it onto another set for someone to do the cut. Moving material is one of your biggest labor expenses overall from station to station etc...



Look at the cut at around 53 seconds. That is the closest it will cut, meaning there's a huge variety of cuts you can't make. Sometimes you need to cut the web of the beam to just below the flange. It can't do that but they always skip that part. This is the one I helped install, setup and program. It sits idle now a year later after a $1.3 million expense.

That cut is not a precision cut. What is a precision cut is the length, miters, bevels, and holes. You can make that cope cut with a handheld oxy acetelane torch and get it right where you need to be without having to move the beam from station to station and repeat.

It cuts a rat hole at 235

Not really, a true rat hole is flush with the flange. That rat hole won't pass AWS code and doesn't confirm to AISC specs either. Meaning it's there for show.

A few weeks ago my girlfriend applied for a government job (she is already in the government, but a different department/agency) and they sent her a tentative offer of employment with a salary level, papers to start a security clearance check, and some other forms to sign and return. Well, today they called her and told her that there was a mistake and there apparently is a veteran ahead of her who they have to give the job to. How fucked up is that? Thankfully she hadnt yet put in notice so she is not unemployed, but the whole situation really pisses me off. She is perfect for the job, too, but they have this stupid points system. Fucking government.

McCheese_sl said:

A few weeks ago my girlfriend applied for a government job (she is already in the government, but a different department/agency) and they sent her a tentative offer of employment with a salary level, papers to start a security clearance check, and some other forms to sign and return. Well, today they called her and told her that there was a mistake and there apparently is a veteran ahead of her who they have to give the job to. How fucked up is that? Thankfully she hadnt yet put in notice so she is not unemployed, but the whole situation really pisses me off. She is perfect for the job, too, but they have this stupid points system. Fucking government.

Click to expand...

Your girlfriend is lying. She's a broad. Broad's lie. Eat Taco Bell...... Tacoooo beeellll...... Tacooooooo beeeeeellll. Eaaaaat itttt.... calm your soul... with tacooo beeelllllll.

My old job had PTO. At five years plus being a director I accumulated 12 hours of PTO every pay period. It maxed out at like 320 hours or something absurd. When our first kid was born I took a month off, except for working from home like 4 hours a week which basically meant I turned on my laptop and cleaned up my inbox.

when I quit and got a new job I had so much banked still that I got like a month and a half payout. It was nice.

When my wife started the post office, her class had a few people actually bumped out for veterans after they were already hired. Veterans get a whole bunch of extra "points" or whatever term they use at the post office, so usually they get preference for everything.

I'm all for veterans getting jobs, but they shouldn't be bumping people after the fact. Could've fucked us, but it didn't.

I've been working from home the last 3 weeks straight and I'm going stir crazy, which you can see through my late night drunken ramblings here. Doesn't help that a friend just started working at a winery and sent me a case of wine this past weekend. I need to get the hell out of my house.

When I worked for the US Forest Service the joke was the best applicant was a black handicapped woman who was also a veteran. We had a lady come give a talk to about 100 people who was black and handicapped. During the question and answer part I asked if she was a veteran. Apparently everyone knew the joke as the audience went into mass laughter and couldn't stop. I left but I later heard they kept breaking into laughing for quite a while.

I felt bad.

The whole points system is stupid as fuck. I keep telling her to get out of the government and into the private sector (which she could easily find, I'm sure, due to her government work), but she doesn't want to lose her benefits like insane amounts of PTO. Maybe this will finally push her out of the government.

Does she actually use the insane amounts of PTO?

Because high end IT infrastructure is expensive?