Sunday, October 29, 2017

Slow gains

Twisted the heck out of my knee organizing the shed a couple weeks back.  Been a slow recovery working ten hour days six days a week hobbling with a knee brace, but able to walk much better finally. Probably should go to the doctor one day to get it checked out as it frequently decides to pop out and back in from time to time, and hurts like hell when it does. Short of a replacement, not sure they can do much and I intend to put off knee replacement as long as possible. Just sucks having to be extra careful how I lift and do things. I do try and get enough walking in during the day as to keep the muscles up, which helps for normal movement. Just not able to do the constant heavy lifting I use to do. Have a treadmill for the winter time as I don't need to fall on the ice.

 Cell phone was having major issues with rebooting frequently with no warning. After reluctantly searching new cell phones, I took a gamble and tried a new battery on my cell phone. Problem went away. Cheap fix. It is a galaxy s5. Dated, but more than what I need. Don't want to get caught up in another contract. Now if I can just get rid of this nasty cold flu thing, I should be back to somewhat normal. I can't stand doctors, but after a week and a half of nonstop hacking and gagging, I caved. Got a slew of pills to take and it seems to be taking the edge off.

As far as the house, I have a contract for all new windows. They measured yesterday and I should have them installed before the holidays. One more item off of the check list. Garage will be in the spring. I have the money, just late in the year and I want to get it right, not fast. I am about positive of what and where I want it. Have to see if the city will let me build as big as I want. I intend to go as big as they will allow. Hoping to get this cold killed off so I can play catch up in the yard. Old trees are great for scenery, but in the fall, a lot of leaves and work. I usually give out candy for Halloween, but with the cold and the cold weather, I am reluctantly going to sit this one out. Like seeing the little ones going around, but need to stay out of the cold until I have this bug killed off.

 Have a plan for the kitchen. Hoping on getting it done this winter as well. Leaning toward a 36 inch gas convection oven where fridge is at now. Leaving wall oven in place but getting rid of the countertop range. Put in new countertops and back splash. New refrigerator. That is the plan anyway.
Not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but trying to save personal days back up again. It was good to have the whole weekend to try and rest up and get better. Only a few weeks until Thanksgiving, so that will be a four day weekend. Then only three weeks of work and I get a couple weeks off, so the year is getting down to the wire.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Who would have thought that was a bad idea

I have been down here about nine years. At work, we have a few CNC grinders I run when I am not repairing them, seeing as how they are Swiss made. They may know watches, but they suck at electronics. When we brought the Kelvaria down from Chicago, it had a bad air conditioner in the electrical cabinet. We were running it with the door open to keep the electrics cool. Being a tool and die shop of high precision parts, it is temperature controlled rather well, so all was good. They didn't like that down here, as I am sure OSHA wouldn't as well, so, they ordered a new unit. The company sent the wrong one, from Switzerland, for several thousand dollars. Our genius bosses didn't want to send the unit back. Against my wishes, they made it fit, with the help of a plasma cutter. They cut a hole in the back of the cabinet and the floor of the cabinet. Nine years I have had issues with the machine. It has sucked the oil and filth from the floor under the machine and blown it directly into the Siemens drives which are located directly above the AC unit.
The workhead on the machine has been dying all week. The drive finally succumbed to the oil dripping off of it. I can't believe the electronics didn't fry years ago. The drive was alarming the machine out, but I was able to limp it along for a few days if I moved chuck by hand as I hit the start button. The initial inertia was enough to get it going. The boss finally let me look into fixing it. I told him I thought the AC unit was the root of the problem and showed him the oil soaked drives. I removed the AC unit and ran machine for a few days. Without the AC unit, ALL ALARMS I have been getting intermittently for years went away. ALL of them. The drive died altogether yesterday. I ordered a new one online and robbed one from the other Kelvaria grinder to test out. Machine is running flawlessly for the first time in nine years. Boss let me order the proper AC unit for it. He would not however let me castrate the person who butchered it years ago making life a living hell. Typical lack of logic in management, they won't let me replace the other drive cards that are dripping oil and grit. I told him the place that rebuilds them would only cost us about three grand to do the rest of the drives and the power supply. Twenty five year old machine, the drives owe us nothing. Boss says we will wait for them to die. Down time will cost us way more than what preventative repair would cost. Total lack of logic in the work place. I am glad I am closer to retirement than starting out. I sure don't like the way things work anymore. Total lack of logic.