SPOKESY wrote:
...Do you mind telling me what your job is Steve?
It takes more than a paragraph to answer that question.
In it's shortest form, I'm a glorified trailer mechanic.
I repair, rehab, and recertify liquid hydrogen tanker trailers. I joke that it's not rocket science, just rocket fuel. (I also occasionally do repairs on "atmospheric", i.e. liquid oxygen, nitrogen, argon trailers when there's a vacuum issue.)
My primary job lately has been finding and repairing vacuum leaks. Think of these trailers as huge Thermos bottles... An outer container with a handle, and an inner container that hold your coffee. The space between is insulated in three ways, including extreme (deep-space) vacuum. My job is to find microsopic leaks in large structures, and repair them. If the leak is in the inner vessel, my repairs must meet ASME code. I find this work fascinating.
Additionally, I'm qualified for every other job in the shop. My foreman and boss are not.
I might fit instruments one day, weld piping the next, then rebuild AOVs.
When our suspension supplier changed designs (to a Hendrickson clone... patents must've expired), I engineered the new subframe design, and our fourtune-100 client signed off on it. When I found a design flaw, they flew their chief engineer to New Orleans to meet with me so I could explain with parts in hand.
I've assembled many years of taking risks and learning something new into a job I like to go to each morning.
Whew! That leaves some out, but was more than I expected to say!
Steve S
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