Sort of a Job

Wow! It's been a while since my last post.

I took a temporary job on the 22nd of Feb, just to try and keep things on an even keel. Believe it or not, the task is to clean the silk screen print off 60,000 batteries and then re-print them. All for the princely sum of £12,000 a year. How the mighty have fallen.

I'd like to say that it's good honest work, but it isn't. It transpires that the batteries have been brought in from a far eastern branch of the company and are the cheapest they supply. We, (there are three of us engaged on the task), are cleaning off the 'cheapest battery in the range' print only to reprint them with the 'not so cheap battery range' logo and they are then to be re-shipped at a higher price. It's obviously some sort of fiddle.

Anyway, this job has taken up most of my time, along with various applications for other 'real' jobs.

One very nice, and unexpected surprise has occurred. My wife bought me a micro-lathe for an anniversary present. I have always wanted a proper workshop, but since I've never lived in a house with a garage I've never had the opportunity. She thought I might try some micro tools and gain a mini-workshop in that way.

The lathe is truly tiny, but a fully functioning precision instrument. Identical to a full sized lathe in every way and able to machine all but the hardest steels. I bought some index-able cutting tools and have set about making some of the original parts for the machine that have gone missing during it's lifetime. The machine is at least 30 years old, but is in very good condition.

Here's a photo of the lathe, it's an Austrian made Unimat SL 1000.

It needed a clean up, but this is how I got it. It's since been mounted on a board and is gleaming.

I have been avidly reading up on this lathe along with a whole host of stuff on home workshops and parts machining. I will try to get some accessories as and when wages allow, since the machine was originally shipped with a milling attachment and other bits.

One thing I will definitely attempt is casting my own aluminium parts using age old techniques at home. A blast furnace from scrap common odds and ends is first on the list. The idea scares the hell out of the wife, but I think I can master it. I'll post my progress with my home workshop as I go along.

Doorstep Discovery

On July 20th in the summer of 1969, I was seven years old. My father led me out to the front doorstep of our house in West London. Pointing up at the moon he said, 'Son, there are three Americans up there who are going to make history, and change the world as we know it'.

He said it with a lump in his throat and tears welling in his eyes. He was truly PROUD of these men, the scientific community and humanity in general. He has (and does) instill me with a sense of total awe and wonder at the world we live in, all that surrounds us and the human condition in general. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins have screwed up my life, by making me interested in what we all do, and how and why we do it.

Today I have filled out yet another job application, it's not the first and it won't be the last.

It got me thinking about career choices and how they are arrived at.

I've decided that some people are lucky, they either have a focused career path due to a single interest or goal, or they have no interest whatsoever and simply follow a career path based on merit or wages. The first of these two groups are those who 'love' their jobs, the second 'love' their career.

So what of the rest of us? Those who fall into the unlucky state of being interested in almost EVERYTHING! Unfortunately I'm one of those. There is no mapped career path, no fixed goal, no lifetime vocation, and at 43 years old there's a skill set so varied that as a single entity it's probably useless to any individual employer.

As a result of being made redundant in 2003, after 24 years working in various roles in manufacturing industry, I had reached a crossroads. My career had followed a path of 'make as much money as possible' to spend on indulging my many interests outside of work time.

To follow on with this path I had decided to go self employed. You learn a great deal about yourself when you choose this option! After three years I have discovered that although I am a good technician, a good communicator, and a 'people person', I am definitely a piss poor sales and marketing guy. I always feel that I'm overcharging - even when I'm not, and I tend to give after sales support without charging for the service. This has meant that I lack the 'killer instinct' for sales, so orders are few and far between. Although I have enjoyed great customer satisfaction and repeat business it's too little to make any real success, or money.

So I've decided to return to paid employment working for someone else, and still have the dilemma of what area to work in, and if I can sell my skill set to someone for a decent remuneration. Back to selling, the one area that I KNOW I'm not too good at.

Anyway, during my self employed period, and with time on my hands I wrote this website as a historical document, a testament to a disappearing part of the UK, the end of a manufacturing industrial site. Enjoy it, for the link click HERE.