Work life.

So, after getting out of the Airstream, and into the house, it wasn't long before I had a couple work options to pick from.  I chose to go south with the longer commute, but have a much more hands on, multidisciplinary role at a privately owned sporting goods company focused on the golf industry.  I figured, I can fake it till I make it, knowing that I was outside my cultural norm.  But, when I am in mine, working for the man?  It doesn't exist in corporate wasteland by a longshot, and this was small enough to be somewhat corrupt from that cubeland of boredom, and creepy crawler water dispenser chit chat.  Plus, the money was pretty good too!

So, I worked with a very cool mechanical engineer, and some managers that were clued in and talented. It was a good time while it lasted, although demanding, and I was using a CAD package that I really wanted to enjoy, but didn't see the advancements that were already available with great fluidity using what I've owned for over 15 years.  I ended up teaching the software in the evenings to beginners and later intermediates as well.  We did some super advanced work and everyone enjoyed the class, but my techniques didn't hold up as strong, and were not as bullet proof in SW, aka, SolidWorks.  Pro/e wipes it clean when it comes to creating advanced geometry in 3D using surfaces, while SW is solid based and feels like a rock instead of a scalpel.  I was designing in Pro/e and recreating in SW...which was worthy of a try or two, and it all worked out, but what a waste of time in the long run.  Such a slow app, that loves to crash.  I found it frustrating and finished my teaching commitment with glee, and a sparkle in my eye knowing SW was for the stodgy guys.  We're all entitled to choose the tools that do the best work and for those that don't know, ignorance is bliss.

The task was to design a product that would dispense a reflective adhesive fiducial to assist with ball tracking.  I like birds, so they come up often in my life.  But at this point it is truly about the function, and the outer image can be massaged.  :-)

So, I've got this high end job, and a ghetto chopper...time to get to fixing.  This fender had a crack...funny how metal can crack, and generally the guy on the phone says all original, no accidents.  You can't believe some of the stories I hear.  Of course in this instance, this is $1000 so there are no complaints.  I jacked the rear corner and welded inside the fender with structural bar stock I had laying around, and then patched the outside with some sheet metal a guy moving to Seattle gave me upon returning.  Remember...nothing could be sourced for free in Oz, and everything cost multiples of what I was used to paying...so people were giving me all their stuff when I returned.  I guess is was stamped on my forehead, or perhaps, driving up in a VW bus with full length roof rack translates to industrious hoarder.

A can of spray paint from Home Depot and I have a car that is 25% looking new....hahhaha...and so you guessed it..time to mist some cheapo paint across the rest of the car so it blends in and I've got the car with the worst paint job in the parking lot at work, but it looks much better than before.  I can actually get out of the car without people looking at me like I came from Slab City, or I'm about to rob them.

This is the first prototype made from a set of translucent SLAs and a Delrin base I designed and milled on the Haas CNC.

This appears to be an aluminum base I made just after roughing and beginning to profile with a 1/2" ball endmill.  Can you believe this is how a lot of stuff is made...kind of like the archaic design of the combustion engine.

Cast in black based on the owner's preference for the golf show.  It was demo'd at the show and very well received.

 The device had a window so you could see if your roll was running out, and the base was finally made in Stainless Steel, which was overkill, but made for a nice, durable show model.

The white Delrin detents hold the dispenser in the base.  They function like c-clips under compression since the legs are tapered and function as springs with a central slot allowing linear motion and alignment.  The metal boss and speed nut create a captive assembly in the base.  The clear keeper was laser cut acrylic since they had a laser cutter as well as a cnc mill.  

Dispensing a fiducial from a roll. The fiducials were originally laser cut, then later for production kiss cut with a rotary die and the waste was hand removed leaving the outline of our preferred geometry dispensing and the carrier, rewinding like a tape cassette.

I was beginning to get distracted by life again.

My work mate was sending funny memes my way...we were both burning out.

They fired his ass, and I walked two weeks later.

Before leaving, I enjoyed creating a holding fixture for calibrating one of their new products.  The CTO didn't have confidence that the center ball detent and the spring loaded handle that doubled as a spreader would hold the unit securely, so I had to add the fingers to the front as an extra precaution to get buy off, even though they are redundant constraints...Since this unit has extremely tight tolerances around calibration for golf ball data collection, every production unit had to be mounted securely in a repeatable fashion with ease and efficiency for any operator without marring the painted show surfaces.  These jigs sat on a tree and a robot registered each one set in this jig with a pneumatic robotic wrist for automated testing. 

If this job would have been pro/e, I probably would have hung around longer.  There were many perks, and lots of creative work.