Skirt The Issue

I've been really depressed for the last few days. Every time I start writing a post, I get a paragraph in and realize that I'm just complaining about being depressed. So here's an attempt at actual content.

I finished the last of the adapter plates yesterday, thank the gods. Two-and-a-half more inlet rings, and then these MiniSegment™ jobs will go off to be cooked and ground. After that I'll have to attach the skirts, which is one of my least favorite tasks.

Remember back when we had dot-matrix printers, and the paper had those strips on the sides with the holes for the feed wheels? I used to love creasing the perforations and gently ripping those strips off. Skirts for adapter plates and backs look a lot like those strips (only, y'know, 1/16"-thick stainless steel, and with 1/8" holes every 2 or 3 inches). The skirt gets clamped to the part, and the material of the part gets melted with the material of the skirt at every hole. As I've said before, this is not my favorite task. In fact, I'm quite bad at it. I just have to hope I don't screw up any of these pieces. These are two $15K orders for the same client... together worth more than my annual net income.

But I still love my job. ;-)

Last week, Christophe told me that three of our smallest conicals would begin production this week. I really hope I get parts today, because it looks like the next job available after I finish the inlet rings might be another one of those jobs of which I'm not particularly fond: backs. I think being the Special Projects welder has spoiled me... I have no love for anything but my conicals now.

We'll see what the laser spits out for me today.