So --- how was your work week?

[A.K. Boomer]

This is right on topic for whatever you do - I guess as long as it includes some machining right?

anyways --- top this, pea shooter rebuild, and yeah got pics, how far do I get into what i do as an inventor/engineer/machinist/and just plain master engine guru?

try 18 hour work days for a week, and yeah I state average --- so might have slacked to a couple 16 hour days but keep in mind I had to make that up with a couple of 20,,, and yeah that's a fact... I love to create - I love what I do - and I just can't turn it off for long when my head hits the pillow....

I do not do this all the time and in fact im getting older and surprised I pulled this off without "lopping off a finger" and I will be honest - it took it's toll on my temperament lol

BUT,,, godddddamn it's nice to know I still got it when I need it, car is my daily driver and only vehicle --- stocked up on 5 liters of cab sav and still had to fire up the experimental bicycle to go get more...

So - tell me a story of a radical work week... and preferably ---- one you totally inflicted upon yourself lol

[Jim Stewart]

Ah, that explains a few things. Eighteen to twenty hour work days. Two or three hours of sleep?

Yeah, sleep deprivation can do things to you.

-js

[A.K. Boomer]

. Eighteen to twenty hour work days.

Go back and read the unedited OP --- 16 to 20 --- 18 average --- again Jim - what planet? how many hours in your day???

[Jim Stewart]

Yup - and so can passion for what you do, I make no apologies ---------- check into it sometime, its a hoot...

oh and uh your math is way off about the sleep part....

How many hours are there in your days?

[A.K. Boomer]

How many hours are there in your days?

Hi im from planet earth, 24 - how many hours in the day of the planet where you live? nice to meet you Jim... ET phone home time???

[elf]

What's work?

p.s. Try commercial crab fishing if you think 18 hour work days are long

[JRouche]

how was your work week?

So - tell me a story of a radical work week... and preferably ---- one you totally inflicted upon yourself lol

You have been an azz lately. So you are tired and post up here?

Sorry Man, all of us get our 18 hour days, all of us. It sucks.

JR

[nickel-city-fab]

I have not done an 18 in many years, and if they do happen to need it then we will be renegotiating my salary. (I did used to do 60-72 hr weeks). Paid by the hour, so I get lots of OT.

Currently I'm capped at 50 hr/week, and that is plenty. I'm in really good shape for a 55-yr old guy, often making the millenials look slow. BUT I make damn sure to get a full sleep and a full stomach every day. With decent food. Because I don't want to get sick. Work is half out-of-dors in all weather etc and it can be brutally physical, you really are sore and tired all over bone deep by Friday....

[A.K. Boomer]

I have not done an 18 in many years, and if they do happen to need it then we will be renegotiating my salary. (I did used to do 60-72 hr weeks). Paid by the hour, so I get lots of OT.

Currently I'm capped at 50 hr/week, and that is plenty. I'm in really good shape for a 55-yr old guy, often making the millenials look slow. BUT I make damn sure to get a full sleep and a full stomach every day. With decent food. Because I don't want to get sick. Work is half out-of-dors in all weather etc and it can be brutally physical, you really are sore and tired all over bone deep by Friday....

I remember 72 hr weeks on the oil rig, 44hr's time and a half lol

I only did that for 3 or 4 months...

I got done with my rebuild/rework/re-engineering and I had the worry of getting sick also so know what you mean, I have not had a cold or the flu in over 5 years now and don't want to start now especially with "whats going around"

but sometimes I only have one speed with things --- full throttle... and could not believe how long I held it at redline this time - but yeah that's because of my age... youth can do it without even thinking about it....

[A.K. Boomer]

Sorry Man, all of us get our 18 hour days, all of us. It sucks.

JR

Thanks for sharing - that explains allot about your abrasive personality

[Willy]

Did the 100-110 hour work weeks for close to 8 years steady, no bennies either to make it work.
16 hr. days would be short ones, some of the runs would take 28 hours, sleep for an hour to get refreshed and then another 8 to get home.
After a while it's not days anymore. just hours to accomplish the mission.

I used to get up out of the doghouse at 4 am.
Drive through one town and you could see the lights come on as folks got up, next town they'd all be going for lunch, later that day they would all be driving home after work.
Later that evening in the next town folks would be going out after supper and then in the next town the lights would go out as the city slept once again.
And I'd still be there...looking at the world through a windshield. LOL

Did get to meet lots of interesting people and saw a lot of different lifestyles and scenery. I still miss that aspect, the sleep deprivation and lack of a personal life...not so much.
I used to say to myself...there otta be a law. Well thankfully now there is.

Yeah long hours suck but you do get a totally different aspect of accomplishment. Amazing how much one can get done in 15-18 hours steady. It does make an 8 hour day look embarrassingly insignificant when doing them back to back.

[A.K. Boomer]

Did the 100-110 hour work weeks for close to 8 years steady, no bennies either to make it work.
16 hr. days would be short ones, some of the runs would take 28 hours, sleep for an hour to get refreshed and then another 8 to get home.
After a while it's not days anymore. just hours to accomplish the mission.

.

Dang Willy - yeah it's a good thing they made a "law" any crack-ups for the 8 years?

That is way beyond anything iv ever done...

[QSIMDO]

42 hours straight, unbroken driving and plowing in a blizzard and cleanup.
I was young then.

[Dan Dubeau]

I think my longest straight through "shift" was around 32hours. 7am till the following afternoon sometime. Had to get something done and OTD before going on vacation, and I just stayed till it was finished. I still remember those parts. I'm sure there are labour laws against that type of thing....but I've never been one to memorize them.... Lots of other in the 16-20hr range. Shop work, design work etc. I haven't done anything stupid like that in a long time though, but the past 2 years have been pretty damn busy with not many straight 40 hour weeks, most in the 50, 55, 60 hour range, 10-12+hour days. I did 2 14's last week. We're busy, understaffed, and getting tired.....The money is nice. But you can't spend it when you're dead, and it's put a lot of personal projects on the back burner because I'm just too damn tired and "done with it" at the end of a day/week to go back out in the shop and build/design stuff. Being the senior guy I get all the big jobs, and big jobs come with big headaches stress and problems. Fun stuff.....

It's been a long time since I've updated my resume, but it's made a few circulations the past couple months......I'm just getting too burned out on the same **** lately. I've turned down 2 pretty good offers the past few months from word of mouth, but they would pretty much be the same **** different pile than what I'm doing now. I'm hoping to make a side step in to a Millwright position or something similar so I can regain my love and interest in designing/machining and reserve that for my own projects moving forward, but take with me some transferable skills to shorten the pay gap. I might have an industrial electrician apprenticeship opportunity in front of me too, that might be interesting. I'd give up some pay for about 3-5 years, but the top end of that ladder is a lot higher than the one I'm standing on..... I turn 40 this year, so I'm about at the halfway point in my career and I've still got lots of time to make it up. I put off writing my machinist ticket because of Covid, so I better get that done before I do anything. Heading back to UNI for an Engineering degree is a thought too, 40 year old me is a lot more mature than 18-20 year old me was.....

Enough Sunday afternoon rambling while I should be out in the shop machining. Actually I'm heading to work for a few hours to get a head start on the week, and some stuff ready for anodizing tomorrow morning.....argh....I'm a sucker for punishment.

[alanganes]

Yeah long hours suck but you do get a totally different aspect of accomplishment. Amazing how much one can get done in 15-18 hours steady. It does make an 8 hour day look embarrassingly insignificant when doing them back to back.

I hear this. I worked for near 10 years supporting a large scale medical system in various places around the country. These systems treated very sick people so when the system went down it was a very big deal. Outside of the unexpected problems there were preventative maintenance projects that had to be done every 18 months or so that would take a system off line for 5-7 days. Once you set the project in motion, you pretty much worked around the clock until it was back on line. The team was never big enough to have multiple fully staffed shifts, so you worked 16-18 hours straight, went back to your hotel and slept for a bit and then got back on it. The really difficult part was that during the final phases of the project, the process sort of dictated who got to sleep and when, so not only did you not get enough sleep, it was often badly timed.

And that was for the planned and somewhat controlled stuff. Unexpected failures were an entirely different can of worms and were totally unpredictable. More than a few instances where I went into the office here and by 10AM found out I had to be on a plane someplace before the day was out. Then it was all too often a 3 day trip that stretched to two weeks or more.

I don't regret the work I did there and as you say Willy, the sense of accomplishment was large. I changed jobs a little over a year ago to where I am largely working 40 hour weeks. No calls in the middle of the night, no work on weekends or holidays, no trips out of town, etc. Working 40 hour weeks and being home every night feels almost like cheating.