Well the flue seems to be clearing up---guess I didn't have Listeriosis after all!! As for the male stripper thing---remember back in the 1950,s all the circuses would have a dancing bear--about the same, I'd say. On a more serious note, the downturn in the economy here has brought all things automotive to a screeching halt. Although automotive only accounts for about 35 percent of my work, everything else is slow right now too. Its a strange time of year--all the junior techies are going back to the fall school term, and all the companies that build custom "things" are looking at their budget to see how much project money is left for this fiscal year. Looking back over the year so far to see what I've done already--A set of roller presses with die knives inset into the rollers to make jigsaw puzzles---A bit of work on an underground mining machine---A bunch of manipulators for General Motors (These are devices with air assisted counterbalances to let a man pick up really heavy items and install them on autos on the assembly line--as in seat assemblies, rear axle assemblies, gas tanks, etc.)---A spill proof dogs water dish for a local inventor---A system which raises and lowers the head on a very tall light post to change the big bulbs at ground level,---a machine which grinds up computers to reclaim the materials they are made of, a set of semi automated drilling and tapping stations for drilling and tapping aluminum extrusions,--- and the infamous "cookie dough machine" which has a hopper filled with 1200 pounds of cookie dough, a set of extruder rolls, a set of extruder dies for different size cookies,a flying shear, and a belt conveyor, a robot to place sheets of waxed cardboard on the conveyor to place the cookies on---with 3 seperate servo drives and a PLC to synchronize everything. Hows that for diversity??? I had a bid in on some special heat treat fixtures for a company that makes hardened drill rods for the mining industry, and it was supposed to morph into a purchase order last week, but either they didn't like my price, or their head office refused to fund it. At the moment I'm setting here rather frustrated, because I've phoned all my regular customers---who all have "work pending" but nothing right now. This week I have nothing. Next week 10 people will all call at once and all want their machine done before anybody elses.
:
