(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

Just cant think anymore

D

David G

Well-known Member
My team has been working on the semiconductor project in NM for the last 6 weeks, we got hired 3 months too late and have been working to catch up. I have been billing out mid 60 hours each week. We were supposed to work over the 4th weekend, I worked yesterday, but hit a wall in the afternoon, as I just cannot think anymore. I am taking the rest of the weekend off from working and try to get the drivetrain finished up on the LI restoration, mow lawn and start mowing around the fields with the McCormick.

My son has really come around this summer, he spent the first month as electrician apprentice, and is learning to be a programmer the second half working for me. I am able to now hand off more of the programming to him, which is allowing me to look at the big picture, but it is a slow process.
 
Both design implementation, and design adaptation are painful. Design flaws to be repaired are a compounding factor. Brain recovery is not a personal failure, it is a necessary refueling that prevents making mistakes that cost even more than the time spent recuperating. Been there quite often. Jim
 
We have seen about 15% design errors that we have had to deal with during construction, so we cannot trust anything. This has more than doubled our work since we must check all the designers work, plus make the changes and do our work.
 
Reminds me of my BIL, one of several operators in power plants within a system, who were chosen to start up a new plant in Milbank, SD...many mistakes in construction. They spent over 6 months there prior to startup. Throw a switch, expecting to see this motor over here to start...no, the one over there starts up. Way too many mistakes like that- took a long time to correct the installation mistakes. Plus, many components had never been used in combination...made for more headaches prior to startup.
 
Our scope of work is to validate that the correct wires were pulled, terminate, program and test the operation. Other contractors came in before us to do the pipe (conduit) and wire pulls. We have found that the documentation was wrong for them, so we are finding wires pulled to wrong locations, missing wires and wires going to the wrong type of IO cards. This must all be corrected before we can do our work.

We have had to correct the designers documentation, coordinate the other contractors and do our work,

These projects are normally broken into two phases, the first phase puts in the infrastructure, the second phase the production equipment. We should have been awarded the first phase 3 months earlier so we could get the infrastructure installed and running, but that did not happen until the customer wanted the equipment installed. We are having to do both at the same time, plus dealing with the design errors.
 
Got on with an outfit putting in a new conveyor system for US Air, at the airport in Charlotte, back when times were tight. The engineers used the wrong benchmark for part of the system. As a result, they discovered they couldn't get the specified clearance between one particular conveyor and four huge conduits that carried all the control tower wiring, and different legs of the system didn't align when they met up. Trying to make field adjustments to make it all work was an adventure to say the least.

Between screwups like that, and parts being mislabeled it was a huge mess. I was only working on a temp basis, and my work picked back up to the point I left before the project was completed, so I can only guess they got it all up and running on time.
 
Sounds somewhat familiar. I was an electrical design engineer for RCA doing VHF TV transmitters. RCA had a contract for the CBS network transmitters that were to go to the top of the John Hancock sky scraper in Chicago (1970s) and the window for the freight elevators HAD to be met or your hardware would not go up and you would need to dismantle it and haul it in small pieces. RCA's main large pieces were ready but the "guts" were not. So the big pieces went on schedule and the field engineers had to follow up with the guts later.

On a later similar job I got to be the "Field Engineer" living near the site (the big tower north of Des Moines near Ankeny, Iowa) and helped to finish the "factory" work.
 
Having been a design engineer, I understand how and why the design is never finished!! Management always has the final say and things go to production READY OR NOT.
 
I'm not an electrician, but have have had oversite on projects with them. Conduits and wire running to the wrong termination point are generally a design error as the electricians don't make those kind of field decisions. Your company not being on board at the time of construction is very unfortunate, our electricians ALWAYS had plenty of questions for the people who would be doing the programing/control work. Mowing grass, cutting firewood, working on a tractor, while its not "mindless" work, it does allow your brain to recuperate from keeping ten balls in the air at one time. Rest up, every job was supposed to be done last week and we should be on the next one tomorrow. gobble
 
I get it. You need to think about something else for a few days. When I was designing tooling sometimes I would spend three days struggling on a new design. I'd come back on Monday morning, open the file and have a "What was I thinking" moment and delete it all and start over.
 
David,
Wow, I got a brain cramp just reading all your posts. I think a male's brain is wired with different color wire than a female's brains. Only problem, some males might accidentally get wired with female wires and some females get wired with male wires. And some people have a rain bow of colored wires which could crossed, shorted out or need reprogrammed. What do you think?
Good luck figuring out your problem. When I have a brain cramp, I walk away, sleep on it and wake up with the problem solved while sleeping.

George.
 
My wife and I work together on the farm, when I hit a wall brain wise she tells me to go have a seat in the bathroom, around here it seems to work. Also getting the doctor to half my crestor(statin) has helped too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Governor Troubleshooting
Replies
9
Views
1K
Colin King
C
A
Farmall C shift lever will not go into 3rd 4th gear
Replies
6
Views
625
used red MN
U
A
53 NAA cranking then dying immediately
Replies
18
Views
2K
JMOR
J
R
MF135
Replies
10
Views
1K
jvin248
J
D
Not too bad of a weekend
Replies
1
Views
58
Philip d
P
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top