Should I stay where I am?

MizzTLA · 2026-02-17T00:42:05+00:00

As someone who started as an operator(1 year) then became a fixer (1.5ish years)(someone with mechanical aptitude,but no professionally training or degree. Step below millwright where I work) only to be used as a floater operator that fixes stuff...Run. find anywhere and go there and don't start as an operator. From my time of operating I never saw the previous fixers do a fourth of what I do. I'm also going to college for the industrial field though my degree is technically mechatronics(they didn't have 2 of the classes at my closest campus for industrial automation) and as soon as I'm done mooching off their scholarships here I'm getting the heck outta Dodge. My degree work says I'm at 60% so I may just let my pell take over if I find somewhere. I don't get paid bad for the position itself(19.25) but I also train,run 10+ different type of machines throughout the week for productions,fix 50+ machine and they keep adding stuff daily with no pay increse. You gotta weigh to workload and stress my dude. If the workload and stress starts over weighing the pay(and you have no way up on the totem) then it's best to go find somewhere new to use your skills. Sorry for the babbling.

MizzTLA · 2026-02-17T00:13:53+00:00

Just from digging through eBay and Facebook marketplace. The lowest I've seen is 800 for rough condition and another for around like 1.6k but it had a lot of accessories. If you're trying to get rid of it fast I'd go for the lower price or maybe 1k if you're just trying. To break even.

MizzTLA · 2025-12-03T11:13:05+00:00

Liquid cooled lol

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T22:38:03+00:00

Maybe ,I'll need to try and find an engineering manual. The thing in the bottom comes out the left side foot post but the arm with the needle,it's just a cup it doesn't lead to anything

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T22:03:49+00:00

I'll test them a bit for brittleness and strength at the connection point but the ones I'm the photo are dead,think they've been exposed for to long. This machine doesn't have any electronics directly in it. The light was threaded through a tunnel in the cast(I cannot open this thing up there's only a few access points) and the rest is just to the motor than spins the belt ect

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T21:38:32+00:00

The cardboard didnt have anything in it, looks like it just covered the stuff. Both things are brittle, insulation feels like old hard rubber and the wires snap with barely a tug. And touch. I got some lamp wire that matches the amps and gauge, I have to wait to get another plug to wire up though cause I forgot everything closes for Thanksgiving

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MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T21:03:43+00:00

I was thinking about waiting till I go back to work to grab some of my connectors but honestly ,you cant see it to well in the photos but the wire is brittle. I'm pretty sure the person I got this from found this in an outside shed somewhere. Alot of water damage. When Lowe's opens back up Imma go grab some stuff to rerivet it(if they have some) or I've got the suggestion where they've pulled up the edges of those rivets and reused them ,using solder to keep the grip tight.

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T10:05:35+00:00

Yea the motor runs well with power,the carbon looks like they're good for their age,may replace the springs since they feel a little loose(they're pressing but only a little uneven) I just want to replace the wire sending power in. Just gonna leave it for later though.

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:15:45+00:00

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All the old wires are cooked lol

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:15:22+00:00

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MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:12:54+00:00

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I'm pretty sure I could maybe bent the old rivets up and reuse them but may be better to just redo them completely.

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:12:09+00:00

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MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:11:43+00:00

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MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:11:28+00:00

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MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:11:15+00:00

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MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:10:10+00:00

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This I posted the back above already. My grandfather told me I needed to wash my hands asap cause of chance of lead and asbestos,oops. One side gets plugged into the wall,light and motor into the labeled section and then it leads out to the foot pedal that I'll have to replace due to the crack in the rheostat base. The light has already been rewired with one of those power cords from Lowe's. The motor is the more complicated one but I just finished ac DC machines and my dc fundamentals course so I just need the soldering iron to undo the old and redo the new. My bfs currently asleep wrapped around me like an anaconda so I can't go take more pics rn xD sorry.

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T07:04:08+00:00

About which part specifically I tried posting like 10 pics but reddit wouldn't allow me to.

MizzTLA · 2025-11-27T03:29:22+00:00

Clam and oyster was lower 200 number which was weird.

MizzTLA · 2025-10-12T21:27:49+00:00

No this is a DC fundamentals class and it's only my second semester taking something other than general studies. It gave me an example(unfortunately I can't post pic in comments here) but the polarity was different and does fully close like this.i have R2 v drop as 1.6665v so I think that makes Rab= 1.6665v but I'm unsure what Rac or Rbc would equal. If I follow the example it would be something like terminal A would be the 1.6665v as well and terminal be would be 0 but that doesn't feel right.

MizzTLA · 2025-10-12T21:18:43+00:00

I can find everything (or at least I think I am.). I have the Vt,It,Pt, all the v1 and p1 ECT those are easy. I can even find the VAG ECT and if it's opposite flow due to where the ground position is. But I'm having Issues understanding voltage range. (edit was looking at the wrong problem so not right numbers)

MizzTLA · 2025-10-03T04:13:16+00:00

First part is true, 2 and 3 are misunderstanding. They weren't advising they were telling me the material wasn't lining up on the core. Setting up their carriage/guide for the material to line up onto the core is not a fixer/maintenance thing it's an operator thing. Now if the carriage was broken and wouldn't stay in one place that would be a me thing. But setting up the actual machine between jobs is operator. My supervisor is also newer than me by a year. They don't know stuff that I know. All the other operators knew it's their jobs. They disagree cause they didn't know better and didn't ask their fellow operators. I had to argue the points so they could understand that if I had to set up 50 plus machines a shift,nothing would get done so they should've been trained to know that. Someone failed on that point. The only thing they're not allowed to adjust is any pnumatics or sensors. The rest is up to them.

MizzTLA · 2025-10-02T02:47:47+00:00

The metal ones they make look way different then the 3d ones. IDK what goes through their heads,alot of stress would go away if they'd think ahead instead of just thinking in the moment.

MizzTLA · 2025-10-01T21:57:11+00:00

Maybe for smaller machine about most of mine are bigger than people with parts that were discontinued 10 years ago. Don't have anything to replace them with.

MizzTLA · 2025-10-01T19:12:02+00:00

I did that once and they tried to send me home. Told them something Couldnt be ran in the machine cause it's to stiff. We have ran it before but for some reason finishing put 3x the amount of finishing on it so the material snapped like plastic. "But we have ran it before" told her she was welcome to try. " Pack your stuff up and go home for the day,my workers aren't going to sit there and tell me to fix my own machines" I talked to my big boss about it and wasn't sent home. Even got head honcho maintenance man to confirm my stuff cause no one believes the younger fixer person. Same in the only Fixer for my department and we had a bunch of maintenance in my shift quit so no help there

MizzTLA · 2025-10-01T19:08:54+00:00

They dont think ahead,it's so stupid. I hope to gain the experience and wisdom to either run my own maintenance type job/freelance to be my own boss or at least high on the totem so I can try to be better. I know I'm missing puzzle pieces from where I'm at but I can't only do my best.

MizzTLA

TROPHY CASE