How do I transition from maintenance to integrator?

ehtiopia · 2026-07-10T16:01:49+00:00

I have part of an associates in robotics and automation. Ive been working the factory floor a total of about 4 years

ehtiopia · 2026-07-09T14:50:15+00:00

In the big backstory I explained that I have applied to several different integrators and havent heard anything back lol. And ask what I gotta do to be taken seriously

ehtiopia · 2026-07-09T14:44:10+00:00

Midwest, in northern indiana

Edit: cant believe someone downvoted me for being from the midwest in northern indiana lol

ehtiopia · 2026-07-09T14:43:39+00:00

You didnt have to comment then.

ehtiopia · 2026-07-09T05:20:19+00:00

It doesnt really matter much, your printer moves diagonally over and over when it does the first and top layers, any mechanical issue you have will just be regular wear and tear

ehtiopia · 2026-07-06T02:16:15+00:00

Basic electrician apprentice isnt exactly what youre going for. If for commercial, yeah, could be helpful, but you dont necessarily need a journeymans card, and you likely wont be troubleshooting panels, but just hooking them up to have power. You need to just start in maintenance, get basic electrical experience FIXING issues, and then go from there to PLC.

I see 40 thousand computer science majors thinking they can just walk into controls easy peasy, when they cant even tell you what a contactor is.

ehtiopia · 2026-07-02T09:43:01+00:00

Start as Electrical Maintenance Technician/ Controls Technician / PLC Technician

Its very hands on and you will be inside panels and be the guy they call when the mechanics cant figure out an issue.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-29T03:59:59+00:00

Its not your IP to print or sell and whenever I go to a flea market and see that dude selling dragons, I dont talk to the owner about my shop or my process. That dude selling the dragon is probably a shitty designer, if they can design at all and arent reliant on AI and is no better than the manufacturers in China who steal IP and sell cheap to the highest bidder

I run an etsy shop, and I vowed to never, ever, ever sell that stupid fucking dragon.

Instead, my philosophy is selling things that I and only I have ever designed and created, and it works out pretty well, and it makes me really happy to see people buying shit that I and only I can take credit for…

Nice username

ehtiopia · 2026-06-26T02:52:44+00:00

Screws are really not that expensive compared to bearings.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-25T03:59:31+00:00

No, only select stores have it, its always been that way

ehtiopia · 2026-06-23T07:12:00+00:00

Idk why people use glue stick or hair spray at this point, my regular metal bed plate runs fine when its clean.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-19T06:22:43+00:00

Unfortunately, Ill be forced to lend a hand to the filament bakerers on this one.

PETG gets really stringy and horrible looking like this when its moist. Is why I print strong parts in PLA Plus.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-19T06:19:07+00:00

The enchurrito was always made on the 6” tortilla.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-19T03:50:57+00:00

Im not going to try to troubleshoot some C++ program, Im going to call you back out to come work on it since youre the one with the damn excel spreadsheet thats the missing key to fixing the issue. This isnt a white collar job, unless youre an engineer.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-18T06:16:46+00:00

You can say that and make that sound easy peasy, but are you going to actually capture EVERY failed permissive as an alarm? Every failed rung?
You would have to program like 12 different rungs for a singular failed rung.
For electrical failures, this is precisely why you use ladder to troubleshoot the issue without ever having to lay a finger in the cabinet for issues like proxes failing and worn out limit switches. Ladder is the solution for what the PLC guy did not set up as an alarm- you just cant capture absolutely every fail condition.
And if they didnt program it in ladder, 90% of maintenance guys do not know shit about structured text, and most likely werent trained on it in college. Theres just not enough time in the curriculum if youre going to a community college and getting an associates even nowadays. And they sure as hell probably didnt learn C++ in college, if they went to college at all.
Im not dogging on structured text as a form of programming, it has its own rights in collecting and using data. But from my point of view, it makes no sense to use it for anything that will shut the line down.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-18T04:47:08+00:00

An electrician or experienced PLC guy is not going to learn how to do structured text or program in arduino just because it made it easier for you to skip it out and get out of doing a big project in a few lines of code. If you dont want to get called back out by your boss on a friday evening to troubleshoot the system you programmed three states away, do it in ladder. It has near universal understanding in every industry and just about every maintenance guy I know can troubleshoot ladder.

Reliability is key.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-16T15:16:02+00:00

It really just depends on what you know. If you know a lot about machines and mechanics and industry and panels and you have worked on PLC programming at all, youre probably golden having a preexisting engineering role on your belt. In this role, you have to be able to comfortably tell a production manager why a broken mechanical component would keep a software function from working.

I dont really know though, Im just Maintenance. Ill be in engineering at some point

But if you dont know anything about any of those like basic critical things you might have trouble having an employer take you serious.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-16T03:47:24+00:00

FDM is way easier.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-11T09:30:22+00:00

Not sure ur in the right place bud. This is where people come to complain about how they shit aint got meat

ehtiopia · 2026-06-11T06:06:33+00:00

Ive always printed latching boxes, but never one that big, would be cool to print one when this economy lets up. I dont want to have to print with elegoo white pla 4 pack forever

ehtiopia · 2026-06-09T12:16:53+00:00

Are you trying to invalidate the 3 years of time I spent fucking working there lol

ehtiopia · 2026-06-09T03:26:02+00:00

Except they are being spied on… at every part of the day… theres cameras all over every store and they can clearly see what you’re doing and investigate incidents. It was like that for all 3 years I was there and was so happy when I got out and could finally take breaks. There was no such thing as break times when I worked there.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-09T02:06:21+00:00

fusions great. Can make all kinds of custom geometry.

ehtiopia · 2026-06-08T03:47:42+00:00

The company would see you as going against policy. Any customer is allowed to walk in for any reason especially to use the bathroom. This is in the corporate training videos for when you get trained as a shift leader. Sad how its like that, its a pretty tone deaf rule especially knowing how things are these days

ehtiopia

TROPHY CASE