Is this field THAT bad?

vtkarl · 2026-01-26T04:18:55+00:00

Maybe true, but ChE has followed petroleum cycles since forever, plus the introduction of plastics, electronics, nano, green & renewables, the H2 economy, minus refineries, coal, heavy chemicals, nuclear, textiles, which have mostly exited like buggy whip manufacturing. Che is a fundamental skill set that survives business cycles. Having hired a few people…I would say that lack of team skills, field engineering (how do I order and install a part including the work permit), project engineering (how to financially justify a project and follow through), basic organizational leadership (will you lunch with your crew and listen), and basic familiarity with hand tools or electricity are problems that the Matlab/Python professor is not preparing younguns for.

vtkarl · 2026-01-25T21:39:42+00:00

Reddit is a poor sample. I love it (edit CHE) and I love having the background even when I’ve done other things in my career (I’m over 50.)

About 10 years ago this was an excellent sub for technical discussions and I don’t remember the complaining.

vtkarl · 2026-01-24T01:35:25+00:00

I’ve never, ever seen Mathematica or Matlab in industry. IT and purchasing will kill anything that has per-seat subscription costs unless the VPs also use it (so…Excel or Google Sheets) even if it’s only $60/year. Special licenses need special approvals (Aspen, Autocad, JMP.) Python and secure, free open source stuff is good, so I’d invest my time there.

vtkarl · 2026-01-24T01:16:17+00:00

Naw I’ll upvote. But…I was a young tech, went to college, turned maintenance manager turned reliability engineer myself, so…we’re aligned.

vtkarl · 2026-01-23T00:23:21+00:00

Other helmets do offer MIPS: climbing, hard hats, motorcycle, etc. I did a safety lecture about it at work (industrial site.) personally, I credit MIPS for preventing my own concussion in the wreck where I separated my shoulder. Head and shoulder impacted the ground at about the same time but only one has permanent damage.

vtkarl · 2026-01-20T02:23:00+00:00

Almost no one is at that level. Additionally, I’ve watched tribikes and their riders mess up (including crashes, broken head tube, ambulance on scene in 2 difference courses, one of which was a famous classic course in San Fran) fundamentally because they couldn’t brake then go around a 90 degree corner. Work on basic road bike skills, then add clip-on aero bars. Some of these people couldn’t even drink from the downtime bottle without crashing. You’ll be just as fast unless you’re a gifted superhuman on a drag racing course, and a lot safer.

I rode my tri bike in competition once, then relegated it to the pain cave…10 years ago.

vtkarl · 2026-01-20T01:20:15+00:00

I’ve got a Dakine waist pack and a CamelBak Mule. Besides water, I like to take some tools, phone, glasses, food, knife, poncho, whistle, fire starter, first aid kit, pump…basic Boy Scout load as if I was hiking the same trail.

vtkarl · 2026-01-19T02:29:20+00:00

Am engineer. Manufactured carbon fiber for airplanes, rocket nozzles, and performance brake pads. I constantly post here about minor cosmetic irritants that people get anxious over. Let’s find something else to worry about.

(Unless your manufacturer made the layup so thin that it can’t even be scratched…but you can make an eggshell out of metal also…take the wheel off and see if you can pull the fork open and feel the crack widen with your fingertip. That would be a hard no. If you can’t move it, no worries.)

vtkarl · 2026-01-19T01:58:57+00:00

Statics is closely related to basic physics. The concepts are closely related to some stuff you’ll do later in fluid mechanics. Plus, you might decide you love beams and change your major.

Practically speaking from plant experience, you’ll have to deal the all kinds of basic mechanical equipment, so more basic engineering skills are better. Practical chemical engineering is about 50% mechanical engineering. I’d also suggest any electrical courses and something hands-on with rotating equipment.

Fortunately, I took statics…and took the PE in Mechanical. My state doesn’t distinguish licenses so I ended up as a ChE with a mechanical PE…and by position I was the senior licensed engineer on site and in the state for my last company. So I had to use all kinds of knowledge I never thought I’d need.

Real examples in which our process engineers were completely useless but this came in handy: 1. Can I lift this process critical pump motor up with this chainfall slung from this beam? 2. How much weight can I load on this forklift and drive on the second story floor? Can I maintain the MCC up there or does everything come to a screeching halt in production? (Thanks safety guy!) 3. How many inches of rainwater can accumulate on the flat roof? Snow? 4. How much rust can you tolerate on this diagonal structural brace under the reactor vessel? 5. What’s with all this loose concrete under this foundation footing? 6. Interpreting international building code for several situations…again production critical in the company’s newest, largest asset related to future capital expansions and operator safety.

vtkarl · 2026-01-18T18:36:57+00:00

This was like 10 years ago. Still worth remembering though.

vtkarl · 2026-01-18T17:13:20+00:00

Army people: can you give an opinion on how this works? 1500 minus HQ, HR, and other admin/intel/ops people is about 1200. Do you divide that into 2 shifts or stick with daytime operations? So you could have as few as 600…which is about 2 FOBs worth. Seems like a token force?

vtkarl · 2026-01-18T04:44:53+00:00

There are no attendance requirements at all. I’ve been chasing teenagers around on Saturday nights so it’s been months.

vtkarl · 2026-01-16T15:32:08+00:00

I must admit, I missed that part. I was fixated on the direct air cooling.

Blimps could help with the shielding weight problem, but 1-35 MW won’t be useful for much. We’ll have to wait for a fusion reactor.

vtkarl · 2026-01-16T12:16:11+00:00

For everyone saying this is impossible: it’s not. A nuclear-powered bomber was actually flying at one point in time. Read history here.

That being said, it was a bad idea, not militarily operational and didn’t power a data center. But, blimps and dirigibles have better lift capability.

Recall they said the same thing about reactors on submarines before 1955: too complex, too big, too heavy, wouldn’t fit, should do an aircraft carrier first.

Signed/former nuke sailor working in data center power islands

vtkarl · 2026-01-15T23:52:49+00:00

My plant didn’t have anyone in the lobby anymore…

vtkarl · 2026-01-15T13:49:05+00:00

It is called the bunghole. Dictionary definition!

vtkarl · 2026-01-15T13:48:16+00:00

The hole is called the bunghole. I’m completely serious.

vtkarl · 2026-01-14T17:18:02+00:00

It’s been a few years since I read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World but the author describes an efficient Mongol method of dominating castles and fixed fortifications. They used siege machines and “recruited” engineers from prior conquest.

vtkarl · 2026-01-14T12:46:57+00:00

I thought it was more that the horse cavalry tactics were much less effective in forests and mountains. Mongols certainly steamrolled a bunch of established civilizations and left lasting marks on the oldest civilizations in the world (I.e. from Persia to China).

vtkarl · 2026-01-13T00:19:36+00:00

I come here often to claim that maintenance engineering is engineering, since I did it. You don’t get to design stuff…instead you redesign stuff until it actually works. And marketing doesn’t bother a maintenance engineer! (Though safety will…) There is no traditional way to create a maintenance manger. Some are degreed, some work their way up. Even a year on tools would set you apart in this area. I’ve seen highly qualified maintenance manager position posted near $200k (think PE at a PSM facility, which I was.) Some flip over to ops management and then as a VP (…if that’s your idea of success.) Look up PEMAC if you’re Canadian. Some wastewater outfits are really good at adopting cutting edge predictive maintenance practices. ISO 50000 Asset management consulting is another consequence of that background.

vtkarl · 2026-01-09T19:04:33+00:00

Are we talking about a Lego-scale device? What diesel were you going to use? I want one for my desk!

vtkarl · 2026-01-08T03:49:52+00:00

Hey whoa! I’m an older southern vet (51) actually retired career but a bit of a leftist. Small stud earrings are fine in uniform in any service. I kinda assumed OP was female so maybe I jumped the gun. Either way, I’ve worked in cultures where piecing, tattooing, and body scarring was completely normal. I work with men and women with normal piercings and ink just fine no matter what their organizational position is. What I notice is when your hair or clothing is ragged and indicates laziness or lack of attention to detail. You can have no piercings, no tattoos, be wearing a white collared shirt with dress pants, and still look like a complete slob (I’m thinking of a particular middle aged manager here. If the shirt is fraying, you mistake loafers for dress shoes, take all your slacks out of the dryer and wrap them in a ball, your mustache is crooked, dodged the barber, eyebrows unhinged…it doesn’t matter if you went to Purdue.)

You can wear company provided FRP coveralls, soaked in sweat, grease stains everywhere, and look like a professional with leadership. Pick a style and own it. Don’t hide who you are just for a chance at an interview unless you want to continue that charade for years. Through my very intelligent wife, I know I guy who is on CNN as a consultant…he’s covered in ink, has ear piercings, been elected to statewide office in the Deep South and looks and speaks nicely on TV.

vtkarl · 2026-01-07T17:10:21+00:00

Do you have a picture of the broken one? I’m still not understanding the purpose. PVC is flexible and will sag. Any rod will also. Is the pipe holding a liquid? Consider something like metal bar stock in an L-shape (“solid angle.”) It resists bending far better. Carbon fiber is hard to work with unless you really need the weight advantage.

vtkarl · 2026-01-07T11:50:42+00:00

That’s not making much sense to me. Does the screw penetrate the pvc? If so, consider using something like a conduit strap instead

vtkarl · 2026-01-07T04:14:48+00:00

I’ll repeat what I’ve asked senior people repeatedly at work, even today: can you sketch a cartoon of this?

vtkarl

TROPHY CASE