Most fun machine you've worked with?

[Soukuw]

Includes heavy machinery.

I worked at a company that put the parts on PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) and with zero knowledge they stuck me on the AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) machine. This huge ass company that was building a whole new building and expanding stuck someone with zero manufacturing experience, no certifications and hired from a staffing company... on quality control. I basically looked at circuit boards and decided myself with zero external human input if the board was properly soldered or not. The machine would take photos from multiple angles of the board and would measure the solder and give out a warning if it thought it was busted, it would then spit it into a "reject" tray and slot up ready for another reject. I would grab a reject board, look at the computer for where the issue was then "inspect" the solder. If it seemed fine then I would alter the number on the computer to make the warning less sensitive.

I had never soldered and still have never soldered to any extent in my life. I've never even used flux before. I have have no idea if I did I good job or not lol They paid quality control $12 an hour.


Not the same one but similar, on the right side though it had a system hooked up for a tray. Great feature of this tray was once it was full it had no system to let the machine know, it would literally spit another PCB out and push the entire metal frame with all the PCBs off the shelf onto the ground.

This is where I actually worked, the machine the guy is working on (I actually knew this guy) would apply the solder onto the boards, the next two are SMT machines (Simple Mount Technology) they vaccuum the parts up and stick them on the board, then they go through the oven and ended up at AOI.

Looking back it was probably one of the most interesting jobs I've ever had and I've never clicked with people in any other job like I had with the men and the incredibly surprisingly huge number of women that worked there.

Machine discussion/general interesting work stuff?

Edit: To expand on this though the first half of the job was literal hell. Put 1200 stickers on PCBs and scan each one into the computer and watch a number on the screen slowly tick down confirming you've done your job.

[Ad Bot]

[Conan]

name the company so i never buy anything from them again

[Soukuw]

name the company so i never buy anything from them again

Lmao I don't think you will but it was horrible because I was making PCBs for idexx. I quit when they had us  resize the standoffs by forcing a new screw into it... while it was on the PCB.

[c[_]]

130 53 TK coastal artillery gun





Shooting was usually fun if you didn't have to carry the shells. Cleaning took 2-3h which wasn't as fun.

[Trogtor]

forklifts, bitch 😎

[Epicduke]

turning power and hydraulics on for ops check on a CRJ is fun but i'm not sure if it's actually working with them more than just working on them. and working on them can suck ass.

[plad101]

I've worked on a lot of cool machines, drove forklifts, ran BOPP, ran giant corrugated piping, forgeted with AGPUs, work on helicopters now, stuffs dope.

[TlTO]

My richard which is also robotic

[VerticalHorizon]

i used to retrofit tool cabinets with electronic locks and LEDs to be controlled by a PC. it was pretty zen, just throw on some music, take a look at all the work orders and when they were scheduled to ship, then get to work. learned some pretty useful stuff doing that job, had to learn lots about drills because we had to drill tons of holes into steel. one of my favorite tools to use was the knockout punch, it was so satisfying to twist the handle til *pop*. the worst part was probably shoving LED PCBs into the plastic extrusions for the front panel, those starfishs never wanted to go in without a fight. my favorite part was probably doing all the wiring, me and my coworker basically had our own "signature" wiring arrangements. working in software is nice but it just lacks that nice, visceral feeling of getting something done with my hands. good times

[Mr. Bones]

No stuff OP? I worked for a company that printed circuit boards, most went to military/fell under ITAR. The usual suspects were Northrop, Honeywell, Raytheon, L3... couldn't tell you what the boards went into though. We had an AOI department as well. Ours did essentially the same thing as yours, except it inspected the layers themselves. Layers referring to the board, boards usually had two layers but some like our Honeywell boards had more. Never used that machine.

Most fun machine I've used was a laser routing machine at the same company. Routed holes/cut shapes into boards using a high class laser. Was cool to see the laser dancing around the board super fast. It'd usually take like 15 minutes for a board to get routed out, so you got to lean back and sit on your phone while you waited on the machine. Job had stuff pay and horrible micromanagement though, supervisor was a rooster lick.

[MunkeyCheez]

cars.

you can take them everywhere, go really fast and do stupid stuff in them.

it's like oily lego, none of this pusillanimous individual computer nerd stuff that goes beep boop beep every two seconds.

[Rendergoi]

Does hannaford pay you more than 12 an hour

[Soukuw]

Does hannaford pay you more than 12 an hour

Pretty sure they pay 17 lol

Also y'all reaaaall loving salty, if you're trying to scare me it's not gonna work. I already have people come to my door and slice it with knives throw dirt at stuff and slash my tires. It's literally nothing new to me.

[Tyler66]

I've worked nothing more interesting than help desk stuff. So office Dell computers. At least they all paid well.

[plad101]

-snip-

loving Honeywell man, I see their stuff everywhere my last 3 jobs have had Honeywell associated with them and I don't get how I can't escape them, I got Fans made by them, the refrigerant in my truck is made by them, my loving T55-GA-714As are made by them, wtf.