wrote in message
...


Heh. The mouth-breathing idiots they send to the booth to plug in the
equipment have to be shown how to do it (literally). I've watched
them destroy about as much stuff as they've sucessfully hooked up. Of
course, when they destroy something union rules prevent them from
being fired, and if they break a nail doing it they get time off with
compensation.

--------------------------------

Years ago, my company built several vacuum coating systems for
McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis. The systems were assembled and went
through acceptance testing at our facility before shipment to
McDonnell Douglas. They deposited sacrificial coatings onto wing
sections and landing gear components of aircraft used by the Navy for
landing on aircraft carriers. Interestingly, the same system design
was later licensed by McDonnell Douglas to be used by commercial
bakeries for items like bread pans and other things used in the baking
industry.

Anyway, after the first system was shipped and installed at the St.
Louis facility, I visited to see how the installation went and to
make sure the system was operating properly. While watching it go
through it's paces with the McDonnell Douglas project manager, I
noticed that a set point in one of the instruments needed a slight
"tweak". I pulled out my "tweaker" (a small screwdriver with an
eighth inch flat blade) and approached the control console to make
the adjustment when the project manager grabbed my arm and said, "You
can't touch it!". I explained I was just going to make a minor
adjustment that would take about 2 seconds to do but he told me he
would have to fill out a work request to the McDonnell Douglas union
shop to make the adjustment.

I couldn't believe it.

So, we waited. Went to lunch. Came back and waited some more.
Finally the union electrician showed up with his huged tool box on
wheels and a leather tool belt strapped to his waist. He asked what
we wanted done.

I decided to be a wise ass. I told him that the foreline valve on
the diffusion pump was opening at too high a pressure, potentially
causing backstreaming into the process chamber. I requested that he
adjust the crossover pressure to 100 microns and set the foreline
valve high setpoint to no more than 150 microns.

I then handed him my "tweaker".

He got the hint and suggested that maybe it would be better if I did
it since I had designed the system.