My last few weeks in the Navy I took pictures of some of the work I did. I thought it could be useful at job interviews. I was wrong, but the pics have kept the memories fresh.
Bet you didn't know ships have disk brakes! This is a disk brake job on a gas turbine frigate. It's much bigger than it looks.
It has three sets of pads, each like the disk brake pads on a car, only giant. They're removed in the pics.
This was a common rising vane pump. They came in many sizes and pumped fuel and oil.
Another common pump type. Insanely expensive, made of high quality monel castings.
How's that for working conditions? Now get in there and fix that pump. Use the light switch for scale.
Another type of pump. These are demanding to rebuild. A tiny mistake and it rips itself apart.
Here's a tool I built to hydro test equipment. The standard version took two men to carry.
A tool I designed and made prototypes. The Navy mass produced them after I was gone.
I got a check in the mail for it. The Navy named it after me.
A few work pictures taken after the Navy.
Three pics I took during a gas turbine overhaul. This gas turbine rotor is big.
That's the small end he's standing next to.
This was a critical moment, lifting that much weight and value makes everybody uptight.
I operated this hydro unit when they didn't have enough operators. It's cute and easy.
Be afraid, be very afraid. The control console was straight out of the 1920's.
Just too cute. These pictures are like porn to a guy like me. It even smelled sweet.
Here's a steam turbine overhaul. Nice to have people in the pic, for scale.
This is a big deal. The shaft had to be bored to stop cracks from spreading.
The rotor is out and sitting on the turbine deck.
Here's a machine I built to test the RF shielding of cell phones during manufacturing.
Controlled by a type of computer called a PLC. This machine could test close to 40k a day.
Three were built and saw 24 hour 7 day use for several years.
That forklift has a max speed of 5 mph. It was destroyed within moments of hitting the road.
Wish I had video of him on the freeway. The forklift bounced high.