"Trevor Jones" wrote in message news:DLI4h.61235$H7.32249@edtnps82...
Actually, when the project it all came from shut down somewhere around
1990, millions of dollars worth of really expensive stuff (really big free electron laser project that burned through millions. Shoulda started small then worked their way up. Electron beam quality was a subject not well understood at the time, but having started big, problems were that much harder to solve. Now they're using what's called a COIL laser mounted to a 747 to do the same thing. Still a big project, but the issues had all been addressed on a smaller scale first) headed for the door, and lots of people spent a lot of time sorting out and inventorying thousands of parts. I figure they keps about a quarter of it all, and of that I'm having to decide what's keepable and what's not. I just threw what was once several thousands of dollars worth of 74 series IC chips in several boxes and put it all on the outgoing pile. Some customer at Surplus Sales is going to be one very happy person finding that enormous trove of hobby treasure. That was just _one_ cabinet! I'm getting there, it will just take awhile. Hopefully I'll have it mostly done progress before I get told it all has to be cleared out in a week, meanwhile there's other hot projects burning up my hours at the time.So I really like Vidmars, to a certain degree. Well laid out is excellent, but my problem with them is the same problem common to all drawers. It's too easy just to toss crap in the drawer, shove it closed, and put the mess out of your mind. I'm guilty of it probably more than many of us, too. Have a look at my garage! I like Akro bins, where you can move stuff around without handling the hardware, but they also have their problems such as spillage and breaking. That was the thinking that had me build a tool rack for my garage last summer that was made of vertical panels mounted to drawer slides. Took up a two foot square footprint, carries a gob of tools no rollaway could, kept things reasonably arranged, and prevented me from just throwing something in there. Shouldn't have used strandboard, though, which was a bad ecomomic decision at the time. Can't keep a nail too well for hanging stuff up. I need to do another one, but do it better next time, assuming I can find the time.
I actually enjoy engaging my curiosity about what's what and where, and what it might have been for, but the sheer volume is intimidating. There's so much of it I can't seem to be able to work one spot all the way through to the end, but I sorta do a little here and a little there. I find more stuff and where I can organize it better, but it takes me longer. I like having lots of stuff to pick from when figuring out how to do a project that has to get done right away but there's no time for someone to run off to the store and get me what I need, but how many folks need a box full of itty bitty boxes with a BNC connector and a switch on it? I've got piles of little Acopian 5 volt 30 milliamp supplies, and power supplies I won't get rid of. I had done a project at my previous shop that I reduced the quantity of hardware we had in the area for production (I used to wire up 767's,) put stuff where it needed to be, had provisions for easy maintenance (even when gone for seven months I came back to a system that almost maintained itself!) saved a ton of time chasing parts, and so on and so forth. It required a lot of knowledge of our processes (ten years in the same area helps a bit) and a reasonably stable process, but it was a great success, and still is in my absence, I believe. In my current job, stability is a term we use when discussing hardware and system quality, and can never be applied to our job itself. Every day is something new, which I like a lot. Just about every hobby, job, and skill I've ever had, from heavy equipment, electronics, robotics, automotive, aviation, industrial electrical, weighing systems, industrial ink jets, and so, has had an impact on this job and how I do it. I didn't know anything about extreme magnetics, cryogenics, high temperatures, superconductivity, particle accelerators, or other weird shit like that when I started, so I didn't start completely in the know, either. How to decide what to put where is one of those great unknowns, too, and that's a tough one that will take me the rest of my career to figure out. It'll be fun regardless of how it turns out, that I know for sure.
Thanks, and I really mean that. I wish more folks had jobs as cool as this one. Got off my antidepressants, too!