Indelible's blog

well guys, i started my job today. i had to go in a couple of days ago to fill out forms and stuff like that but today was my first actual day of work. i started at 8 today (7 tomorrow) and worked till 4.30. i was a little surprised because i am starting off at a plant in a different part of the city from the main plant, but that's ok, i kinda like it over there. also, when i was hired i was told that i would start at $8/hr but they decided to start me at a tech 2 level and at $9.25/hr, and i get $0.50/hr raise in 3 months, which is good. i know a guy who works there and because i referenced him on my application he gets a bonus if i stay and he said he'd split that with me.
anyway, so the first thing i did was learned how to use the wrapping machine, that was kinda cool...real easy, too. it's basically a mechanized saran-wrapping thing to wrap up pallets of wood after it's been cut by the giant computerized saw. so basically, the person who operates the saw stacks the wood that he cuts onto pallets that are on rollers, which were then brought over to me by forklift and then i wrap them and write the info about it from a sheet onto the plastic wrap and then the forklift operator puts it away somewhere else. he also brings the saw operator more sheets of wood to cut to the sizes needed.
after doing that a couple of times i was shown how to use the dado machine. this is basically just a table saw that doesn't cut the wood all the way through, it just cuts a groove on one side. it's kinda the same idea as a router, but it has a circular blade like a table saw does. this is to make the side walls of drawers for hotel furniture, so that the bottom of the drawer fits into the grooves of the sides i cut with the dado. anyhow, after that's done i take those side walls to the edge sander which is like a belt sander but bigger and the sandpaper goes around and around facing towards you. so you take the other end of the wall (opposite the side with the groove) and you sand the edge of the wood so it's rounded (this becomes the top of the drawer when it's complete). so the work there is mostly mindless repetition, cuz sometimes you have to dado and sand hundreds of the same size piece of wood, but that's good because i like that kind of work cuz i get into a rhythm.
all of the machines are hooked up to 2 vacuum systems (one for the huge saw and one for teh dado and sander) which sucks up most of the sawdust. the vacuum for the huge saw dumps the sawdust into 2 oil drums, and the dado and sander sawdust goes into 2 bags. i had to empty both of them today as well as clean out all the dust from under the dado when it gets clogged.
all in all i like this new job and i guess that's all for now.