[LargeFormat] lost in the carpet
Les Newcomer
largeformat@f32.net
Fri Feb 7 18:49:45 2003
Uh oh here comes another war story from Les......
In high school I got a job working for a one man shop that repaired Radio
controled equipment for the RC airplane hobby. He was also a second tier
supplier of prototype electronics to Ford Motor Co. I was the kid that
got to fill all of the PC boards for the Ford job. My 'station' was with
the rest of the company-one other employee- in his basement. The place
had been finished as a rumpus room beofre he went into business and he
hadn't Hoovered the high pile carpet since. I think the carpet was
monotone but with 5 years of bits of wire both bare and multi-colored
insulation, it was a riot of pattern.
One item that was spec'd was a 1 ohm .1%, non inductive resistor. He
couldn't find it anywhere. So he spent the better part of the day making
one with a lenght of nichrome wire, a couple of bare copper leads and a
wheatstone bridge with his very expensive digital volt meter.
He laid two of these resistors on my desk next to the iron. Within 5
minutes I had brushed one off onto the floor. Talk about looking for a
grain of sand at the beach! The boss's blood pressure was already up and
if I spent any time on my knees he would have figured out what had
happened and fired me on the spot. Knowing that I was doomed already, I
did the only thing that came to my mind. I put the other piece on the
table and brushed it with my elbow, watching this time..... it landed on
top of the first. Whew!!!
Now whenever I start to open a shutter I make sure the dog is locked
upstairs the kid is at school or in bed and I lay white butcher paper on
the floor.
Les