When work was slow in engineering, as I mentioned in the previous essay, I would be given some “time off”. The state of Vermont had a rule relating to “furloughed” personnel, as they called us. If your employer planned to call you back, you didn’t have to seek an alternative job. I would say that this rule applied to virtually all of us who got “furloughed”. The unemployment check was pretty much automatic (after a one week delay). But of course the dollar amount was not nearly the same. Some of our workers were young folks with families, so they were forced to seek employment elsewhere if the furlough lasted more than a few weeks. As a result, we did lose some good people over the years because they couldn’t “weather the storm”.

One of the most rewarding parts of being a Project Engineer at Vermont Rebuild (at least in my early years), was the fact that we were involved in all aspects of our assigned project. One of my favorite parts was travelling to the various small machine shops in the area to do the “meet and greet” with these folks. We had to see just what their capabilities were, so that we could decide what jobs we could send to them. A machine rebuild / retrofit might include several dozen new parts that needed to be made; and of course on a rebuild, there will probably be some existing parts that will be reused or reworked. These reused parts may need to be repaired; quite often round parts or shafting will have worn areas that will need to be built up with chrome and reground. We had the capability in-house to do most of these items, and usually the plating would be done in-town, at Springfield Electroplate. Our shop machining capabilities were quite limited, so we “farmed out” most of our work. Besides a couple of OD grinders, we had a Bridgeport milling machine, a band saw, and a large way grinder. And if you remember the story about the cobblers kids who had no shoes, it kind of applied to us, too. These machines (especially the way grinder), needed a skilled operator who knew the machine intimately, to get good results. You kind of had to know where to place the part on the table, and hold your head just so while traversing the wheel. Then maybe you would be OK (but only maybe……….).

All of our sheet metal work was done outside. There were several shops around that could provide what we needed, and we would decide who  got the work based on 1) price, and 2) delivery. Our “go to” sheet metal shop was usually JSP Fabrications in Charlestown, but we also used Meadowbrook (also in Charlestown). In my early days, we sometimes used a company in Tilton, New Hampshire, for sheet metal items. The owner was Stan Hodgeman, a former J&L man who worked in the “Tin Shop”, as we called sheet metal at J&L. He had a rocky relationship with our owner, and finally refused to do work for us. This was not an uncommon problem.

When I first joined Vermont Rebuild, most of the design work was still being done with paper and pencil. We had a motley assortment of drafting equipment, inherited from some of the now defunct machine tool industries in town. But we were in the process of purchasing computer drafting equipment; this project advanced as funds were available. Having an electronic design capability would greatly improve our productivity (after we went thru the learning curve). Most of the engineering staff were located on the second floor, with a pretty decent view of the Black River and the dam. Watching the ice go out in the spring was a big event for us.

There was no real “standard” as far as drafting practices were concerned. But because most of us were former J&L employees, we tended to drift toward what we were used to. We had both a J&L standards book, and drafting manual. When we hired any new engineers, we gave them these volumes and had them review them. We had no central checking capability, so each engineer was on his own (although I tried to channel each one of us in the same general direction). In the early days, all engineering drawings used a numbering system unique to Vermont Rebuild, but based on J&L practices. Details were assigned a “VR” number, and assemblies used a “VRA” prefix. All the assembly lists were hand written, and commercial hardware was described as it appeared in the vendor catalogs (I.E. a fastener would be called out as “hex head screw, 1/4-20 x 3.00”). Because these hand written  lists were not “computerized”, we had no problem with nomenclature. We did not assign Vermont Rebuild numbers to commercial items (this would change big time when we later adopted a computerized inventory system). All the drawings we created were placed in numbered filing cabinets, and when a job was released, these were used to create prints for manufacture (one for the vendor, one for our incoming inspecting area). We had no microfilming capability, unlike the big shops in town.

As business improved, we would advertise in various papers for help. Some of the resumes we received were quite shocking; I remember one in particular, a Russian woman who was degreed, and seemed to be very desperate to find work in this country. As usual, we interviewed her face-to-face, and came away with more than  a little concern about probable communication problems. In the end, we did not hire her. Of all the people we hired, we did have some notable failures over the years, those who just could not at least try to conform to the Company Goals.

Almost from the beginning, our work flow would be either overwhelming, or lacking; because the company did not have “Deep Pockets”, they could not afford to pay their help when there was no work. There would be temporary layoffs in various areas of the plant, including engineering. By this time our children had left home, and I did not mind having a few extra weeks off. I would receive a check from the Unemployment Office, after the normal one week delay.