July 24-27, 2012

This past week I learned about rollers and how they work. It amazed me to learn that these are small one cylinder diesel engines that are started by hand. I have never heard much less seen any diesel that was started by hand. This machine taught me how simple it can be made and that how complicated the big engines have got. It is air cooled and all mechanically operated. I also got to learn more about how propane works and understanding one of our biggest forklifts that has duels in the front!

38 hrs
Total to date: 270 hrs

July 17 - 20, 2012

The week of the 17th was interesting. I got to go on a service call with Jesse and got to have a first hand experience of dealing with customers that are having an issue. The best part about it for me was knowing that with our knowledge we could most likely fix it. For this repair, we had the wrong grade of hose on top of one of the excavators and it started to leak pretty good. I also learned more equipment to checkin and can't wait for what's next!

40 hrs
Total to date: 232 hrs

July 10-13, 2012: Another week of of great learning and training.

This past week has been a huge transition from me learning how to check in some smaller equipment to the bigger, more complicated and more interesting equipment. Everyday I keep learning more and more about hydraulics and everything about it amazes me. Even the fact of the dump trailer. The idea of having something as simple as an electric motor powering an entire trailer with a load in the air really intrigues me. I have also learned to think on my feet more. This dump trailer had a broken latch on it that we didn't have the part for but on another piece of equipment had the same design of latch an turns out it worked great as a replacement. I have started checking in small excavators and found great engineers ideas like a build in oil filter drip pan shown in one of my photos. All in all this week has been another tremendous learning experience!

40 hrs
Total so far for summer quarter: 192hrs

July 3 - 6, 2012

This week was intresting because the 4th was right in the middle but I still got some learning in there. This last week I got checked out on checking in small diesel air compressors. What an amazing machine. These things will push out some serious cubic feet! I also put back in my first radiator. Interesting to see it looking so good after it's repair. Worked good!
28 hrs

June 26 - 29, 2012

First of all I would like to say once again I couldn't have had more fun learning this past week. I just can't wait to get back to it. I got to learn electrical and ECM units with clay, learned more and more about hydraulics and diagnosing fuel problems with Jesse, I learned more about planetary gears and wheel seals with Ron. I also learned about diagnosing problematic trailer lights with D.J. Not only have I gained more learning through others I have also been practicing moving equipment. I really enjoy learning how these big and small machines work, so as to when someone needs assistance with something I can help them. I have been learning so much and I it keeps getting better and better.
50hrs