Last nite I watched the show Mega Machines. Dang... stayed up until about 2:30 I got so turned on watching them monsters operate. They also showed the building process of making one of the worlds largest Scoop Shovels to load those 250 ton payhaulers...which in themselves would be a tolal rush to drive. My 2nd or 3rd childhood must be coming back .... I sit and watch those giant machines every week, that I remember it's on anyway, and wish to heck I had a nice job operating something so huge. I know the PAY has to be awesome ... not that pay has anything to do with it, eh? Yes... I'm really getting tired of working in Mental Health and living with near poverty wages. We do have a small tech school here that teaches heavy equipment operation..hmmmm....I wonder.

When I was in 6th 7th and 8th grades, my dad taught me to operate an old Hough Payloader, let me drive the grader or Cat, when we were changing work locations and on my own I've operated some highway construction equipment, but that was a while back. I didn't like having to travel all over for work, but now, with all the construction going on here, I'm wondering if anyone would even hire a 54 year old man, with a bad bad bad back?

Any of you guys into Mega Machines? The show on TV...or do you have a job operating something incredibly huge?

 

hahaha I thought I was the only one staying up last night watching that. I kept telling myself "I gotta get to sleep!" but then the next episode would come on right after it and I had to keep watching. I never made it to the end, however, 'cause mr. sandman did me in-- did they get the bucket up and running on time or was it really delayed? last I saw they had the Milwaukee engineers in and found a glitch which could cause one of the electric motors to burst into flames and they had to re-engineer that in the field.

 

I watch every so often. Another program on the National Geographic channel that I enjoy watching also is Mega Structures.

 

They got the bucket up, with a few hassles, grunts and groans, a few more glitches electonically for the engineers and then they drove her down to the pit and she started work the same day. All that shiny paint on the scoop... mostly gone in the rocky areas. After that was the giant bulldozers. Man ... drool. POWER!

 

Thats shows pretty cool.Ive seen the giant dreages clearing bays and water ways before and thougt "Those things are awsome".

 

I love those shows - including the extreme engineering and building the ultimate shows on the other real channels. It's educational, informative, and interesting - what a good television program should be.

 

Shhhhh...Mrs. Bear thinks I'm on FTE when i'm watching that show.

 

I saw that show last night (this morning ). That was a good show .

Fordlover, that might be a fun job but it may be in limited demand in the future. Why? Well, I worked for a company a while back that was investigating the possibility of automating the driving and operation of those trucks here at a mine in the US. GPS guided, equipment running 24/7 or whatever was desired, and the trucks would pull off to a service area for scheduled maintenance and/or refueling (automatically). This was just the tip of the iceberg. Lots of obstacles to overcome but it appears to be doable.

 

Mega machines,
Mega structures,
Engineering disasters!
-Always

I have done a bit of design work myself over the years and some "forensic" work so it is all interesting.