A playful, sensitive, caring human who has practiced and loved designing products since I was a child. Raised with regular access to a wood shop from age five by a wonderfully patient father I built... Read more

A playful, sensitive, caring human who has practiced and loved designing products since I was a child. Raised with regular access to a wood shop from age five by a wonderfully patient father I built cabinets and furniture in my early teens and worked into the construction trades until my early 20's when I tired of my options and started night school at my local JC. I eventually earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly, SLO, and worked for 12 years in the design and manufacture of a range of products in the industrial, recreation and medical device sectors. During that time I learned the subtleties of many primary manufacturing processes including machining and metal fabrication, extrusion design, some metal casting, CNC sheet metal production, metal hydro-forming and high-pressure thermal forming of plastics along with applicable coatings and finishing technologies for the same. I was also schooled in the development, application, and auditing of quality systems under ISO and FDA guidelines and the associated supply chain establishment and maintenance needed for the manufacture of products to exacting standards. Thinking I needed a change from the corporate world I began consulting on designs for small solar and wind installations and studied the emerging materials science applications of Geopolymers for infrastructure applications. I developed conceptual designs for automated equipment to refurbish small bridges based on the results of various Geopolymer studies but was unable to elicit support for its development. I explored ways of improving commercial greenhouse production while lowering the energy expenditures and later for lowering the cost and improving the efficiency of GSHP, (Ground Source Heat Pump), technologies but was equally unsuccessful at finding support for my proposed solutions. In recent years I have returned to consulting on product development for others and still look forward to helping develop new and refine existing technologies to address the considerable challenges facing our world. In general, I would characterize myself as a mostly talented mechanical/manufacturing engineer and product designer who is skilled at the synthesis of elegant solutions through the application of wide-ranging technologies.

I have been working 7 days a week since December, so to say I am very dedicated is an understatement. I have owned my online business since 1994 when freelancing was just moonlighting. I am up front... Read more

I have been working 7 days a week since December, so to say I am very dedicated is an understatement. I have owned my online business since 1994 when freelancing was just moonlighting. I am up front, if I don't feel comfortable with your proposed project or am not interested, I will let you know right away. I don't play games and I am an expert in my field which is Solidworks. I have been a project manager more than a few times during employment stints and I completely understand the manufacturing process. I am in expert in taking over projects when a key employee dies, quits, etc. (don't laugh, 3 of my best customers were draftsman or engineers that suddenly died). I have worked on everything from IC chip architecture to sandcastings to very large machinery and even a few urea plants. I am probably faster than your best cad guy and the whole time I am drafting I am also keeping an eye on deadlines, watching out for potential pitfalls such as hard to design parts or sourcing a more common or cheaper component. I am use to doing tab and slots for parts made out of plate, I can etch bent parts for use in laser cutting, know how to properly cope a tube for a laser machine, can use GD&T properly, can properly notate a weld diagram, assembly drawings, etc. My largest project to date (working under a process engineer and with a small team of drafters) was a 6M urea plant in china which was nearly a thousand pages of mechanical information, not to include mass balance info, spec sheets for the components, etc. The package was a 5' long wooden box that had to clear customs. I can source materials from china or other offshore locals and now I have a sub that will be helping me so I can get away from the crazy 7 day a week schedule. I have no problem managing your team, or providing consulting as well. I am starting to steer away from the smaller projects unless you are paying really well as there is a lot of "plate spinning" with a bunch of smaller projects.

A playful, sensitive, caring human who has practiced and loved designing products since I was a child. Raised with regular access to a wood shop from age five by a wonderfully patient father I built... Read more

A playful, sensitive, caring human who has practiced and loved designing products since I was a child. Raised with regular access to a wood shop from age five by a wonderfully patient father I built cabinets and furniture in my early teens and worked into the construction trades until my early 20's when I tired of my options and started night school at my local JC. I eventually earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly, SLO, and worked for 12 years in the design and manufacture of a range of products in the industrial, recreation and medical device sectors. During that time I learned the subtleties of many primary manufacturing processes including machining and metal fabrication, extrusion design, some metal casting, CNC sheet metal production, metal hydro-forming and high-pressure thermal forming of plastics along with applicable coatings and finishing technologies for the same. I was also schooled in the development, application, and auditing of quality systems under ISO and FDA guidelines and the associated supply chain establishment and maintenance needed for the manufacture of products to exacting standards. Thinking I needed a change from the corporate world I began consulting on designs for small solar and wind installations and studied the emerging materials science applications of Geopolymers for infrastructure applications. I developed conceptual designs for automated equipment to refurbish small bridges based on the results of various Geopolymer studies but was unable to elicit support for its development. I explored ways of improving commercial greenhouse production while lowering the energy expenditures and later for lowering the cost and improving the efficiency of GSHP, (Ground Source Heat Pump), technologies but was equally unsuccessful at finding support for my proposed solutions. In recent years I have returned to consulting on product development for others and still look forward to helping develop new and refine existing technologies to address the considerable challenges facing our world. In general, I would characterize myself as a mostly talented mechanical/manufacturing engineer and product designer who is skilled at the synthesis of elegant solutions through the application of wide-ranging technologies.