On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 21:58:27 -0500, "J."
wrote:

Geez, I'd sure like to know what you actually do for a living that you
have so much free time on your hands as to be able (apparently) to use
the boss' machinery to fashion your own sets of custom tools on the
boss' dime.

I program and run an Amada laser cutter at a job shop, and do all the
secondary ops (tap, mill, countersink, cd weld, etc.) as well as run a
brake press from time to time when the regular guy is absent. Because
there is not always secondary work to do, I occasionally find myself
with loads of free time while the machine is running and does not
require supervision. I've had the discussion with the boss, and they
gave me the green light to use any equipment in the shop and whatever
I bring in from home or can be scrounged from the scrap bin (excluding
copper and aluminum, which are worth considerable $$$) to fill my
downtime with.

Per the talk with the boss I had (before I made anything extra there,
of course) we agreed that it was a good *fringe benefit* based on
three things. Namely that a) I'm outproducing the first shift in my
area by a 2:1 margin and I continue to maintain that level of
production, b) I'm not costing the company money by damaging equipment
or using stock which is part of the untapped inventory, and c) the
theory that doing any metal work is job related- as most of my side
projects push the boundries of what we normally do, it is essentially
free practice and self-paced on the job "training" so that when the
oddball projects come up for a customer, I've got some ideas on how to
tackle them.

As I work for a small company, there isn't really that much pay
compared to the larger shops in the area- but the work is interesting,
the people who own the place are very decent to work with, and they
were willing to go along with the fringe benefit above. Nor is it
entirely limited to me- most employees enjoy the same freedom to make
product for personal use, provided it doesn't interfere with the
normal work, and they are in good graces with the powers that be. It
just happens that I hold one of the two positions that allows me the
free time do things like this on a semi-regular basis.