Clothing As Tools?

A while ago I wrote a blog about these gloves that are out there for mechanics such as MECHANIX brand work gloves. I know that a lot of guys think that these gloves are a waste of time. The company supplies us with suitable rubber-type work gloves for no charge. I have been using the MECHANIX gloves as well as other brands-one from Walmart and one from Big Time Products.

When I started this little test I figured it would be done in a month or so and I would prove that, as I suspected, the name brand work gloves were not worth the extra money. Well that was about six months ago and these damn gloves are still going strong! I have been taking them to work in turn and bringing them home to clean them up. The companies all claim that the gloves are washable but they do not advise putting them into the dryer. In my test I throw the gloves into the washer with my work clothes and then throw them right into the dryer.

I like the gloves! They are WAY better than the gloves supplied by work! The MECHANIX brand gloves are my favorite of the bunch but they do not edge the others by much. All grip better, fit better, and are more durable than the work supplied gloves. I  can see now why people use these things. If one pair would last me let's say 3 months of constant use then I would only require to purchase 4 pairs a year. Factor in Christmas and I'm only out of pocket 3 times a year. I think that for $20.00 these things are a good solid investment for a serious mechanic.

Another mechanic at the job got some work pants from BLAKADER. These pants are made from a tough denim material, think Dickies type pants only thicker. These pants are available in different styles. They have good deep pockets and best of all they incorporate a knee pad into the pant itself. For old guys like me with bad knees you know how important that is. The guy really likes them and I am thinking of investing in a pair to try them out.

I did buy some work pants from DULUTH TRADING CO. Duluth offers what they call the Firehose work pant. These pants have very deep pockets for carrying parts and tools, they have reinforced belt loops, and  they are made of the same material that covers firehoses. Duluth claims they are water, oil and blood resistant. I bought them because they "Dare you to wear 'em out". 

All this may sound like a big sales pitch by me but I recently figured out something. I have tools that make my job easier, I have a golf cart to carry all the special stuff I keep in it to make my job easier. The uniform supplied are good, adequate, but not really purpose built for the jobs we do. I figure if I'm going to do this job for another 20-25 years I should take it seriously and use any resource available to me to make that time productive, safe and most of all comfortable. I'm old now adequate is not really going to cut it anymore.

Clothing can be and should be considered tooling. We pay a lot of money to buy the best tools to complete our jobs. With the clothing out there being more and more useful for our trade as well as more durable than the company supplied alternative I think it is a worth while investment.

Stay tuned to find out if these Duluth work pants are worth it or not...

Ahh Yes The Old Relay Quandry!!!!

Those of you who work the Line know what the picture to the right is. For the rest of you, it is a picture of a bunch of relays that live behind the First Officers seat up in the Flight Deck on the 737. Out working the Line you may get calls like "the so and so light is on and it won't shut off" or "I switched power and the Master caution light won't turn on". All of these are real problems to our end users (Pilots) but often not "real" problems in a sense.

I will explain it like this, the 737 must have hundreds if not thousands of relays in it. For any one who does not know what a relay is an electrically operated switch. In other words electricity is supplied to the relay and a switch or contact is made to initiate the flow of electricity to operate a system. Relays are wonderful little and big things that allow the plane to turn on an or off systems very quickly and often times without Pilot or Mechanic actions. Relays must make or break systems thousands of times a flight.

As with any mechanical thing relays some times "hang up" as we say. When a relay hangs up it stays on or off when the power to the coil (the coil opens and or closes the switch) is off. As you can imagine when a relay hangs up it causes erroneous indications or effects on the Flight Deck.

More often than not you can reset a hung relay by simply switching power sources. In other words switch from Ground Power to APU Power and back again. The interruption of power can relax the relay and the system goes back to normal, you look like a hero! There are times, however when that will not work. The next step is not in the Maintenance Manual but it is a time proven technique. Take your flip-flop screwdriver and give the relay a little love tap. This is probably the most used technique out there. If the system or light goes back to normal you have figured it out! There are of course times when nothing but changing the relay will work but, take a look at the picture above and try to figure out which relay is giving you the problem. A look at a wiring diagram will tell you the relay to look for if you are lucky but often there are two, three, four or more relays in a system. Now is the time to take off your High Tech Mechanix Gloves and feel for the HOT relay. Relays that get stuck get hot, quickly!

Changing out the relay is easy enough when you are at the home base with Stores available. But my question is: What to do when you are down line on a road trip and have no relay, no stores, and the next part can not get to you for four or five hours? If the old love tap worked and there are no other problems how do you sign it off? Sure arrangements can be made to have the relay changed downline or at the RON if it is in a maintenance station but, how far should you take it? My personal feeling is if there are no other problems, if you can not get the issue to repeat again, if the plane is going one or at the most two legs and then to maintenance, if the Flight Crew is comfortable with it, than it can be signed off as "Reset system" or "System operates as normal".

What do you think? It's kind of a sticky one, huh?

High Tech Work Gloves

I was thinking about buying a pair of these Mechanix Gloves. I have been using the Tsunami Gloves that SWA supplies us at work and they are ok. I like that they are a lot more flexible than the older leather gloves that we have and they breathe a lot better. I have read some blogs, etc about these types of gloves and most people like them alot. Being oil resistant and better at protecting your hands than the surgical gloves are what attracts me to them. I have never bought a pair, however, and was wondering if any of you out there have used or use them. Let me know.