Metric threads on pm1236

I've never worked in the field. I got the Mech Engineering Technology education, while halfway through a Law Enforcement career, to make use of some employer tuition assistance programs.

I just use the education to perpetuate my hobbies. I occasionally make money designing and building one-off machines, molds, stuff like that for businesses on my own time.

Engineering Technology required math up to Diff-EQ, plenty of physics, but only a semester each of engineering mechanics, thermodynamics and mechanical design.

But it also added in a semester each of electricity and magnetism, electronics design, drafting, drafting with AutoCAD and Inventor, and cutting tool design.

Also, practical lab courses covering CNC programming, Turning and Milling, and Cutting Tool design. Honestly, it wasn't a chore at all. I enjoyed it, and had fun taking all the classes.
I did most of them online, but with proctored exams at the end of each semester from a local testing service. Except for the resident lab classes. Had to take vacation time for those.

It was fun, but I just did it out of boredom, since at the time I graduated, I was already 12 years into a career. That was 6 years ago.

Once I retire, I'll use that education and start some kind of business to keep myself from getting too bored in retirement
We have similar goals. Forgive me if that made it sound like engineering tech is less than engineering, but I was under the impression that it was a whole lot easier than a bachelors in engineering. From what you have shared it is no walk in the park either. Thanks for sharing that! I may switch to engineering tech. It sounds a lot more up my alley.

I didn’t graduate high school with any more math than pre algebra. I was one of those kids that thought it was easier to fail, rather then take a chance and end up being average, or worse. I wish I would not have done that, but I’m making up for it now. I won’t be able to take vacation off and am expected 50 plus hours at work for the foreseeable future, so I don’t know what to do. My math skills are getting better, but they are weak compared to most and not having the time to improve sucks. I don’t know wether to give up, or pay to retake if I fail a class.

Thanks for sharing that. It’s cool to talk to others that have achieved the goals I have.
 
I just use the education to perpetuate my hobbies. I occasionally make money designing and building one-off machines, molds, stuff like that for businesses on my own time.
Be careful about offering engineering services without a professional engineering license, the licensing boards in most states take that very seriously and it can get very expensive defending yourself and paying the fines if you lose. If you are building and selling the machines you design, you should be ok, but if you design it for someone else to build, then you could be violating the laws in your state and putting yourself at financial risk. All it takes is for someone who lost business to you to complain to the state board to get an investigation going.
 
Be careful about offering engineering services without a professional engineering license, the licensing boards in most states take that very seriously and it can get very expensive defending yourself and paying the fines if you lose. If you are building and selling the machines you design, you should be ok, but if you design it for someone else to build, then you could be violating the laws in your state and putting yourself at financial risk. All it takes is for someone who lost business to you to complain to the state board to get an investigation going.
Interesting? Can someone draft a waiver of liability, or is it still a licensing issue? Do all engineers have to be licensed in the state they work?
 
It's a safety thing. The state wants to make sure that certain things are designed by qualified engineers. For obvious reasons. Without that standard in place, just crossing a bridge or walking into a building could be a white knuckle event.

It's easy to stay on the right side of the law, just by reading the statutes. Unlike many sections of state code, these ones are easy to understand.
 
Interesting? Can someone draft a waiver of liability, or is it still a licensing issue? Do all engineers have to be licensed in the state they work?
The laws vary by state since the state you practice engineering licenses you, and you need a license for each state you practice engineering in, but generally you need to be a licensed engineer to offer engineering services to the public, even if you are not paid for it. Typically this is consulting engineering companies, designing a product for someone else would be considered consulting in my state. The consulting companies have unlicensed junior engineers doing engineering work under the supervision of a licensed engineer, the state only cares that someone licensed is doing or overseeing the work. There is an industrial exemption for companies building products to sell, so Boeing engineers for example don’t need to be licensed since they are designing jets under the company umbrella. You can’t use a waiver to get around it. If you get an engineering job at a company, you don’t need to worry about getting licensed, it only matters if you are offering services to the public.

It doesn’t look like the boards go out of their way to find unlicensed engineers to sue, so many people can get away with it for their entire career. The cases I have seen brought against someone is when a complaint was filed by someone who lost business to someone doing consulting without a license. There was a case in IL a number of years ago where a guy had been in business for many years and had a successful company, then got hit with a huge lawsuit once the board found out he was not licensed. There is also a recent case in Florida I think where a retired engineer did some engineering calculations for a neighbor to contest something the town was doing and ended up getting sued for practicing engineering without a license even though he was paid to do it, nor did he even have a business. By doing the calculations for someone else, it fell under the definition of offering engineering services, and since the government doesn’t like to loose, that is a good way to get the homeowners case tossed.
 
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