Yet Another Expense

"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

Is there any chance that you could earn some more money from anywhere?
I
once trimmed plastic components for a factory when I needed more money
once.

I did that once, too! I didn't work at home, though. I stood beside a
machine all day that injected molten plastic into a mold, let it cool
enough to harden, and then dropped into a bin where I would pull it out
to clip off the connecting pieces.

This was the worst job I ever had, before or since. To grab the newly
minted plastic piece, you had to time it just right. The doors on the
bin would open, and that was the moment to reach in and grab. They
would only stay open for a few seconds and then the doors would slam
shut again. If you didn't get the piece, you had to wait until the next
cycle and then grab the two pieces. However, I saw the results on several
people who had apparently been too slow in getting the piece out before
the doors shut - missing fingers.

It was about a million degrees in there, and the machine made it hotter.
You had to wear safety glasses in case of flying plastic shrapnel. Gloves
were necessary for handling the plastic, which might have been cool enough
to be solid, but were still too hot to hold in bare hands. I didn't have
decent ear coverings (to protect my hearing) so I stuck cotton in my
ears -
not much help, but better than nothing I guess. To say nothing of the
fumes
in that place - molten plastic? I'm sure they were breaking all kinds of
laws.

I lasted 4 days, but as you can see, they were very memorable. Some
people there looked like they'd been there for years. I don't know why
they stayed - even if they didn't have the skills for any other kind of
work, there were plenty of factories around and lots of available jobs,
which is what I got. The next place I worked at had much better conditions
and paid better, too.

--
Wow, that sounds worse than what I did, at least I did it at home. Boxes
and boxes of plastic components would arrive with little flanges to be
trimmed off with a Stanley knife. Some of them were easier than others.
There were thousands in each box. You phoned up the factory when you had
finished them and they brought you another lot..
It was very poorly paid (as all home work is) and a bit soul destroying (not
to say dangerous and bloody in my case) but it helped me towards a big
expense I had at the time.
I did it for about 3 months.
At least I didn't lose fingers, just had to have 4 or 5 stitches in the ball
of my thumb when the knife slipped.

Tweed