Fond Farewell

Last night we had Ryan's going away party at my boss's house. He is heading to North Carolina to work for Stabilus, a gas spring company. I was put in charge of pretty much everything, including the going away gift. So for the past 3 days, during work and after, I have been in the machine shop making his new paperweight. The final product is a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man, desk size. I used a 12V blower motor, and routed it through an exhaust brake, which is what he spent the majority of his time working on. The tube man is attached to a 1" hose fitting. The whole thing is mounted to a box, which houses the batteries and an on/off switch. The reason it took so long to make is due to all of the different pieces. It took a lot of time to set up for each procedure. Plus, there wasn't an edge finder to be found in the shop, so finding my zero meant eyeballing a small drill on the corner of every piece. FUNTASTIC. In all, it turned out well, and people got a kick out of it. I hope it brings him hours of fun on his new desk. As for the plaque, what else could I put, except "I am Cummins. You can depend on me." He will be missed.