I was thinking today about Busse Combat and a former employee of mine. He was an electrical engineer. This guy was one of those folks who was born to be an engineer. In his spare time he was a tinkerer and a builder - woodwork, metal fabrication, cars. He was meticulous about his designs and the materials used, both at work and in his hobbies.
The other engineers in the office had nicknamed him "Heavy Duty", and with good reason. Although he easily topped the 300 pound mark, that was just part of the reason for the name. His personal pickup truck was a one ton Chevy. When he put a fireplace in his home, none of the metal/glass fire screens available were sturdy enough for him, so he built his own. He got tired of his mailbox getting run over and vandalized on the curve where he lived, so he made his own out of eight inch cast iron pipe. He put a friction fit sliding wood back in it, so that cherry bombs would just blow the back out, and it could be easily reinserted. He mounted this thing on four 3" galvanized pipe legs and heavily cross braced them. He set it in about a yard of buried concrete. He occasionally would find a scratch where some poor soul had hit it with a baseball bat or something, and would spray a little more black paint on it. He ordered the folding metal parts and built his own sleeper sofa. An elepahant could have sat on it without it creaking. Everything he did was truly heavy duty.
He retired a few years ago, went into consulting work, and I lost track of him. I hope I run into him again some day, just to see the grin on his face when I show him a combat grade NO-E.
The other engineers in the office had nicknamed him "Heavy Duty", and with good reason. Although he easily topped the 300 pound mark, that was just part of the reason for the name. His personal pickup truck was a one ton Chevy. When he put a fireplace in his home, none of the metal/glass fire screens available were sturdy enough for him, so he built his own. He got tired of his mailbox getting run over and vandalized on the curve where he lived, so he made his own out of eight inch cast iron pipe. He put a friction fit sliding wood back in it, so that cherry bombs would just blow the back out, and it could be easily reinserted. He mounted this thing on four 3" galvanized pipe legs and heavily cross braced them. He set it in about a yard of buried concrete. He occasionally would find a scratch where some poor soul had hit it with a baseball bat or something, and would spray a little more black paint on it. He ordered the folding metal parts and built his own sleeper sofa. An elepahant could have sat on it without it creaking. Everything he did was truly heavy duty.
He retired a few years ago, went into consulting work, and I lost track of him. I hope I run into him again some day, just to see the grin on his face when I show him a combat grade NO-E.
