Sid Sandback

557 Balsam Ave.

Penticton, BC

V2A 7V4

Phone: 250.493.1051

Saturday, June 6, 2009

 

 

Detailed Autobiography:

 

I had acquired a hard work ethic early in life as my first job was working summers for my father’s logging company. I was thirteen years old and pulling a 65lb bull-hook, and setting chokers behind a D6 cat. Slowly, I graduated up to wheeled skidders and was able to enjoy the great outdoors while working in an intense and dangerous environment.

 

After Graduation of highschool, in 1979, I set out on a University Transfer program through the College of New Caledonia in Prince George. After successfully completing the first year a Bachelor of Arts program, I decided to take a year off and return to logging to save more money for school. Living away from home, tuition and living expenses were very hard to manage.

 

Logging full time from July 1981, through to September 1984, I became Senior Skidder Operator and obtained my Industrial First Aid Attendant class B ticket. My ‘year off school’ was slightly extended. I was also responsible for getting the crew to and from the work sites, driving and caring for a company “crummy”.  Operating a variety of machines including skidders - line and grapple - Cat D6, D7, I developed right-of-way, cut blocks and landing development.  Another task was the supervision of machine year-end removal and maintenance.

 

After four years of bouncing around in the bush, I again wished to pursue higher education and enrolled in the Mechanical Technology program which was offered by the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). The year I enrolled, this was a one year certification and I graduated in June of 1985. My hopes and aspirations were to design and build a better skidder where you might be able to perform maintenance on it without cutting all your wrenches in half to do it.

 

In 1985, recession hit and industry was slow. There were no jobs to be had and I had exhausted the job finding avenues. I was forced to return to logging to support myself, but I never gave up searching for a related position. In September of 1987, my resume was picked up by an engineering company in Prince George, BC who specialized in the wood industry, forestry and sawmilling design and engineering.

 

Woodpro Engineering of Prince George, BC started me out as a junior draftsman and I was able to prove my abilities and responsibilities. At that time, all drawings were still done by hand, board, vellum and pencil. After a few years, I began working on projects in a lead designer role and helped to introduce the new computer age into the drafting industry with the advent of a new program called AutoCAD. Myself, and another co-worker, were the only ones in the office who had any official training with AutoCAD and we were instrumental in structuring a new computerized method of drawing and design. Implementing company standards and practices with computers was one step towards a fully computerized design department. I was required to complete horsepower, shaft and power transmission calculations.

 

While working with Woodpro, I was ‘on-loan’ to another company, Linden Fabricating and Engineering in Prince George, BC. Linden had just acquired a log merchandizing project in Grande Prairie, Alberta and required a lead design draftsman to take on the delineation of the entire log handling system. The owner of Linden was so impressed with my abilities and work ethics, he was compelled to offer me a position with his company. I had a new family and young children at the time, and the increased salary was irresistible. After the successful completion of the Grande Prairie project, I was then turned onto the recent acquisition of the new machine from Sweden, the Linden Stepfeeder.

This was a log singulating device that was invented and patented in Sweden. The exclusive rights to build it in Canada was secured and I was responsible for changes in materials, to match our North American supply, design and fabrication drawings, material procurement, fabrication supervision, client correspondence and shipping arrangements. After various design improvements, we found that we could convert the hydraulic operations of the reciprocating stepfeeder into that of an electric motor design and converted the single acting mechanical action into that of a double acting design. I was in charge of all material design and fabrication. Another item which fell into my responsibilities was the Linden Quadrant Feeder, engineered by a respected mechanical engineer in Vancouver, BC. I was also responsible for the design fabrication drawings, material procurement and fabrication supervision of this machine.

 

Late in 1994, I began the quest to move my family to a more southern environment as my wife was from a southern British Columbia town. During my tenure at Woodpro and Linden, I was able to begin building a reputation for hard work and design abilities which attracted the attention of an Okanagan company in Penticton, British Columbia. Dynamic Fabrication and Machine approached me with an offer to move to Penticton and take on the role of Lead Project Manager and design department head. At Dynamic, I was able to expand my design and fabrication skills working with material handling programs such as FabTrol. A software program designed primarily for the steel industry. I was programmer and overseer of a Burny 2.5 Oxy-Acetylene CNC torch machine. I would design parts in the AutoCAD environment and then use MasterCAM to convert the vector drawings into a machine language to send to the torch table. In 1997, Dynamic Fabrication fell into hard times and I was asked to oversee the closure of their sister company located in Richmond, BC. This responsibility included the successful completion of the existing work in progress, close-out and end the operations for that branch. Together with a German Engineer, who was a close friend of the owner of Dynamic Fab, we were able to finish off all the work in progress and close the plant. Unfortunately for Dynamic Fab, it was too little, too late and the entire company went into receivership in November of 1997.

 

In 1998, I began my own service company and was immediately invited to take on the position of Project Manager for the design and construction of a new Thermal Oil plant located in Vanderhoof, BC for Nechako Lumber Ltd. Del Schnieder Hydraulics of Prince George, BC contracted me to look after the delineation of the project. This included all civil and plant layouts, foundations, structural and mechanical equipment. I also completed fabrication drawings, material procurement, oversaw equipment fabrication and shipments to site. I began site supervision and mechanical erection administrator. The successful completion and start-up of this plant was in 1999.

 

Between the years of 2000 through 2003, I held the position of Project Estimator and Project Manager at Specialty Machine Works in Penticton, BC. Specialty Machine is a steel fabricating shop specializing in the Sawmill and steel fabrication business. Here I was in charge of many projects that came through the shop from estimation, material procurement, fabrication supervision, quality control and finally shipping.

In November of 2002, I was contracted by International Bar Coders, Penticton BC, to delineate and fabricate various parts required for their PA-1000 Label Printer-Applicator. The PA-1000 printer-applicator machine is designed for use in lumber mills for the automatic printing and labeling of boards, lumber, panels, or other wood products at high speed. Product data such as width, thickness, length, moisture content, species and grade are input into the system. Utilizing a thermal print head, the PA-1000 prints labels from 1.25 inches to 5 inches in width containing bar codes, text or graphics. The labels are applied to the wood products while they move along the production line. Each label contains unique information identifying the specific piece. The machine interfaces with the mills existing programmable logic control system or an external computer.
I supplied drawings for all internal parts, spools, hardware and exterior casing for the PA-1000, also the printer applicator heads, covers and stands which had to be designed to withstand the harsh environments of a sawmill environment. After the drawing stages were completed and approved, I looked after the material procurement and product fabrication of all pieces.
Another product that I was to develop for IBC was the cordless Bluetooth handle for the handheld barcode reader. I designed and machined a handle which housed a battery, switch and a Bluetooth chip to allow the unit to be operated without the cumbersome data cable. The machining was performed using my own router table.  

In 2004, I was again approached by Del Schnieder Hydraulics, who had recently changed their name to Deltech Manufacturing, to become Project Manager for on their 105MBTU Wood Fired Thermal Oil System that was engineered and constructed for West Fraser Mills plant in Blueridge, Alberta. Again, on this plant I was involved in the design stages and when construction started, my contract switched to an onsite presence. I was Site Supervisor and Project Manager responsible for scheduling and workforce during plant construction. I was responsible for all phases of civil layout, concrete placement, mechanical procurement and erection. Successful start-up of this plant was in May of 2006.

In 2003-2004, the intrigue of CNC machine control was overwhelming and I found that I had to learn more about it. With the help of the internet, I was able to design and build my own CNC controlled router table which was capable of three dimensional milling. I constructed the machine from scrap steel parts, cheap bearings and good quality ball screw components in my basement. The motor control circuit boards I experimented with and fabricated my own design and etched them in my workshop, building them from scratch. This project was a personal challenge and it worked so well, that while showing a friend the operation, he wanted me to design and build a similar machine for him.

 

Okanagan Patterns, Kaleden, BC contracted me to design and build for them a 7 axis, three head CNC controlled drilling machine, specifically designed to meet their needs. They supply the front grill assemblies for Western White Star and Freightliner trucks. The extruded aluminum grill pieces are drilled in three places each and accuracy is paramount for each piece for alignment and quality control. Previous, they were drilled by jig and hand operated drill press which presented a high reject percentage. With this project, I constructed the bed and framework for the bridge out of high strength, waterjet cut aluminum pieces. I designed each piece to be interlocking, dovetail style, to add in strength and there was no aluminum welding involved. All mechanisims were of the ball screw design to eliminate backlash. The seven axis motor control cards were designed and built in my basement along with the entire motor control computers and hardware. The software is a shareware program that I was able to adapt and use to control the stepper motors. The spindle driver motors were purchased from small drill presses, but because of the stock rotation, I had to reverse the direction of the ¼ horsepower capacitor motors to suit a direct drive situation. The operation of this machine began in early 2007, and has performed every working day since. Their reject percentage has dropped to zero.

 

I have just recently completed a major project located in Fort McMurray, Alberta where I was Project Manager for Teaford Canada who were contracted to design and build a 35MBTU Wood Fired Thermal Oil Energy System for Northland Forest Products Ltd. I was involved extensively with the Thermal Oil Piping design and mechanical equipment design from early June 2006. My contract switched to an onsite presence when construction resumed in spring of 2007. Onsite, I was Project Overseer and Quality Control Examiner for the B31.3 Pressure Piping systems. I was acting liaison between the customer and the ABSA representatives. Successful start-up on this system was in November 2007.

 

Shortly after completing the Northlands project, in November 2007, I was able to attend a Pressure Piping Fabrication and Quality Control Seminar sponsored and designed by the Alberta Boilers Safety Authority. This ABSA short course covered ASME B31.3 fabrication, assembly and erection requirements, along with the inspection, examination and testing requirements. It included ASME B31.1 Power Piping and inspection requirements. We discussed WPS and Welder’s requirements and Quality concepts along with Quality Management Systems.

 

Recently, January 2008, through Allnorth Consultants of Prince George, BC, I was initiated to work on the design and proposal stages of four 10MW BioEnergy Steam plants which Pristine Power [PPX] would submit into the BCHydro BioEnergy call for power. These were 110,000 lb/hr 900/900 plants driving 10MW steam turbines for four different remote locations in British Columbia. These projects included site selection, site layout planning and plant delineation. Fuel infeed mechanical design conception and layouts. Process schematics and diagrams. Combustion and steam process mechanical interface and arrangements. These projects are yet to go ahead.

 

In September of 2008, also through Allnorth Consultants of Prince George, BC I was contracted to design and build a replacement pipeline for one of their clients, FMC of Canada Ltd. FMC was facing an ageing Hydrogen supply line and in need to replace 2200+ feet of 6” Skin Effect heat traced and insulated B31.3 process piping line. This project was completed in phases and parallel to the existing, in service, hydrogen line to minimize disruption of production during the construction. We faced many issues with winter construction and the fact that part of the pipeline was underground and across three foreign industrial properties including CN Rail spur lines. I was responsible for the design, procurement and construction of the line, hiring the workforce and onsite supervision during construction. This project had a successful tie-in and start-up in May 2009.

 

While working through the Allnorth Consultants projects, I was able to take a correspondence course through BCIT online and in the evenings for the 4th Class Power Engineering Certification. This was a full year of study and was successfully completed in March of 2009. The course at BCIT allowed me to challenge the government British Columbia Safety Authority exams for the 4th Class Power Engineering Certification. With my experience, education and examination, I have been certified as Power Engineer 4th class.