Registered Professional Engineer?

How does moving the kilns into the ‘closet’ effect their vent issue?

I’ve been looking at becoming a P.E. in Texas. I understand that it requires sponsorship. How can one persuade another P.E. to sponsor them?

I don’t believe that is the case.
https://engineers.texas.gov/lic_app.htm

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Zach, you are sort of correct. You don’t need a sponsor, but you need qualified references. As part of your Reference Statement Form, form EB-15, you do need a Registered Professional Engineer to verify each portion of the engineering experience documented in your Supplementary Experience Record, form EB-13.

https://engineers.texas.gov/downloads.htm

Sorry but you’re going to have to find a registered PE who is familiar with the details of your work to sign off on those references.

If you’re a licensed PE in another state they have slightly different rules.

Chris

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You don’t really have to have someone account for all of your experience, but you need three PE references to account for at least some of your work experience and your character. At the time I applied, I did not know any in-state PEs (and still haven’t worked with any professionally), so mine were from TN and CA, even though I finished out my experience requirements here in TX. They don’t even have to be in your field. I’m an EE, and my references were EE (I think, he was the CEO of a company I worked at), an ME, and a Civil.

You pretty much just need people who can say “this is a competent fellow who won’t steal your wallet”. All of my references I had either worked with for some amount of time or had known for years, or some combination, so that wasn’t a problem.

But here’s the key that makes getting references a little easier if you haven’t worked with them your whole career. It appears on the Reference Statement form:

By checking that second one, your reference is saying they know you, and they have looked at your experience record (SER) to make sure that it meets the standards for a PE candidate, but didn’t necessarily see you do those things. Since I did not work with a PE in my last job (for five years!) I had to rely on that to make it work.

All this being said, I am not qualified to work on HVAC or power distributions systems (my specialization is circuit design) so this is purely in response to @zmetzing

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If it requires persuasion, there is probably an ethical reason to not do it.

I can explain the process in detail if you’re interested, I’ll be up at the space in a bit.

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Call Air Dynamic at 972-446-2000. They are a local commercial HVAC company. They do hospitals. Did Dallas Cowboy Stadium. They do serious “do it right the first time” work.

Tony Bello is the owner. One of the nicest most down to earth guys you will every meet. Call them and talk. They will tell you what needs to be done.

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Call Air Dynamic at 972-446-2000. They are a local commercial HVAC company. They do hospitals. Did Dallas Cowboy Stadium. They do serious “do it right the first time” work. Tony Bello is the owner. One of the nicest most down to earth guys you will every meet. Call them and talk. They will tell you what needs to be done.

Thanks, Win!

I will add them to my list of contacts for this sort of work.

JAG “Tech Maven in Motion” MAN

They seem to be a contractor, not Engineers.

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The group asked for personal contacts that might be helpful. This was mine.

This exhaust/vent system needs to be designed correctly, otherwise the place becomes a true fire hazard.

My big concern … Look up the Makerspace insurance. Often repairs and systems that are done by non-licensed people nullify the insurance. Sometimes there are things that I know how to do, but due to insurance issues, I have to get a licensed person do the install.

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Ok, so I’m trying to find out what the city exactly wants. There are already systems out there that are designed to do the job. We need to find out from them what code book they conform to, if it’s the Uniform mechanical code or international mechanical code as well as what year book. I work in the HVAC industry & am looking into this to resolve this with little cost as possible. I would rather see the funds go to other projects. This is Makerspace, I’m willing to do what I can & pull favors to help get this done. Secondly here is an example of a system that is already designed to do that job. Granted we would need to tie it in with say the start stop of the torch & possibly adding a motorized or barometric dampers into the metal shop to allow the fume extraction. I am going to follow up some of my leads to see what I can come up with.

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Is there supposed to be an attachment?

Whoops, thought I put a link in there.
http://www.ventafume.com/content/pages/place-a-vent

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For reference:
http://cityofcarrollton.com/index.aspx?page=185

I Codes and NEC. Ventilation is mandated by NFPA, and, depending on one’s opinion of applicability, OSHA.

From OSHA:

Basic requirement. You must record on the OSHA 300 Log the recordable injuries and illnesses of all employees on your payroll, whether they are labor, executive, hourly, salary, part-time, seasonal, or migrant workers. You also must record the recordable injuries and illnesses that occur to employees who are not on your payroll if you supervise these employees on a day-to-day basis. If your business is organized as a sole proprietorship or partnership, the owner or partners are not considered employees for recordkeeping purposes.

The board recently approved 2 employees supervised by DMS, therefore, OSHA rules apply the minute the first one crosses the threshhold. Doesnt matter if they are contract employees or not. Any covered employee may request an OSHA inspection at any time, triggering the enforcement of their rules (which are voluminous and expensive). I’m guessing our insurance underwriter will have something to say about it as well.

My old daddy always used to tell me, that the more money you make, the more people line up to take it away from you.

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Except for that pesky number of employees rule.
https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=standards&p_id=9632

@jast,

That regulation you cited is an exemption from reporting requirements, which are extensive, however, it isn’t an exemption from the rules and regulations established by OSHA.

well, technically, it exempts employers of fewer than 10 or of “low risk” businesses from reporting requirements in addition to “programmed inspections”.
In short, employers of fewer than 10 full time employees are not required to be “OSHA compliant”, though some aspects of the act may still apply.

Of course, it’s been 20 years since I worked for businesses this small, and the fed is constantly chipping away at the little guys’ liberties, so the portions of OSHA which now apply may be greater than I remember, but that document in and of itself reduces the power of OSHA as quoted by Tapper as it applies to DMS when the first employee “crosses the threshold”.

And heaven help me, here’s the only source I can find lays some of this out.

Not that I count HuffPost as “reliable”, but they usually are not in favor of helping anyone sidestep the fed.
The OSHA website is pretty good at making this stuff hard to find.
Their FAQ’s almost exclusively deal with hepatitis. Seriously? Are THAT MANY PEOPLE asking questions about hepatitis?

I believe you are incorrect that it exempts <10 employee employers from being OSHA compliant. It means they don’t have to worry about paperwork or routine inspections. But if an employee complains, or there is an injury, I believe even a single employee employer can be held to OSHA regs.

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The last I knew, that was incorrect, but I am currently unable to prove my contention through documentation.
Believe me, when I worked for an employer who insisted he was OSHA exempt, I made him prove it. And he and his lawyer did. I no longer have that paperwork or reference material as, again, it’s been over 20 years. I do still work WITH some folks who continue to make the less than 10 claim, though, so maybe they can point me to documentation. Ultimately, though, regardless of what I can find, or anyone else, DMS should have their own lawyer or representative to determine what rules, precisely, they are subjugating themselves to by hiring.

At the end of the day, though, I’m not sure even OSHA applies to the matter at hand since any employee will almost certainly NOT be required to stand over a working welder in the Metal shop for any number of minutes each day…