Troy Boiler Works Inc

The dailey dose....

A little humor to lighten things up. Gary Larson is the best!

Jack Dundon (AKA the "Crocodile"), a long-time employee of Troy Boiler Works (39 years), passed away at his home last Sunday. Jack was beloved by family and friends, and would give you the shirt off his back if you asked or if he felt you were in need. He loved to have a good time at work and for others to enjoy themselves while getting the work done. This made working on his crew more enjoyable, especially considering the hours worked at times. Jack considered Troy Boile...r to be part of his family, and we returned that feeling as well. His family, especially his wife Helen, extended a great degree of care for Jack these last couple of years. We would like to extend our sympathies to them and Jack's other friends including retired/ex-employees who maintained contact with Jack. https://www.mcnultyfuneralhomegreenisland.com//john-dundon

Here is a picture of Ron Baisley, Marty Mullins, and Dave Santos at yodeling camp near Lake Murten in Switzerland during more care-free times

This may seem like a small thing, but it can provide some small comfort in the daily life of health care workers who have to wear their PPE (i.e. face masks) for hours at a time. This small, little device, though relatively low-tech, can make wearing their N95's and other face masks more comfortable and provide a better fit. If you know a health care worker who may be interested in these "Earsavers", please point them towards this post and the following website: www.glowfor...ge.com Users of the Glowforge 3d laser printer, of whom I am one, are volunteering to provide and distribute these devices, free of charge. The process is simple to get them. Just go to www.glowforge.com, click "get them free" at the top of the page, enter a little contact info and the request will be funneled to the user volunteers. A very special thanks to Dan Shapiro and the other folks at Glowforge for putting this program together and empowering its users to help. See more

I wanted to share something because it is real, it is heart-breaking, it deserves to be told and it involves one of our employees. Last night, an employee was face-timing with his daughter and 2 other nurses who work at a hospital in New York City. The daughter was very shaken, and was commiserating with the other nurses and her father about the fact that she had to deny ventilators to 2 elderly COVID patients because there were none to be had for them. It was a decision th...at anyone but the coldest heart would have a hard time with, but for someone who trained with conviction to help people, and then to be forced to deny providing that help, it had to be like pouring salt on the open wound of your soul. The father was in tears right along with his daughter and the other nurses. I pray that these shortages end that force such decisions, and that we never stop crying when we see this. Some wounds should never close. The danger is seeing this as acceptable. Please stay strong and support those who need it most. See more

We put together sanitary kits for our field foremen and their crews at their request. The kit contains: Disinfectant Spray Sanitary wipes Non-sanitary cleaning wipes Rubber gloves... Antiseptic hand-gel Antiseptic soap It was a very good idea. Unfortunately, one of the reasons to implement providing these packages is this-In 2 days, on 2 different jobs, our customers implemented social distancing procedures that protected their people, but actually put our people at greater risk. In one case porto-johns were provided, but no provisions were provided to sanitize them. We were denied the use of the bathrooms that we would ordinarily use, so there was no soap or running water. There was a decent number of contractors using the porto-johns. The situation was not fully explained to us before our guys went to the sites. The devil is in the detail. I get that you are trying to protect the people on the work site, but it should not be done at the increased risk to the contractors who are providing a valuable/necessary service. Attitudes typically come from the top down. The attitude our employees received made them feel like pariahs. These things need to be thought out a little further to protect everyone. We have customers who have, in my opinion, a more thought out and better philosophy. One, Momentive Performance Materials, listens, considers and acts on a bigger picture. We appreciate them and customers like them, and hope that all of our customers realize that we are all in this together. P.S> Thanks to the individual who was key in providing most of the sanitary goods we were able to provide our employees. She knows who she is

During these trying times, it is important to focus on what is important. These are things that our parents, and/or our parent's parents knew well because there was "less" to be had then. The things that sustain people; good health, family and friends are there, and may have been in the back ground as we went through our busy days. The general slowing down of things now gives us more of a chance to appreciate the things that have supported us and nurtured us. I intend to approach each of these with even more gratitude, to be more positive and more supportive. An extra smile, a look in the eyes, a little extra patience and thought in a response. I think these are things we can use more of now.....

We are in unprecedented times and are living through history. I would apologize for the fact that we had lay off our entire hourly work-force, and reduce our office personnel to bare maintenance tasks to "keep the lights on". The truth is the current situation, as hurtful as it is, is not our fault, it is not your fault, it is not the people in local, State and Federal government's fault. We are sorry for the pain and inconvenience that you, our workers, our backbone, and ...your families have to go through. In the history of our company, we have never been closed for more than 2 days. That was in April of 1991, when Ed Okonski (father to Jack,and grandfather to John, Lou and Rich) the founder of our business, was buried. It is with heart-brake and tears that we close for the predicted 4 weeks to comply with the Governor's mandate. We recognize that this "medicine", as horrible as it tastes, is likely the best solution to get the current crisis behind us. A MESSAGE TO OUR CUSTOMERS: We have always been here for you and we are here for you now. Our company is committed to servicing you as we always have been, whatever it takes. If you have an emergency, or other essential work, CALL, we will get you back on line. We are 24/7, 360 days/year. If you need us, this has not changed. A MESSAGE TO OUR EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES: Stay strong, stay healthy. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. We'll get through this. Let us know if need anything. P.S.:Keep your phone close by. We have customers to take care of! God Bless Rich, Lou & Jack

We would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you are surrounded by loved ones, delicious food and a chance to enjoy them both. We would also like to post a public service announcement. Most injuries, aside from exploding turkeys in deep fryers, occur when people play games after dinner. The picture below is a classic example. "Jenga's harmless!" You may say. But if I repeat the following untrue fact enough, that only the NFL and cast iron pan wielding wives cause more concussions than Jenga, you may actually believe it. So exercise care and stretch out before you exercise care so you do not pull anything. Remember and be grateful for the little things. Show that with patience and kindness and, barring exploding turkeys, you will have great Thanksgiving,

I am still catching up with the impressive accomplishments of our employees after a period of not posting too often. I guess I'll never catch up in that regard. My apologies for this overdue recognition. In October we took on a job with All-Lifts. They were both a customer and a partner. The job was to make shipping skids for turbines for an emergency shipment. The deadline was outrageous, and so were the potential liabilities. Designs for each of the custom skids came in... one at a time so material breakdowns and design checks performed by our chairman (and my father), Jack Okonski could only proceed so fast. That did not change the deadline however. What is the definition of stress? Maybe the refusal to accept what cannot be changed? There was a whole lot of that sh** going on. You know what? We won, and stress lost the war(not that it did not win some battles)! People shifted schedules, worked amazing amounts of overtime (24/7 for a good stretch of time), laid down some great welds, shifted working on one aspect of the job to work on another when vendors had material issues. Everyone just put their head down and worked their way through it. The person running the crews, Burnett (Popsie) Goodrich, took ownership of the job on the floor and did a wonderful job keeping work in front of everyone, optimizing everyone's time and helping ensure things were right. A special call out to him and the other employees below. If I missed you working on this project, let me know. I'll add you: Popsie Jason Phillips Dylan Okonski Joe Clark Zech LaPlante Darren Bianco Mike Kuehn Steve Cole Connor Cusson Pat Powers Darren Quirion Joe Ramundo Anatoliy Vovna Ed Williams ALL-Lifts was a great partner in this job. They had their stresses and surprises, every bit as challenging as ours. We thank them for their confidence in hiring us to work with them on this project, and stand by them to support them any way we can after a serious fire they had at their facility this last Sunday. *Note: the pictures posted below are of the skids in use within a week of completion in South Carolina. Deliveries were that critical. That facility is way too neat and clean to be a working fabricating shop!

We were contracted by Momentive Performance Materials to fabricate a pressure vessel on an expedited basis. Design calculations were confirmed, materials ordered and material was fit and welded. The only things that were close to formed when we received them were the two heads at either end of the vessel. Shells had to be cut/beveled/rolled/tacked and then welded. Holes were carefully laid out and cut to allow for nozzles to be put in and welded. After assembly, the vessel was painted inside and out per spec, A special call out to Pete Sanderson who had his hand on most aspects of this tank, from soup to nuts. At 12 ft diameter, 22,500 gallons and 38,000#'s, that's a lot of soup or nuts! Painting was done by Sage Brothers of Troy