JOE MONTES

I got started in Drafting and Design as an Engineering Tech in the S.F. Bay Area in the late 70's. The engineering group needed a device for edge trimming conductive polymer heaters. It became part of my job to make up a drawing for the base which led to my teaching myself drafting. This was on the days of the board. I ran a Drafting Design Department for a while with three Draftspersons. Later the group split and I became the sole Designer/Draftsman. I started CAD with AutoCad's earliest public release on a 20 mhz Compaq. We've come a long ways since then. After moving to Texas in the mid 90's I went to work at Johnson Space Center setting up the equipment for a carbon fiber space craft component fabrication department. i worked mainly on the aeroshell components for the X-38 re-entry vehicle. The equipment included a 5 axis CNC with two 5' x 10' tables and a Lieca LTD500 3D laser scanner. I used these for making patterns to lay up tooling and parts. In the clean room we had a laser projector and robotic cutter for the carbon fiber cloth lay-ups. Later working for a drive systems company I learned Autodesk Inventor. I took a class in Solidworks in between jobs to broaden my horizons. I am now working with Inventor primarily.