11 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

Thanks John.    My only challenge now is how to get my university to pay me for the design and build time.  Once delivered the librarian ask for an invoice.   I made one up and gave it to her.   A few days later I received an email from the college accountant stating they couldn't pay the invoice because I worked there.   I think I'll wait a few years until I retire from there and send them a new invoice.  The money should be more useful then anyway, and compound interest will have inflated the price.       

Well I could invoice them and hire you as a sub contractor! 

Looks like they are going to add the invoice amount to a summer paycheck for CNC work I did for another class last summer.  I received a form to digitally sign that my Dept. Head is also supposed to sign.   I got an email from him stating he was stupefied over the issue as he had assumed me designing, sourcing materials, building, finishing, then delivering the stand was a generous donation on my part.   He makes $50k more per year than they pay me.  I may have donated it if they paid me what he makes I guess.  He wants some proof that both parties agreed that the work would be paid for before it started.  Here's where a purchase order would have been handy to have, but in the last 40 years work I've done for the place that I work at has never used/needed one and I've always been paid for it.    I referred him to the librarian who specifically asked me to provide an invoice for the job when I delivered it.  She had budgeted for the project and never thought it would be free or a donation.  I haven't heard back from him yet,  although I may not on this topic if he signs the form and I get the money.  Time will tell. 

 

4D 

I hope it all comes out well for you. You deserve to be paid for that gorgeous piece of work.

Edited April 9, 20205 yr by Gene Howe

Thanks Gene.   I'll admit I have a strong urge to reply to my Dept. Head that if he's for donating then all he has to do is write me a personal check for the invoice amount and it will be entirely up to him whether he asks the college to reimburse him.    

Photo showing the book stand in the front window of the library special collections room.   On it is some original Frank Lloyd Wright work. Pardon the glare. 

 

4D

That is truly gorgeous 4D, and very deserving of payment.  At least the "next time" you will know that a purchase order up front will be part of the process.

 

Update on what the belly bar of the book stand design is made of.  Watching a Youtube video of Alex Steel, he used a piece of ironwood for a knife handle.  The dark initial color, and brighter yellow color revealed when sanded was exactly like the wood I used for that belly bar.   In the storeroom of our fab lab we have a "rare woods" section, with samples of woods long forgotten.   This piece was found there, and I initially thought it might be Imbuia.  I'm now certain it is ironwood.  

 

4D

The ongoing tale of a rogue department head: He insists that I donate the stand, and to force the issue has refuse to authorize college payment for it. 

I am on the verge of charging him with theft.   He has stolen my right to sell my design. 

There are three things we all can do with the things we design and build:  Keep the thing, sell the thing, or donate the thing. All options are intrinsically attached to the maker of the thing. This DH in trying to force a donation, and preventing a sale has stolen those two options from me.  What he does not yet realize is that he is effectively stopping the library from keeping the book stand. I haven't been paid for it, so keeping it is the only option he has left for me to choose.  He is interfering with/breaking a verbal contract between the librarian and myself, even after I've delivered my side of the contract agreement. He's insisting that the college can steal the book stand from me. 

 

I'll be bringing this up in our Zoom department meeting this Thursday.   I'm curious what the rest of the faculty in my department think about this.   

 

4D

Edited June 16, 20205 yr by 4DThinker

Sounds like he's got a severe case of optirectumitis . He's got his head so far up there that he's got a a really shi##y outlook. Good luck wth the Zoom conference.

Just walk in and take it telling them that it needs strength modification.  As is, it is a safety hazard.  When you get it to your shop, just take it home.  When the DH comes seeking follow up, tell him that the lumber yard took it back due to cost of materials.  

 

Boy, can I create stories.  As my grandma used to say, if you are going to tell one, tell a few more to prop it up.  

Ya know I always wanted to visit a college, meet a professor, maybe even a department head type person.  Not really a smart brainy kinda guy, but I have a very particular skillset.  People seem to listen when I offer a negotiable settlement.

 

Can I bring a friend?  We have many years of extensive experience in such matters.  

 

 

 

 

I don't know how strong verbal contracts are, and it is a shame that the librarian is caught in the middle.

Good luck with it 4D

Definitely keep us posted.  How many are in your online meeting?  Are any aware of the situation?

 

David

The thing the DH can't seem to realize is that contract or not, I designed and built a book stand. No one challenges that.  As I built it it is mine to keep, sell, or donate. Those three options are intrinsic to the stand itself, and when the DH stole the option of selling it from me, and usurped the option of donating it from me, he left me only the option to keep the book stand.   Me keeping the stand means the library isn't keeping it.  I'm left with moving it off campus to sell or donate or keep.  The DH I'm sure is assuming I'll concede my owner rights and the library will keep the stand.  He's fairly new to the job, and obviously unaware of my history in the college of many designs built and sold to the college. Many of my builds I also chose to donate.  I also build things that I keep for myself.   Never did a previous administration fail to understand that those choices were mine.  When they wanted the thing I made they paid me for it. 

 

4D   

There are 18ish faculty in my dept. The number fluctuates with enrollment.   90% typically show up to each meeting. I don't think anyone else yet knows of this situation. 

 

4D

Not sure how a mind was changed, but I just got an email from the college accountant that I'll be getting a paycheck for the gross amount of the invoice in a few weeks.   The DH does have a CNC, so perhaps he's been following this thread. 

 

Thank you all for the kind words and friendly retort.   Nice to have a little company when venturing down a rabbit hole.     

It's about time!

12 minutes ago, 4DThinker said:

The DH does have a CNC, so perhaps he's been following this thread. 

Or maybe he didn't want to meet us?  Sometimes our reputation precedes us.  

 

I think this is where most of my unhappiness in life comes from. There are the negatives that life drops on you, can not be helped, and one just deals with it. It is the unnecessary drama/problems/issues that people foist on others, that makes me want to stay in bed, and avoid society.

@Artie, you nailed it !