Woman in the Trades Men Have the Majority In

It is me, Hilary. AKA holdilocks. I am a 4 axis master machinist, and I run a well known company's machine shop all alone. Prior to this job, I have worked in a lot of job shops, got into a major aerospace company that I stayed at for 14 years. I loved it there, was well respected and had seniority there. Over and over my husband at that time would call to tell me he would be late for getting home because of traffic on I75. He was always tired, telling me he just had to work 12+ hour days to get his work done. The only times I could communicate with him was during my 15 minute breaks at 6:00 pm. It was always when I was forced to review and make sure final assemblies were ready to at the last minute ship, very stressful. I felt bad for him not being able to get out of traffic and his long commute that I thought was the reason he was so tired, so I told him I would quit my job to get him closer to his work. He told me he was getting a promotion to General Manager anyways, so I would not have to work so hard.

Yeah right. He had me quit, help him move and buy the house he wanted where he wanted. I got a job at non climate controlled machine shop which was ran like a prison, working around scary people from different gangs. They were all harmless, but it was not nice, dirty hard work. Got a job for a Naval machine shop, found out my CNC Lathe was directly under a large steam pipe, was a bit nervous about that so when the offer cam to work where I am working now I took it in a heartbeat.

Right after I took this job, his mother was hospitalized for a broken hip, she was dying of diabetes also. His whole family came over, I cleaned and waited on them hand and foot. It was 7 guests. He hung out with them without me and refused to even talk to me. Even after his mother died and they left, he still would not talk to me.

He bought cruise ship tickets for him and his step mother and dad. I couldn't have time off from work and he knew that. He almost got fired at that time for pushing a pregnant woman coworker that was annoying him. So I could not risk loosing my job.

I didn't like how he was giving me the cold shoulder after 23 years we had a great marriage, I thought. So I decided to but a cheaper house near my work, especially in case if he did lose his job. I was hoping to see him on the weekends, the way it always was anyways. Mistakenly I thought my absence would make his heart grow fonder. Right after closing on my house, he went on yet another week long cruise. He even bought his mother an expensive tombstone and paid the full funeral cost up front.
I could not figure out why he was blowing money like this.

A week later I get my divorce papers. He even locked me out of our house so I could not get any of my belongings. I had to get a lawyer, picked one that quit her firm, got another lousy lawyer that refused to do her job.

Divorce gets granted I got squat, he gives the home over to his mistress immediately afterward. It hit me like a ton of bricks that he was spending money to reduce how much he would have to split.

Now that I have a whole machine shop to myself, on break times I get to tinker on some of my own ideas.
I am always needing to make my own work holding fixtures, in a predominantly sheet metal fabrication shop it is hard to find suitable stock to design things like that. I end up having to settle making things from leftover flat bar or tubing that they normally order.
Here is a set of vices I had to make for large orders of long parts, using only flat bar stock.

It just wet my appetite for becoming my own product developer. Now I own my own 3D printer and just love designing things.
I started my own business, Brain Fart Productions, LLC, I have the patent pending on my hair devise and working on many more projects.