User:Mechalich
Background
Matt Gray was born on the gulf coast of Florida on the Day the Funk Died. A few years later, his family relocated to the suburbs of Orlando, where he resides to this day. A stable home environment allowed him to excel in school, up until the invention of the Nintendo Entertainment System.
His father was convinced computers were going to play a prevalent role in the workplace and insisted on the family owning a desktop PC. The Coleco Adam was the first in a line of family computers, ending with the Compaq Presario. From this point on, Matt would build himself custom PCs whenever the funds made themselves available.
While attending Oviedo High School, Matt took wood shop, electronics, and gas engine mechanics as electives. He preferred to spend his time playing video games, paintball, and an occasional tabletop game, to society's detriment.
Following High School, he briefly attended community college. He dropped out after the first semester feeling it was "too much like high school".
After a 3-month career in fast food, Matt retired to pursue his personal goals of world domination and the subjugation of all physical reality. These mystery years allowed him to direct his personal education, where he studied chemistry, hydroponics, robotics, rocketry, metal casting, scripting, and microbiology while dabbling in related disciplines.
Heeding the pleas of the puny mortals that begged he return to the fold of mediocrity, Matt attended a night class at Mid Florida Tech, which sparked an interest in machining. He enrolled in and completed the Manufacturing Technology program. During the final weeks of the program and briefly thereafter, he worked for Daniels Manufacturing Corporation making parts for crimping tools primarily used by the defense industry. The long commute and 60-hour workweek was not for him, and no career with that company was pursued.
With the earnings from his brief manufacturing career, Matt purchased a new computer and played a lot of Mount & Blade. Like, a lot.
After some time he deemed mankind worthy of his presence once more. Now imprisoned in the soap dungeon at the Cloak & Blaster, he toiled for a year to ensure the success of this most worthy gaming pub for geeks. It was during this time he was reunited with his friend Dan (Whopis) and was introduced to FamiLAB.
He now works seasonally as a scare actor at A Petrified Forest and mooches off his dad like an original gangster.
Contributions
Equipment:
CNC MicroMill[1]
Sherline Lathe[2]
Metal casting equipment
Knowledge:
Manual Machining
CNC Machining
CAD/CAM Software
Metal Casting
Current Focus
Moving tools and materials to FamiLAB in anticipation of having nowhere else to keep them in the near future.
Supporting FamiLAB's metal casting initiative.
Getting distracted.
Interests
Biology: Reprogramming bacteria to do useful stuff, regenerative medicine, building a neural interface for computers, farming
Chemistry: Water purification, deuterium production, acid and base syntheses, plastics, exotic materials
Nuclear Science: Radiation detectors, particle accelerators, neutron activation, elemental transmutation, power reactors
Industrial Science: Resource exploration, mining, plant design, waste heat utilization
Game Development: RPGs, Simulators, Strategy Games, Virtual Reality
Party Hard: Tabeltop games, sexy parties, booze, singing, dancing
