I am only posting this for people that might stumble upon this thread. I know most of you are licensed so you understand these laws perfectly well:
All the drawings and calculations you do (at least in every state I am familiar with) need to have at the minimum a stamp on them. States differ somewhat, but say you make a preliminary drawing for review, strictly following the rules means you add your stamp, but it would not need to be signed and dated. And really this is a good thing for us licensed engineers, the more a stamp becomes the standard for every design and drawing the better it is to have a license. It effectively raises the bar on engineering work and mostly I agree with it.
However, all record drawings would need a stamp and signature/date.
BUT, if you did not do the design work on a drawing you do not need to stamp it, in fact most states have laws that specifically forbid you to stamp any work that isn't your own. So if you refuse to stamp something you did not do, I can't see the State Board trying to take away your license.
I have never seen anywhere in the statues that requires you to stamp drawings that you worked on (just because I work on a drawing does not mean im ready to stamp it when a project manager says so, I may need time which = a huge fatty raise before the drawings can go forward or someone else can stamp them), I worked on all kinds of drawings as an EIT and obvously I never stamped them. Also the need for more stamping is only good if the stamping engineers are in very short supply and are getting HUGE fatty near 200k wages for it, otherwise its just a liability you are taking on for free so your company can rake it in.
I have never heard of someone loosing there licence for NOT stamping something, I have heard of people loosing there licence FOR stamping something that was unsafe/incorrect/etc. The stamp is there to protect public safety so no stamp no construction no public saftey at risk but more important its leverage over your employer (as long as stamping engineers are more rigourusly required by states AND in short supply).
I would like to hear more about people loosing there licence for NOT stamping something irregardless if they worked on it or not. I will also contact my state board becuase thats a pretty heavy statement.
I mostly disagree, rppearso.
Most state boards are taking the following stance: All engineering drawings need a stamp even preliminary ones. Just like 20 years ago in many states you could have a company providing Engineering services but were not required to have a Licensed Engineer on staff, they changed that in most every state to my knowledge. It is becoming the same with stamped drawings.
There are drawings I have stamped, where I did not do 100% of the design -as I did my part then the EE did his and so therefore we BOTH stamp. I was basically stamping the mechanical portion and him the controls stuff. We do agree however that if you don't design it you don't stamp it. People do this, but it seems epically shortsighted.
And finally if I was your boss, and you tried to weasel a raise out of me before you would stamp a set of drawings (which you designed) I would give your precious money then can you a week later.
