Very OT: Thank gawd its friday

Well
I admit I've had better days

Started off customer rejecting a bunch of parts back to us with angry phone calls included, seems the operator was rather less than careful when loading the fixture and loaded them wrong..since I built the fixture and the operator is long gone, (these parts were done in April) I get the blame, get a kicking off the boss and have to stop what I'm doing and rework them... I'm fine with this..if a little annoyed

Next, my apprentice (remember him) has to do a simple M10 drill and tap job in some urgent parts.... he sets it up and accidently makes the hole 1mm off center ,however, the inspector missed this when inspected so both my apprentice and me are angry at him because the apprentice has done 15 out of the 20 parts.....
Finally (you'll like this)
We send a very expensive box of parts off to heat treatment, each part costs $300 to make and there's 150 of them because the customer wants 150 in a hurry.
Heat treaters make a mess of treating them... then they decides to cut one of the parts up to test it for hardness and depth of hardness without telling us, leaving us 149 parts for a vital 150 part order

Boris

<<has a headache because hes being doing this all day

Ahh, heat treat hell. A bad heat treater can ruin a machine shop. Seems like everything you don't have complete control over means trouble.

Mud said:

Seems like everything you don't have complete control over means trouble.

Click to expand...

And people wonder why we micromanage and have o.c.d.

Boris said:

Well
I admit I've had better days

We send a very expensive box of parts off to heat treatment, each part costs $300 to make and there's 150 of them because the customer wants 150 in a hurry.
Heat treaters make a mess of treating them... then they decides to cut one of the parts up to test it for hardness and depth of hardness without telling us, leaving us 149 parts for a vital 150 part order

Boris

<<has a headache because hes being doing this all day

Click to expand...

They tell me that heat treating is an 8 to 10 year apprenticeship. Here in the southeast U.S, we are fortunate to have CCHT (Carolina Commercial Heat Treating) I have to say that they have yet to screw something of mine up. (he said as he looks around for a piece of wood to knock on... )

Come on. You could have had a day like this guy.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=n1Ogm1R5DgA&feature=related

Not sure about -yours-.....but local Heat (Beater) Treater has back of packing slips and invoices covered with fine print that basically explains they will:

1.Make your parts HOT at some point.

2.Something may happen to the hardness when they do that.

3. Other shiit may also happen, could be good, could be bad.

4. Whateverthehell happens, you can take it or leave it, but they ain't responsible for the outcome, OR for lost parts.

Pretty fail safe business seems like.......

dk

I have to say that they have yet to screw something of mine up.

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Then you are truly blessed with a great shop to deal with.

There's one here in Lancaster PA that was once a great shop, 3 owners ago, now is down to the point that they can only heat treat items that can be handled with a shovel(I'm not kidding - engine valves and such being dumped in the ovens with shovels) and are basically raw forgings with easy processing. Last job I gave them when they begged for another chance after they screwed up the previous last chance (that's me being a dumbass) was annealing some parts in a vacuum furnace. They destroyed the parts, and the fixture they were clamped in, in a VACUUM FURNACE! Once they lost 150 pieces of a 2000 piece order. He said "That's impossible! There was a hole in the basket, but we wired a screen over it. You must have miscounted." I once asked if they could process 9310, he said "of course we can" and dug a book out of his bottom desk drawer and looked through it to see how it was done. I walked away, but not soon enough...

We use Carolina Heat Treat also (local branch). They do excellent work.

Mud said:

Then you are truly blessed with a great shop to deal with.

There's one here in Lancaster PA that was once a great shop, 3 owners ago, now is down to the point that they can only heat treat items that can be handled with a shovel(I'm not kidding - engine valves and such being dumped in the ovens with shovels) and are basically raw forgings with easy processing. Last job I gave them when they begged for another chance after they screwed up the previous last chance (that's me being a dumbass) was annealing some parts in a vacuum furnace. They destroyed the parts, and the fixture they were clamped in, in a VACUUM FURNACE! Once they lost 150 pieces of a 2000 piece order. He said "That's impossible! There was a hole in the basket, but we wired a screen over it. You must have miscounted." I once asked if they could process 9310, he said "of course we can" and dug a book out of his bottom desk drawer and looked through it to see how it was done. I walked away, but not soon enough...

Click to expand...

9310??? heck I have heard of that stuff, high nickel case hardening alloy......only app I have seen for it was defense related.

It's used in severe duty gears fairly often.

Boris,
I ask you not to try to compare your Friday with mine. Let me give you a quick rundown of tomorrow's highlights. When I get there, it will get worse.

1-My employer is down to nothing. They want me to quit so they can screw me out of almost a years worth of money. I would stand in front of my Bridgeport, as the place burned to the ground; rather than walk away. Management is featherbedding while they dream up new ways to remove hourly employees.

2-Once there were 5000 employees where I worked. Monday morning, I will be the only man in my section. Perhaps there will be twenty people in a thousand acres of three story darkness. The lights are all off and the air handlers(heaters) are off in the production areas; here in the cold and snowy time. They refuse to buy batteries for my light. If you fall and get hurt; they will write you up and your butt is in real trouble. This is reality and they do it all the time.

3-I get to work twenty-two hours this week so they can screw me out of my holiday pay. Such reward for years of loyalty.

4-I have three Engineers that want several miracles performed before nine AM. None of them can draw a sketch or even articulate what they want done. I have to design, fabricate, and take the a$$ whipping when whatever doesn't meet some manager's expectations. I have reworked ten major items in the last week. The only thing worse than the Engineers are the managers and higher ups. Senior staff are busy across the continent soaking up the sun in California. They only come around to make jokes about firing us and play golf when the weather is warm enough.

5-I have shuttered a few places before. Our morale is something I have seen before. Twice I have seen fellow employees cull the herd of management. It is time to stop telling jokes and making light of our situation. The place smells like death. Imagine trying to talk some person off of a ledge, while you stand next to them.

6-Getting stock or even drill bits is next to impossible. Hand sharpening drill bits for a CNC machine is akin to Russian roulette. Half of the machines in my shop are dead from some problem. The other half of the equipment is ready to fly apart.

7-I can no longer have a television on, or listen to the radio for entertainment at work. The din of what passes for news and entertainment makes me want to break out the Maker's Mark and sit under an apple tree; as I am covered by snow. There are three, somewhat named, domestic car companys left and human sacrifices must be made to keep these baboons paid at four times what I make. I work in the last consumer electronics plant in this country. In a span of days it will be as dead as the glass industry, iron mill, scaffolding business, pharmaceuticals, electrical rebuilding, concrete forms, and a myriad of other occupations I rode to the ground. Every time we were told that we had to go because we were no longer making ENOUGH money. Never did we lose money.

Once upon a time I had a liberal fool, for a professor, demand a poem from me. My dean dropped me in this class because, "Engineers Mathematicians should be more well rounded". I was told if I could not give a poem on the first day of attendance, I would be failed. Since I had just gotten off of a ten hour night shift; my mind grasped the first few lines I could think of. After I uttered," The dying envy the living. The living envy the dead. We dead do not give a damn", it got real quiet. My dark glasses, chambray work shirt, double layer overalls, and metatarsal work boots sort of tagged me as a problem child. Two weeks later my professor of poetry offered me a B plus final grade if I would not return to class. The offer of a few hours of daily sleep, in my car, sounded really good. I wonder if something similar might get me laid off with the rest of my fellow employees. Waddya think?

Are you in jail?!?! If not why don't you find another job. If you're not the captian why would you go down with a sinking ship?