Machining confession thread.

[garyhlucas]

I wrote a program, by hand to cut a large aluminum vacuum mold and the operator was testing it in air over the part. Boss come over and and is chewing me out for wsting time running it in air. So we lower the Z and start cutting. Right in the middle of the pocket the Z goes straight down because there is a negative Z value. To this day I don't know where the minus sign came from. Boss heard the noise and came running over. "What the hell was that!" I calmly said "I made a mistake, we are going to need another piece of aluminum" His jaw falls open and no words came out! He just turned and walked away. Everyone crouds around and one guy says "Wow, no one ever admitted a mistake like that before! Usually he stands there screaming at you for 15 minutes."

 

[jackal]

Oh damn, that's a helluva idea ! Now I feel double dumb I didn't think of it

btw, zahn will appreciate this - it was 2 dp ....

I had a boss one time that would get madder than hell when I made comments like that.
The other guys said the humor helped the situation.

 

[???]

I worked for a guy that could be a real prick. I pitched an electrode by .5mm on the wrong side of the centreline. I fixed it in my own time but he still had to slip in a comment, we all make mistakes some just make more than others. I thought I would teach him a lesson. I went for an interview but didn't want the job which was paying way more than what I was currently getting paid so I told my fellow toolmaker about it and he resigned. I got another job offer from someone else. I asked the boss if I needed to work on the weekend he said no there's not much work on. I said I needed to finish the job and when he asked why I said I am handing in my weeks notice. It was quite funny to see his reaction, he sort of staggered around like someone had punched him and muttered something about needing to discuss it with his brother and wobbled off to his brothers office. Came back and offered me an increase from 28 to 50 an hour to stay.

 

[Thunderjet]

Came back and offered me an increase from 28 to 50 an hour to stay.

28 to 50 WHAT?
Dollars, Rubles, Pounds Sterling?

 

[projectnut]

There was just a blurb on the news about companies hiring new and inexperienced help at a higher rate than they were paying those with 10 years of experience and expecting the current employees to train the new hires. Needless to say, it isn't popular with the long-standing employees. Many are quitting and reapplying asking more per hour than they are offering the inexperienced new hires.

Can't say as I blame the current employees. For years they've been told the companies can't afford to pay them more, then turn around and pay a premium for new help. Doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[eKretz]

28 to 50 WHAT?
Dollars, Rubles, Pounds Sterling?

Krugerrand, duh...

 

[ratbldr427]

I.m confessing for someone else. Honest, I was on the recieving end (seems like I get a lot of fixing someone elses f/ups). Know it all machinist was tasked with making a new shaft approx 7' long x 3" dia. Simple, both ends have a bearing journal and one has a stepped down keyed journal for a sprocket. Noticed he was spending a lot of time turning down between bearing journals, not necessary as there was plenty of clearance. Should have just ordered smaller stock,oh well.
Friday supervisor comes and and asks if I would come in Saturday and install the shaft since Know it all was going on vacation. Really should be a 2 man job but I agreed and checked to see if he had the sprocket and bearings,what could go wrong?

Saturday noon I had the old shaft out and went to install one of the bearings. WTF? where the bearing journals were he had turned the shaft to the OD of the bearings! So that is why he turned the shaft between them!

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

28 to 50 WHAT?
Dollars, Rubles, Pounds Sterling?

Magic beans ?

Regards Tyrone

 

[Thunderjet]

Ok, I'll go again.

This was a regrettable blow up on my part. Not proud of it, but I'll not apologize either.

I spent 19 1/2 years building brand new dies for a large electrical service manufacturer.

Big dies with Knock outs and folds, hems and the like. Not much development. Cookie cutter stuff mostly.

Built a fairly large die, needed around 400 tons to operate properly. All of these dies ran either galvanized steel or Aluminum.

One day, the die comes back for service, and it is destroyed. Every station, every corner, every punch is a replacement candidate.

I start doing CSI dieshop on this thing and ALL of the slugs are gone. except for one little pierce hole. it has slugs that aren't magnetic. (which is what I suspected in the first place.)

They had force fed this poor die stainless steel, and it torn itself apart. (That's what a 600 ton Minster will do.)

The VP in charge of manufacturing comes down to get an idea of a timeframe and I go off on him and show him the evidence.

He sheepishly admits that he was the one who told the pressroom to run S.S. thru it but they were only supposed to run 10 pieces, not 1000.

He was a very good man, so I told him it was just an unfortunate accident. But I was still angry.

Fixed the die and painted in big letters on the front......NO STAINLESS STEEL!

 

[David_M]

I worked at the Savannah Machine and Shipyard in the '70s. The shipyard wasn't that large, so significant repairs took a lot of work. There was a ship in to get a new propeller shaft. We had a huge Niles Lathe for doing that type of work. One of the older machinists began making the shaft. The front office wouldn't give him a break about the time it was taking. So, after being asked one time too many, he told them to take it. Putting the new shaft in is no small feat. It takes lots of outside machinists and almost countless chain falls to install.

After getting it in far enough to see Mr. ********* hadn't finished it, and after taking it back out and re-delivering it to the machine shop, the machinist completed the job undisturbed.

 

[???]

28 to 50 WHAT?
Dollars, Rubles, Pounds Sterling?

Rand.

 

[???]

Ok, I'll go again.

This was a regrettable blow up on my part. Not proud of it, but I'll not apologize either.

I spent 19 1/2 years building brand new dies for a large electrical service manufacturer.

Big dies with Knock outs and folds, hems and the like. Not much development. Cookie cutter stuff mostly.

Built a fairly large die, needed around 400 tons to operate properly. All of these dies ran either galvanized steel or Aluminum.

One day, the die comes back for service, and it is destroyed. Every station, every corner, every punch is a replacement candidate.

I start doing CSI dieshop on this thing and ALL of the slugs are gone. except for one little pierce hole. it has slugs that aren't magnetic. (which is what I suspected in the first place.)

They had force fed this poor die stainless steel, and it torn itself apart. (That's what a 600 ton Minster will do.)

The VP in charge of manufacturing comes down to get an idea of a timeframe and I go off on him and show him the evidence.

He sheepishly admits that he was the one who told the pressroom to run S.S. thru it but they were only supposed to run 10 pieces, not 1000.

He was a very good man, so I told him it was just an unfortunate accident. But I was still angry.

Fixed the die and painted in big letters on the front......NO STAINLESS STEEL!

Someone decided it would be a good idea to build some stainless steel Renault 5's for a motor show in South Africa using the production dies. Very expensive mistake.

 

[???]

Bastards I knew they hid the balls from the spindle bearing on the VMC I set on fire in my toolbox. Looking for a HSS parting blade for a job and guess what I find

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I used to have a couple of 1.25” dia half ball bearings in my toolbox. They’d been torn in half inside the race ! Don’t ask me how. I kept them for years but I must have thrown them out.

Regards Tyrone

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

I remember the spindle rebuild department at DNS had kept a set of bearings from a (very) abused spindle that were a beautiful shade of blue.

 

[rjwalker1973]

Another Kyocera story. The Haas TL3's we done the green machining on would get the ceramic dust up into the bearings on the slide. So about ever month or so we would blow out a bearing. Got pretty good at changing them, but the problem was we could not buy just one bearing. We had to buy 2. Couldn't just buy 2 bearings had to buy the rail as well. Guess what couldn't just buy 1 rail. You see where this is going. I got pissed and grabbed a good but used bearing and tore it down and cleaned it good. Measured the nylon endcap, which is what always failed, and wrote a program on the mill to make new ones. This way I could just rebuild the old bearings without having to deal with Haas. Fast forward about a year and our local HFO tech got tired of being on the road and wanted to be home with his wife and young son. So, he came to work for us in the maintenance department. He came down the isle and saw me making the nylon endcaps and started laughing at me at the same time saying" you sum bitch". He actually told me I was not the first person he saw do that .

 

[rjwalker1973]

I cannot grind a drill by hand. I can kiss each flute on a wheel once or twice to freshen up the edge, but any more than that and she's done; you're gonna need to grab a new one.

Also, I have no idea how a lathe taper attachment functions.

Me neither. Some of the older guys I worked with could, but not me. I also can't draw a straight line without a ruler lol

 

[strokersix]

More important, you learned about cutting metal. It seems like a lot of people who started with "cnc" never learn the basics.

I think the same can be said about those who don't have experience grinding their own cutters and are therefore stuck with changing inserts without any real understanding of force vectors, friction, angles, chip formation, etc.

 

[???]

Krugerrand, duh...

I wish

 

[TeachMePlease]

I still have on my desk a .129"Ø TF20 Collet with about 2 inches of .129"Ø stainless steel welded inside of it.
That's what happens when your main spindle is spinning 5K RPM and your sub spindle is stopped, and you clamp the sub spindle.
It's a good reminder to remove head from ass when writing/proving programs.