Nicknames for Machines in the Shop

[Pazuzu71]

I pretty much call every machine in our shop, a PIECE OF S##T.

 

[Richard Rogers]

Doug wrote:

Drove me crazy, for this reason and a bunch of others we parted company in a short time.

Yeah. We had one helper like that earlier this year. Went through the shop singing washed up country stuff. I mean like the stuff you'd hear at a truckstop jukebox in the 70's. I'd holler for him to shut up so I could use the phone. I am SO glad he's gone! He was a drug burnout, and I really didn't know it until he'd been here a bit. He drove me nuts. It got to the point of me or him one had to go.

 

[ggordon]

We had a 60 ton Verson press brake in the last shop I worked in that we called "The Widowmaker". It didn't kill anybody but one of the guys smashed the end of his thumb off bright and early one morning.

A trip to the emergency room for stitches and a shot of morphine later and he was good to go. He was lucky he didn't lose his thumb.

 

[KilrB]

Yes, I know it's an old thread, just happened across it.

There must be something about those old Versons. We had a 150t that we called "Killer" and "Widowmaker" too!

The ram adjustment gear once fell out and dislocated the operator's shoulder. Years later the clutch failed, it "double hit" and took off another operator's fingers, all four of them, to the second knuckle on his right hand.

We sold that big SOB for scrap right after that.

 

[AAB]

My computers which I build myself,have all been called " FRED ", marks 1 to 6 ( my current job ).

The FRED stands for " F***ing rotten electronic device " & the fax is call " ALFRED ",.. just add " Another lousy " to FRED.

If I get through this post, I will know that FRED6 still loves me.

Regards from Melbourne,Australia, & FRED6,

AAB

 

[pm]

whichever one I happen to be working with at the moment is 'sweetie pie'
guess I am a bit promiscous in that way.

 

[BrianH]

Model shop I got hired into after trade school called the three Hardinge HLV-EM's "Voltswagon", "Porche" and "Lambourgini"...of course I almost never got to touch the Lam and the Porche only when it was open.

 

[Engine Room Artificer]

Not strictly a machine but the Gas Axe on every ship I have been on has been called 'Bertha'. If it is being used for brazing/silver solder she is just the blow torch, for burning, she puts on her special head and becomes 'Bertha'!

The ones we get are usually made by BOC Saffire and come in a red blow moulded case. It is traditional to assemble Bertha with the careful reverence of an Assassin putting together a sniper rifle out of a suitcase. I still remember to this day when the Boiler Room Tiff on my first ship induced me into the arcane ritual when burning off the fastenings of underwater valves when in Dry dock.

 

[bdx]

The cutting torch nomally gets the name "big red spanner"

 

[2tenths]

In order to identify one machine frome another, my wife calls the big knee mill, The Monster Mill and the lathe, The Long Lathe and the suface grinder The Little Baby. Because "All those machines look the same" she says.

And we call our 115 lb. rotty, Big Head

 

[Neil]

How about The One Armed Bandit for the drill?

Our cats were named as follows:
The Orange Cats:
Marshmallow (outdoor cat, lived to be 18 or so)
EO and Juicy (named by me at age 3)
Mama Cat (named by father, daughter of Marshmallow)
Bravo
Syd (Barrett-rescued cat)

At the WSL we have:

Huff 'n Puff ( a jet engine that uses high bypass air to create high velocity airflow)

The Huffer ( a portable US Navy air start cart)

The Bailey Bridge (a test fixture that bears absolutely no resemblence whatsoever to, well, a Bailey Bridge-some guy that retired named it)

Big Green ( A 20k all terrain forklift)

The Drott ( a BIG highway department crane that can pick up aircraft)

Drotts

Drott Road (the road the Drott can go on). It has 2 paved lanes of the correct width for the Drott.

A torch=Smoke Wrench

 

[Walt @ SGS Inc.]

I worked at a plant that had mobile parts movers.
Robots for loading machines. They had seven of them. I guess you know where this is going. Snow White would have been proud of her dwarfs.
Each of them had their own name tag. Somewhere I am sure they had an address electrically coded somewhere but they all had their name tags.
Regards Walt..

 

[Ox]

I just bought a pr of CNC lathes that have been named before hand. One says Big Bertha and the other'n is Little Belle. Little Belle swings 40" x 100".

I was never into naming things myself - but at the shop I used to werk at we had a big old junky forktruck with a name - but I kant recall what it was? A big B&S machining center was "Hydra - *^^&*()-up". I think that covers it. ???

I generally just call things by their OEM given name or capacity: 2", 51, 65, 40, 50, 408, 750, others would be simply the name of the manufacture.

Not exactly into "pet" names...

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Noah888]

Anything built before the 1980's I call a dinosaur.

 

[smeboss]

My 1953 Rambaudi universal is called Boat Anchor!

 

[Outboardguy44]

One of the gals who runs a production Brother CNC tapper at the plant said she always got itchy arms after running it for 4-5 hours, so in her honour, we referred to her job as being assigned to "The Cootie Machine".

(We switched from the blue Cimstar 540 coolant to Hangsterfers, which apparently helped the itching situation, don't hear any more cootie complaints.)

The (antique) American Lincoln floor scrubber was "The Zamboni".

The Cardiff lathe has been nicknamed the "Cardiac", partly because my better half nearly had a coronary when I told her the machine I was so busy refurbishing at the plant was headed for the garage....

 

[loggerhogger]

At the railroad we have a 50 ton "American" Locomotive crain that we named "Lazarus" On a cold morning, it takes an act of god to get her to start.

 

[hambone]

Most of the time i call my R-P lathe my baby doll, but since i have trying my darndest to rebuild she has been called a frigging piece of jungle rot.

 

[pilgrimtt]

We had a huge tank on wheels with a "suction" pump for cleaning the nasties out of coolant tanks. What else could you call it but "Monica".

 

[bdx]

Loggerhogger,

Is the '50 ton "American" Locomotive crain that we named "Lazarus"' a diesel by any chance?
What make?

[ 04-13-2007, 10:03 PM: Message edited by: bdx ]