The Coolest Thing an Employee Did

Metalcutter · Sep 29, 2008

I usually have an answer for nearly everything. This time though, I was stumped!

Small hard anodized holes that were half thousandths under. DANG!

I trained this man, so I figured I'd have to solve this.

The next day I came in and he'd fixed them! He'd turned an aluminum pin and dipped in valve grinding compound and lapped them. I gave him all kinds of "Atta boys" for figuring that one out.

Regards,

Stan-

D. Rey · Sep 29, 2008

Nothing says "thank you" quite like cash.

Dave

DDoug · Sep 29, 2008

And now you have hard grit embedded into the aluminum hole ?

Think he should have run his solution past the boss before proceeding....

In my book, offering a solution (his own idea), and then running it past me
would be a good thing. Taking off on his own (I know, delegate resposbility)
with no regard to the customers part would have got a good, but don't do it again
response from me.

spork2367 · Sep 29, 2008

The coolest thing I've ever done for my employer....not quit....yet.

Boris · Sep 29, 2008

coolest thing I've done as an employee

spending 4 hrs taking apart a working program for 12 parts on a multi-station fixture, re writing it, and proving after the shop manager told me not to, getting a written warning from said manager before informing the owner that I'd just saved him $12 000 / yr on that job

Boris

why bother backstabing? if you stab from the front, you get to see the expression on their face

AlexBanich · Sep 29, 2008

Boris said:
coolest thing I've done as an employee

spending 4 hrs taking apart a working program for 12 parts on a multi-station fixture, re writing it, and proving after the shop manager told me not to, getting a written warning from said manager before informing the owner that I'd just saved him $12 000 / yr on that job

Boris

why bother backstabing? if you stab from the front, you get to see the expression on their face

God do I like your thinking! Nothing says it better than the dumb look on their face when they ask how'd you do that?

Metalcutter · Sep 30, 2008

digger doug said:
And now you have hard grit embedded into the aluminum hole ?

Think he should have run his solution past the boss before proceeding....

In my book, offering a solution (his own idea), and then running it past me
would be a good thing. Taking off on his own (I know, delegate resposbility)
with no regard to the customers part would have got a good, but don't do it again
response from me.

You may be right! The customer didn't seem to mind though. Anyhow, I think aluminum oxide grinding grit and hard (aluminum oxide) anodize are pretty much the same thing.

Regards,

Stan-

9100 · Sep 30, 2008

Coolest sales pitch

This is a little OT, but I still like it. We had to weld up a bunch of 5/8" Dia. holes in 5/8" thick copper terminals and drill relocated ones. I struggled with one of the little hobby welders all the companies sell, and finally concluded that I wouldn't live long enough to finish the job. I called the welding salesman I deal with and explained the problem. He told me to bring a part in and when I got there he had a 255 A MIG welder set up with copper wire. We fiddled with voltage and feed speed a bit, then I welded up the holes. When I raised the mask, all he said was "That didn't take long, did it?" About all I said was "Load it on the truck." He put it on my tab and by the time I paid the $1600 it cost, I had billed $3000 in work. If all our investments worked out like that, there would be no panic on Wall Street.

Bill

bluechipper · Sep 30, 2008

I'm always running around like a rooster with no head towards the end of the month, seeing to it that everything is boxed, soft sealed, billed out...in works...are near enough to consider done...etc....on top of the usual writing programs answering questions answering phone taking in walk-ins...etc....I had written a program for a short run of some complicated v-pack blocks. They had a 45 face groove on one end, and a 45 out on the other end, all kinds of grooves, chamfers o-ring type radiused grooves etc....only have eight tool position turret...anyhoo, I got the program written before leaving last night(Monday)...the new kid setting up the lathes...was running the first-off, and walks up to me...uhmmm...y'might come look at this, I think the face grooving tool is going to crash the chuck...
I go look...dammit!!! Kid's right.... :scratchchin:

....hmmmm....what to do???... :scratchchin:

... Hmmm...I guess I could risk the surface finish, and turn the entire finish pass with my 1/4" grooving tool...have never attempted that before, but that way, I could do away with the finish tool, and move the outside grooving tool over there, :skep:

but I really don't have that kind of time!!! Kid is standing there watching, and can see the gears cranking.....my gears are still cranking...there has got to be a simple fix....
Kid says...What if we just pulled the grooving tool down a little? :confused:

Shut up smartass....J/K....I didn't say that... I said....

That's the kind of solutions I want....why are you asking me anyways... :dopeslap:

Any other day, I'd have not even thought about it for a second, and told him to pull the grooving tool out a little... but Today....I was so stinkin' busy getting things ready to ship tomorrow, I probably would have re-written the finish pass....He gets an atta-boy for that one!!!
I even bought first-round.
:cheers:

Metalcutter · Oct 1, 2008

bluechipper said:
I'm always running around like a rooster with no head towards the end of the month, seeing to it that everything is boxed, soft sealed, billed out...in works...are near enough to consider done...etc....on top of the usual writing programs answering questions answering phone taking in walk-ins...etc....I had written a program for a short run of some complicated v-pack blocks. They had a 45 face groove on one end, and a 45 out on the other end, all kinds of grooves, chamfers o-ring type radiused grooves etc....only have eight tool position turret...anyhoo, I got the program written before leaving last night(Monday)...the new kid setting up the lathes...was running the first-off, and walks up to me...uhmmm...y'might come look at this, I think the face grooving tool is going to crash the chuck...
I go look...dammit!!! Kid's right........hmmmm....what to do???...... Hmmm...I guess I could risk the surface finish, and turn the entire finish pass with my 1/4" grooving tool...have never attempted that before, but that way, I could do away with the finish tool, and move the outside grooving tool over there, but I really don't have that kind of time!!! Kid is standing there watching, and can see the gears cranking.....my gears are still cranking...there has got to be a simple fix....
Kid says...What if we just pulled the grooving tool down a little?

Shut up smartass....J/K....I didn't say that... I said....That's the kind of solutions I want....why are you asking me anyways...

Any other day, I'd have not even thought about it for a second, and told him to pull the grooving tool out a little... but Today....I was so stinkin' busy getting things ready to ship tomorrow, I probably would have re-written the finish pass....He gets an atta-boy for that one!!!
I even bought first-round.

Getting employees to open up and talk like that takes a confident employer. One who is not afraid to listen to his help.

You obviously have that "air" about you. Good job.

Many employers are afraid to let their people think.

Regards,

Stan-

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