Fucked up a job...time for a fix and some humble pie

Hi All:
So here's a royal screwup on my part that turned a 2 hour job into a whole day job.
I had three small parts sent to me to mill the little hourglass shaped contour into them...nothing fussy but the maker of the parts doesn't know how to do 3D surfacing and doesn't have the CAM software to do it, so I took it on.
2 parts went just fine but I fucked up the third part...it's skinnier than its mates (I didn't check and just ASSUMED they were all the same) so I cut the third profile off center because I just squeezed them all in the same vise setup. (the picture said they were all the same and I was too lazy and too much in a hurry to check
So I had to laser weld the fucked up one and re-cut it.
Here are a couple of pictures.
Guess which one is the welded and recut one.

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining

Screwing up a part now and again ain't no big deal, we all do it, what you do after is what matters.
Good show Marcus.

I have never ever turned a 2 hour job into an all day job,,shame,shame,shame,,,,,,,,,,,lol,I am a liar and going to hell

Them that has, and them that will!

Nice recovery on the 3rd part, Marcus.

The mark of a master craftsman is not that he never makes mistakes, its how he fixes them.

Wish my last screw up was that minor.

Won't go into the gory details. Would rather forget it.

Bill

Left hand part in photo 2? The chamfers are different on the end. Nice fix, gotta love the laser welder.

I've got a small handful of parts in my toolbox I call my high buck paperweights. They WERE going to be good parts.

Things could be worse.

Years ago I worked with a guy who said in the service he'd been assigned to a NATO parts depot in France to help them get up and running. He reported there to a French colonel. The colonel had a pretty secretary that Dick started dating without realizing that the colonel himself had been getting a little on the side and Dick was getting in the way. So it wasn't long before that depot told NATO that they were doing fine now and no longer needed the American help. Dick said that was the first time he'd ever fucked himself out of a job.

It's the part on the left in the picture of 3, its shineyer. I always make the oops prettier.

You did a good job, I hate it when that happens. It's always happens when you think you know what you are doing..

Leftmost part in the photo of all 3 is my guess. And yeah, I've done that more than once, anyone who's been doing this for a while has done. It's those jobs where they stress up front "this CAN'T be welded" that will really pucker your butt. Especially when the material costs more than a house.

implmex said:

Hi All:
So here's a royal screwup on my part that turned a 2 hour job into a whole day job.
I had three small parts sent to me to mill the little hourglass shaped contour into them...nothing fussy but the maker of the parts doesn't know how to do 3D surfacing and doesn't have the CAM software to do it, so I took it on.
2 parts went just fine but I fucked up the third part...it's skinnier than its mates (I didn't check and just ASSUMED they were all the same) so I cut the third profile off center because I just squeezed them all in the same vise setup. (the picture said they were all the same and I was too lazy and too much in a hurry to check
So I had to laser weld the fucked up one and re-cut it.
Here are a couple of pictures.
Guess which one is the welded and recut one.

Cheers


Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining

Click to expand...

That "metaladdermachine" must be a real delight!

Good WORK, I can't see it where I'm standing ;-)

we take in a lot of small repairs like this from local companies. we will see they try to fix it themselves, and when it gets to hacked up they send it to us . We work with a local laser welder who had been phenomenal.

We have also made our fair share of mistakes internally to. We try to be aggressive in cutting time from job with new tooling and different processes, and that occasionally bites us in the ass. We like to learn form our mistakes though!

I will agree with the previous comments, in that to me it doesn't matter if you make a mistake on a customers part (usually) , it really is how you take care of it that matters the most.

Now I will also add I have been involved with Aerospace work and some of them boys have a strict no weld policy on any part that flies, and that can get expensive for sure

God bless us, one and all. I can't get past the photos to focus on your excellent recovery work, for the photos suffer from the fatal error that seems to happen a million times a year, especially on Ebay......THEY SHOW NO SCALE!!!!!

Are those pieces 4 feet tall, or 44 feet tall? It makes a difference. At 4 feet, they're not nearly as hard to repair than 44 feet. Similarly, if I were considering a purchase of those parts on Ebay, it would cost a lot more to ship them at 44 feet, and I really can't use them at 44 feet either.


So....although the solid background looks nice, put a common object next to the item so everyone gets an idea of it's size. For example, I would lean them up against a garden tractor or the kitchen table so it is apparent they are about 4 feet long.

GregSY said:

God bless us, one and all. I can't get past the photos to focus on your excellent recovery work, for the photos suffer from the fatal error that seems to happen a million times a year, especially on Ebay......THEY SHOW NO SCALE!!!!!

Are those pieces 4 feet tall, or 44 feet tall? It makes a difference. At 4 feet, they're not nearly as hard to repair than 44 feet. Similarly, if I were considering a purchase of those parts on Ebay, it would cost a lot more to ship them at 44 feet, and I really can't use them at 44 feet either.


So....although the solid background looks nice, put a common object next to the item so everyone gets an idea of it's size. For example, I would lean them up against a garden tractor or the kitchen table so it is apparent they are about 4 feet long.

Click to expand...

Looks like "shop wipes" on background and the parts are more likely 0.4" than 4 feet.

Likely is not a word that belongs in this sort of discussion. Besides, those are not shop wipes, that is one of the stone walls at the famous Empress Hotel.

Laser welding means little bitty parts AFAIK. I'd guess they're about the size of a finger or smaller.

Another vote for a size comparator, please!

Good morning All:
Some great responses here, and I appreciate all the kind comments but I still swore at myself pretty thoroughly when I took the goobered one off the machine and realized what I had done.
Typically I KNEW at some level I was taking a chance and of course I ignored the little voice "just this once" and sure enough it reached out with big fucking teeth and bit me right square on the ass.
I'm sure many of us have experienced exactly that sensation; after all, if you've never fucked anything up, you've never really done anything worthwhile, but it doesn't make it any easier to take
Admitting it helps...at least it does to me, so thanks guys for letting me vent.

Moving on to specifics:
The welded part is actually the middle part of the three; for those of you who guessed the left most part of the three and especially David Scott who caught the difference between the chamfers on that part and the others; good eye!
The reason they turned out different is that they were all over the map and the angled faces that form the wedges of the pie shaped segments were not consistent (and rougher than guts too)
So I ran the chamfering routine on the first one, and then again on the second one, assuming they were going to be about the same and then said to myself ..."OK, whatever".
Stupid me, I didn't heed that little warning because my fuckup happened AFTER all that and I just shrugged my shoulders and threw in the third piece, and now you all know how it came out.
I should have just stoned the edge break on them but I didn't know that they were so inaccurate until the deed was already done.

GregSY and others who want a scale reference...the parts are about 3/4" wide and the welded area is about 1" long and 1/4" wide.
About 0.020" needed to be added to the deficient side to allow cleanup and each weld spot is about 0.015" in diameter.
It was welded with 0.015" and 0.010" micro welding wire and it took most of the day to weld it up.
Edges and corners are always the hard part with this kind of repair...fortunately I've spent a lot of time repairing injection mold cavities, so I have lots of experience with these kinds of buildups.

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining

GregSY said:

God bless us, one and all. I can't get past the photos to focus on your excellent recovery work, for the photos suffer from the fatal error that seems to happen a million times a year, especially on Ebay......THEY SHOW NO SCALE!!!!!

Are those pieces 4 feet tall, or 44 feet tall? It makes a difference. At 4 feet, they're not nearly as hard to repair than 44 feet. Similarly, if I were considering a purchase of those parts on Ebay, it would cost a lot more to ship them at 44 feet, and I really can't use them at 44 feet either.


So....although the solid background looks nice, put a common object next to the item so everyone gets an idea of it's size. For example, I would lean them up against a garden tractor or the kitchen table so it is apparent they are about 4 feet long.

Click to expand...

Look at the size of the weld beads compared to the parts. And know that those weld beads are about .015" wide...