# 2700lb lathe boo boo by shipping company



## willburrrr2003 (Jan 7, 2013)

I have to share this with you all...I just finished talking with my boss and found this out. I build custom industrial control panels for a living.  We just finished re-working the control circuits for a large manual lathe, as they are ordered from out of country and don't meet UL standards for safety and building.  We finished it, and shipped it out last Thursday.  When it was delivered on Friday, it was damaged.  The Customer's (machine supplier)  customer (end user) refused the shipment, so the shipping company contacted us.  When asked what happened while it was in transit, we were told "there is a little not in it's file saying it "fell over on the loading dock"  How the hell does a 2700lb lathe...just fall over?!   We are waiting for pics of the damage from our customer (who we do the re-work for) and to see if we need to plan on modifying a second one, or if the damage is repairable...  either way, shipping company will be eating a large bill for this one...

Regards,

    Will Riddle
    Everett, WA.   USA


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## TorontoBuilder (Jan 7, 2013)

Hmm, nothing surprises me with shipping companies any longer since CN Rail lost a 35 foot sail boat worth over $100K somewhere between Vancouver and Toronto.

Something tells me that many cast iron components will have failed under the stress of 2700 lbs toppling over. Who has dibs on the scrap iron?


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## substandard (Jan 7, 2013)

If it is anything like the receiving dock where I use to work, no one saw it happen, no one knows who did it, as matter of fact are we even sure the lathe was ever here?


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## terrywerm (Jan 7, 2013)

Doesn't surprise me. I see the type of people that they hire now to operate fork lifts and drive trucks every day. All I can say is that the current state of affairs in the transportation industry is really, really sad. I started driving trucks in 1978 and have been out of the industry a couple of times for short periods, but every year it gets a little worse. Drivers don't care about the freight they haul, dock workers are even worse. They all figure that if something gets damaged that it's somebody else's problem. As long as they get their paycheck on payday they don't care about anything else. 

Sorry about the rant, I'll get off my soapbox now. I take pride in getting customer's goods moved from point A to point B without any damage, and have done so for many years now. Nuff said.

I hope the damage isn't too great, but if it tipped over on the dock, the damage is probably substantial.


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## tups (Jan 9, 2013)

This too has a "little note in its file" which no-one seemed to know much about ... if it weren't so sad it'd be laughable.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvyIrsZ7Zhs[/ame]


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## Omnimill (Jan 9, 2013)

terrywerm said:


> Doesn't surprise me. I see the type of people that they hire now to operate fork lifts and drive trucks every day. All I can say is that the current state of affairs in the transportation industry is really, really sad. I started driving trucks in 1978 and have been out of the industry a couple of times for short periods, but every year it gets a little worse. Drivers don't care about the freight they haul, dock workers are even worse. They all figure that if something gets damaged that it's somebody else's problem. As long as they get their paycheck on payday they don't care about anything else.
> 
> Sorry about the rant, I'll get off my soapbox now. I take pride in getting customer's goods moved from point A to point B without any damage, and have done so for many years now. Nuff said.
> 
> I hope the damage isn't too great, but if it tipped over on the dock, the damage is probably substantial.



You are absolutely right Terry. What these bozzo's don't consider is that we all pay extra on the goods we buy as a result.


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## Jeff-in-PA (Jan 9, 2013)

terrywerm said:


> Doesn't surprise me. I see the type of people that they hire now to operate fork lifts and drive trucks every day. All I can say is that the current state of affairs in the transportation industry is really, really sad. I started driving trucks in 1978 and have been out of the industry a couple of times for short periods, but every year it gets a little worse. Drivers don't care about the freight they haul, dock workers are even worse. They all figure that if something gets damaged that it's somebody else's problem. As long as they get their paycheck on payday they don't care about anything else.
> 
> Sorry about the rant, I'll get off my soapbox now. I take pride in getting customer's goods moved from point A to point B without any damage, and have done so for many years now. Nuff said.
> 
> I hope the damage isn't too great, but if it tipped over on the dock, the damage is probably substantial.


 

 I ordered a hot tub cover and it was shipped freight.  Box was 18" thick, 4' high and 7' long.  In BIG letters on every side of the box was "Do NOT use fork truck"

 The first one was stabbed thru both sides ( in one side out the other ) with both forks.  When the truck driver brought it, the first thing he said was "sign here to refuse delivery".

 Second one had a big gouge down the side, also rejected.  The third time was the charm.  I actually got what I paid for.


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## Walsheng (Jan 9, 2013)

Years ago the molding company I worked for sold a molding press for scrap metal. It was about 14 feet long, seven feet high and weighed about two or three tons.  They loaded it on a flatbed and it fell off when the truck was going around an off ramp to the highway.  The trucker just kept on going!  It took the state polices a couple of days to figure out where it came from. Never did find out what happened to the trucker (probably a ticket for littering.)

John


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## mcostello (Jan 10, 2013)

On another forum a person was complaining about getting 20' pieces of tubing being bent upon delivery. What I witnessed was tubing and pipe being picked up by the hole in the middle with one fork regardless of how big the bundle was. when setting it in the semi trailer they did not have room to go straight in so pipe was set at an angle then pushed quickly around to straighten it up, sometimes it would catch on something and stop the forklift.


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## Tin Falcon (Jan 10, 2013)

years back I worked in R & D for a Yacht builder. relatively low end for yachts but some in the mid 40 ft range and selling around $400,000    one day I saw one in the yard . A trucker had lost his escort vehicle and missed an exit and took the boat under an overpass. not a pretty sight to say the least.  I expect the TCs insurance had to pay out big on that one. and the trucker........ want fries with that ???
Tin


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## stew (Jan 11, 2013)

HI,
Yes, some of the Transport Companies or rather some of the Workers don't seem to care about the Customers goods. About March of 2010 I Bought a Hafco AL-340A Centre Lathe of Hare & Forbes. For some Reason the Transport Company that I ended up having to use, picked the Lathe up at one end with Extension Forks and as a result dropped it. The Lathe was Damaged beyond Repair so the Transport Company had to cough up $3993.00 Australian Money. 

The Pictures don't show all the Damage that was done. In some ways the Mishap was a good thing, because I ended up being able to Buy the Hafco AL-960B with a DRO as it had come on Special. The AL-960 was actual the Lathe I wanted to Buy in the first place, but didn't have enough Money for. The Al-960 was Delivered by My Regular Transport Company this time and arrived Safely.
All The Best Stew


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## gus (Jan 11, 2013)

I did many turnkey jobs installing heavy Ingersoll-Rand Air Compressors. All these jobs have L.D. clause in the contract. For every week' delay to hand over it is US$10,000. Fortunately I used same trusted/proven transport company and same crane drivers and helpers. There were queries from above why I paid more when I could 30% using another company who happened to be the Sales Manager's Classmate. Eventually Gus was promoted to Operations Manager for the Small Compressor Plant and my sidekick was given the job as Contracts Manager. Inspite of my good advice he gave in to save 30% and cost the company US$100,000 in L.D. when a huge compressor fell over and damaged almost beyond repair.All in IR lost US$1/4 million.

Sale Manager also sat in the Inquiry Meeting and he had the cheek to ask why did we not use our regular transport contractor??
He denied ever pressurising us to use his classmate. Months later IR auditor caught him with irregular practices.

The lesson best be safe than be sorry when accidents happen.


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## Woodsworks (Jul 1, 2013)

At the shipyard where I worked years ago, the boss had words with a delivery driver seen racing across our shipyard with a large crate bouncing around on his flatbed.  He had removed the tie-downs outside the stores building, then been told, "Take it around to the shed out back, we don't have room for that crate in here."  Apparently he was already late for another pick-up, and got a bit annoyed at being redirected.  At least he did look suitably shocked when it was pointed out that he was roughing up a $400K marine generator set.  Regards, Paul W., Whangarei, NZ.


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## Busydad (Jul 1, 2013)

I used to work in a trailer shop. We blew up our old air compressor. After waiting 6 weeks for a new one , one of our guys was moving it . He was told to pick it up from the side and to wait. Picked it up from the end and it fell over smashing both compressors .. The next one came and he was sent for coffee when it was unloaded.


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## Goldflash (Jul 1, 2013)

Had a Brand New Cat 3306 SINA gas engine delivered. 
It was strapped to a pallet. The Forklift operator unloaded the Truck and drove into the workshop and came to a sudden stop with the pallet about 2 meters above ground level. 
Pallett and Engine kept going and landed engine side up. Result one wrecked very expensive engine. 
never saw the Forklift Driver again. 
Also saw a pilot in the RNZAF start up a DC3 without any ground crew. he  hit the fire extinguisher with the propeller ( which went through the hanger wall ) by 5pm he was a civilian. 
Maybe he figured it was a quick way of getting out of his return of service requirement for the training he had received.


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## Hopper (Jul 2, 2013)

Wow, glad you were able to get the lathe paid for without hassles. What a bonehead. 
Still, you don't have to be the sharpest tool in the box to drive a truck or forklift.

As we are comparing war stories, here's mine.
B ack in the 1970s we pulled the main rotor out of one of the steam turbines at a remote mining town power station in the Northern Territory. 
Did all the right things: Drove the 80 ton mobile crane into the turbine hall ground floor and picked it up a foot with the gantry crane and the lifting gear we planned to use. Left it there a few hours, measured to make sure the crane brakes were holding the weight.
All hands on deck to lift the rotor out, lower it from the turbine floor to the waiting low loader special truck below.
Which took it out the airstrip and loaded it on a cargo plane with the front that hinged open, to fly it to the turbine works in Sydney for reblade and balance.
At the other end the truck ran off the road on the way to the works, rolled over and totalled I don't know how many millions of dollars worth of turbine rotor. 

Only took months for the new one to arrive from Switzerland, leaving us with no standby turbine and working up to 22-hour shifts to repair any breakdowns on the two remaining units. And of course the operators chose then to throw a load of water over into one turbine and wipe out the main thrust bearings. Some choice expletives thrown their way from the fitters' crib.


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## Ca-g (Jul 2, 2013)

I was not there for the main event but saw some of the ramifications. On a gas platform off the NZ coast decades ago they were installing a new pump. The pump was made from phosphor bronze (because it doesn't spark when you hit it, handy on a gas platform) and aside from costing a fortune, it weighed 70 tons. The protocol was a new cable was used for lifts of this sort and afterwards they were thrown away.The margin in the breaking strain was something colossal, had to be able to lift 5 times or something like that. 

On the day everything was fine until it wasn't. The cable parted and the expensive pump went tumbling down towards the seabed. Unfortunately on the way it went straight through a brand new lifeboat worth one million dollars. One of those things built to be able to go through a fire on the surface of the sea. The lifeboat was uninsurable. Still haven't go to the drama..!

When the pump went down to the bottom of the sea, about 400ft as I recall, it wasn't absolutely terrble. It was made of phosphor bronze and was made to pump seawater and could be retrieved and easily fixed. But where it landed it just missed a junction of underwater pipes carrying gas from the wells on the seabed to the platform. If it had hit those the ship that had carried the pump to the platform would have fallen to the seabed because of the gassification of the water. 50 men would be gone. Also the gas would have been cut off to most of the country for a year and apparently the cost of this would be billions and not a few lives.


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## Hopper (Jul 3, 2013)

Ca-g said:


> When the pump went down to the bottom of the sea, about 400ft as I recall, it wasn't absolutely terrble. It was made of phosphor bronze and was made to pump seawater and could be retrieved and easily fixed. But where it landed it just missed a junction of underwater pipes carrying gas from the wells on the seabed to the platform. If it had hit those the ship that had carried the pump to the platform would have fallen to the seabed because of the gassification of the water. 50 men would be gone. Also the gas would have been cut off to most of the country for a year and apparently the cost of this would be billions and not a few lives.



Ah, it was a well aimed shot then.


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## ChooChooMike (Jul 3, 2013)

tups said:


> This too has a "little note in its file" which no-one seemed to know much about ... if it weren't so sad it'd be laughable.


Locomotive drop - OUCH !! Saw that video a year or so ago.

Hopefully there was a "refused item, return to shipper ..... ":fan:

Bent frame for sure.


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## ChooChooMike (Jul 3, 2013)

Walsheng said:


> Years ago the molding company I worked for sold a molding press for scrap metal. It was about 14 feet long, seven feet high and weighed about two or three tons.  They loaded it on a flatbed and it fell off when the truck was going around an off ramp to the highway.  The trucker just kept on going!  It took the state polices a couple of days to figure out where it came from. Never did find out what happened to the trucker (probably a ticket for littering.)
> 
> John


How could the driver NOT notice his truck now weighing a few tons less ? Rof}

Steam turbine drop. Bet there was some changing of the shorts after this one !!

Hmm, embedded YouTube doesn't appear to work correctly ??

www.*youtube*.com/watch?v=YXRo-UwDN7M


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## Walsheng (Jul 3, 2013)

ChooChooMike said:


> How could the driver NOT notice his truck now weighing a few tons less ? Rof}
> 
> Steam turbine drop. Bet there was some changing of the shorts after this one !!
> 
> ...



Oh I am sure he knew he dropped it, just panicked and kept on going.  I was impressed the state police found out where it came from. We bought it at least third hand, ten years earlier, from a company that had gone bankrupt.

John


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## ddmckee54 (Jul 3, 2013)

About 15 years ago one of my extruder projects was delayed for several weeks when the manufacturer managed to drop the extruder they were building for us about 10-12 feet.  One of the lifting straps failed as the completely assembled extruder, that had been fully tested, was being moved into the paint shop for painting prior to shipment.  As the strap failed, the extruder dropped onto the 600 Hp motor smashing it and continued to roll over onto the gearbox damaging it.  I was told that the extruder went through the 8" concrete floor of the shop.  Fortunately the shop was on a slab so there was nothing below it that could have been hurt.

A few years later while working for a different company on another extruder project, the moving contractor dropped a different extruder, while transferring it from the cargo aircraft to the truck.  This extruder was smaller, only 300 Hp.

I haven't done any extruder projects since then, I think maybe I'm jinxed or something.

Don


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