Here's a good one

[stevehuckss396]

It's no big deal because I only had about 9-10 hours into this piece but I was cutting some internal water jackets into a cylinder block. I picked out the key cutter that i was going to use and then got distracted by the phone. When i went back, I grabbed the cutter that i was using a few days ago.

I chucked it up and got my numbers. I needed to cut a square pattern .125 from the center of the bore and then poke +and -.175 in all 4 directions on X and Y.

Everything went great until i poked .175 right out both sides and the back of the block. Hard to keep coolant in there with 1/4 inch square holes in the block.

We start a new one tomorrow. Bad part is a ruined a 8 inch long piece of aluminum. Not cheap!!

 

[kendo]

Hi Steve
Don't you just hate it when that happens, All that work and time, i
would be pretty annoyed with myself if that was me. Is there no way
you could retrieve the part by plugging it some way or is it beyond
repair.
Ken

 

[rake60]

Ouch!

We all do things like that Steve.
My personal specialty is drilling valve rod holes completely through
a steam chest. My aluminum and brass "recycle boxes" contain examples
of that. If fact my "recycle boxes" have a lot of finished parts in them
that were scrapped on the last process.
:wall:

Rick

 

[kcmillin]

Ouch Indeed.

I have buckets full of small bits that never quite made it past inspection. mostly broken off taps. damn 4-40. I tell ya.

Hey, at least you have experience in making the part. Thats more valuable than the aluminum.

kel

 

[mklotz]

Steve,

I empathize with your problem - both the annoyance of botching a part and the disturbance that caused it.

Whenever I'm called from the shop or have a visitor I make it a point upon returning to work to start over completely from scratch. Is the vise tightened? Is the proper tool selected or, if in place, is the collet tightened? Etc. Any calculations are redone and all edgefinding is repeated. Etc. You get the idea. Excessive perhaps but I really, really hate the feeling I get when I screw something up due to my own carelessness. I'd much rather waste a little time rechecking.

Three things are banned from my shop...

Phone - that's what voicemail is for (I don't own a cell phone.)

Clock - it's too easy to see how much time you're spending on an operation and that promotes hurrying which can easily lead to mistakes and even injuries.

TV - beyond distraction, it's an accident waiting to happen when you look away from what you're doing. (I do have a radio hardwired to an all classical music station but that doesn't seem to distract me.)

I'm sure you're aware of most of this but it bears repeating for the novices who may be reading this.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

I told the wife last night that I was going to steal the living room stereo system and put it in my shop and she can start using the home theater setup for music since it has a tuner, CD, DVD, etc. built into it and the music is piped all around the living room. So I spent last evening building the whole setup, including sub-woofer into my workbench. It sounds so-o-o nice! Once the music starts, all thoughts about anything external to the shop go away and its just me, my tools and music - jazz, classical, even country. Beats the heck out of the boom box I had in there.

Make a mistake, put on a sad country song...don't make a mistake, put on the banjo music.

-Trout

 

[stevehuckss396]

Is there no way you could retrieve the part by plugging it some way or is it beyond repair.

The walls are paper thin and i need to put threaded holes on the side so it is scrap. The screws will never hold.

 

[stevehuckss396]

In fact my "recycle boxes" have a lot of finished parts in them
that were scrapped on the last process.

Mine get melted down into ingots or poured into something.

 

[Metal Butcher]

- jazz, classical, even country. Beats the heck out of the boom box I had in there.

Make a mistake, put on a sad country song...don't make a mistake, put on the banjo music.

-Trout

I play the radio 24/7 in the shop, and out in my garage-smoke/ break room. I get too loony here with out the back ground effects of music. I like listening to Rock being that I grew up in the "The Rock & Roll Capital."

I like Heavy Metal on occasions when I need to make a part(s) Quickly, but the tooling and quality of work suffers. Dramatically.... :big:

-MB

 

[ChooChooMike]

Make a mistake, put on a sad country song...don't make a mistake, put on the banjo music.

If you WANT to make a mistake, put on accordion or bagpipe music .... :hDe:

Rof}

 

[mklotz]

Definition of a gentleman...

Someone who can play the bagpipes/accodion but doesn't.

 

[vlmarshall]

Both of you;

I like bagpipes.

 

[mklotz]

I like bagpipes.

Bagpipes are to music what haggis is to food.