"I Can't Do That!"

[rake60]

I get a lot of personal requests for machining advice.
I answer every one of those requests with the suggestion that the
question be posted on the forum.

The typical reply is, "I don't have the experience to try that."
OR, "I'm too old to relearn that."

Tell that to this young lady!

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

You are never too young, or too old!
If your heart is in the game, YOU CAN DO IT!

If you have a question, ask it here.
There is one thing better than hitting that perfect size the first time.

I had to do that 6 days a week for the past 20 years. It wasn't fun!
It was a have to, no excuses accepted job. I didn't miss many sizes in that
job, but I'd wake myself up from a deep sleep frantically trying to stop a tool
feed before it cut into a critical corner or after realizing I had made an incorrect
adjustment for a finish cut. Then I'd have a hell of a time getting back to sleep.

Crazy isn't it!

That one thing is the opportunity to pass along what we have learned on to another hobbyist
and seeing the results of their success.

The story line may have wandered off a bit.
The intent is arrow straight!

You CAN do it! We can help you get there!

Rick

 

[Twmaster]

Exactly. I cannot remember where I saw it but there was a quote that said to the effect, knowledge not shared is knowledge wasted.

If you don't try you sure as hell won't do 'it'.

 

[rake60]

I've been in the "position".

A very frustrated customer representative/engineer, suggested that I manually lower the saddle of
a vertical boring mill to cut a small straight fit in a critical high pressure nut.

When I told him that could not be executed he went off the deep end.
He said: "If the machine can't do the job, just SMASH it!"

Someday they will come up with a cure for engineer's insanity.
I just hope that it comes quickly.

The up and coming young guys might actually try it!

Have you ever actually seen the major project calculations?

They have employee injury and deaths figured into them as the cost of
business and meeting the deadline of the project.

That may be acceptable to THEM. Not to ME!

I am from a belief of "No Brother Left Behind."

Figure one of my brothers into that sheet of acceptable losses and
I'll see it made right!

I may never work again in that industry, but to seeing that WRONG corrected
would be worth it.

Machining is a craft that shouldn't be prostituted for the betterment of
good old American greed.

Rick

 

[Twmaster]

I wonder what that factor is for coal mines....

I'm kinda disgusted by that whole train of thought.

 

[rake60]

In the USA they compute 1 human life or permanent disabling injury for every 10,000 man hours of
work in a coal mine as an acceptable loss.

Oil rigs consider 3 human lives or permanent disabling injuries per 10,000 man hours as being an acceptable
average.

You are just a number in the chart.
If your number is up, it sucks to be you!

No worries, production will go on..
You just throw a few more bodies in when needed.

That only happens in third world counties.
WAKE UP AMERICA!

OK, this is turning political and we do not allow that here.

I apologize for taking it to that level.

It just pisses me off to see how the project engineers coldly calculate
"acceptable" loss of life and injury into a production addenda,

Of course it is going to happen. But, seeing it on paper as "acceptable"
really burns my butt!

How many times have I been accused of being OVER SAFETY CONSCIOUS here?
With both hand, my shoes off and anything else at hand, I can't count that high!

I don't mind those accusations.

There are NO production schedules here.

It is SAFETY FIRST!

EVERY TIME, ALL OF THE TIME!!!!

The day I learn of some one getting hurt from using information acquired from this
forum will be the day it is closed forever.

It's that REAL to me!

Rick

 

[Blogwitch]

Rick,

In the workplace, at one time a person was valued as a person, and recognised as such, hence in the old days, a foreman used to wear a bowler hat, it was called respect.

Nowadays that has been replaced by greed, and now a person is judged by how much money he has, or how much he can make for those with already too much, more than they could ever get thru in ten lifetimes.

In the old times (and not too long ago either) small companies respected their workforce, and as long as the company books were in the black at the end of each financial year, the workforce were given raises or bonuses to thank them for all their hard work, and in conjunction with the accountants, the management would see if they could expand a little or afford to get a bit of new machinery.

Those days are now gone in most places, it is now just a matter of you being a number and paid as little as possible, just so that the fat cats can get even fatter.

We now live in a world where money is more important than a person's survival.

Thank goodness I'm well out of it.


John

 

[fcheslop]

Well just to put the cat amongst the pigeons unfortunately other peoples lives have always been a trade off just look at the employment records of the cotton mills/coal mines that's when we had them in the UK small wonder they were aptly called The Dark Satanic Mills with children as young assix working between the equipment or operating the air doors deep underground I agree things did drastically improve but in most instances it wasn't through benign employers although there were a few such as Titus Salt who built Saltaire. It was a long hard slog for our far farthers to gain employment rights in the UK from The Tolpudle Marty's and unfortunately this continuous thanks to[ I'm trying not to be political]a certain lady and a cowboy who took away most employment rights and covered there backsides very well, don't believe me well just try to take on an employer in this country and see how little you have.Greed drives all these companies foreward and sadly human life and suffering means nothing to them If you could see the working conditions for some people as i have you would not believe that this can happen for example 6/7 year old child injured on 2000ton injection moulding machine not a pretty sight and do you know what the owners reply was and I am quoting Its OK the family will apologise for the loss of production and this is a sub contractor to a global company and i would love to name them but cannot afford the legal fees.So just think on why is there so much cheap equipment available it has to come at some cost to somebody. Well that's my rant for today and sorry if i offend back to that bloody ML7

 

[kf2qd]

We all assume certain risks by being born and living among other flawed human beings. We are unable to make anything "perfect" and as such we have all determined how much imperfection we will live with. Modern industry tries to get to less than 2% scrap and considers that pretty much "perfect". With everything we do in life we assume there are some risks. That is why we have insurence on our vehicles. To indemnify the other guy when our vehicle causes him some financial loss.

As far as the human cost of doing business - I know a guy that used to work in the oilfield. He was in charge of erecting a new rig whena weld broke and 1 person was killed and another was permanently disabled. The person who was killed - his family got over 1Million dollars, the other guy got taken care of for life. Yes - it is the cost of doing business. Do you use oil products in you day to day life? does any of your electricity come from coal? Then how much responsibility do you bear for their injuries?

Certain jobs are inherently riskier than others. I have better scars that does an office worker because I stuck my fingers in a few places I haddn't ought to when I was working in the machine shop. (still have all my fingers and they all work...) Those guys in the coal mine should understand the risks by now. There has been a lot of information available on teh risks and there has been a lot of work to reduce those risks.

By sharing our knowledge we can help the next batch of home machinists save them selves some pain and suffering by using and demonstrating GOOD PRACTICES in hgow we work and how we teach others. Share the safety talks. Stress safety and be safe. By engaging in this hobby you are involved in activeties that have a certain risk involved. The only ways to eliminate the risk are to not do it, or think about safety and remeber that you are a human being and subject to all the foibles of that class of creature.

Others have talked about times when they stay out of the shop. Zee and others have mentined their favorite beverage and that they are only for consumption after when has shut down the shop for the day. That is a concious effort toward safety. They understand that that beverage is no condusive to safe operations. Being tired or mad at the spouse may be just as unsafe.

Risk is part of everyday life and we all have some method for managing it. Some of us have changed activeties (no more motorcycle for one of our members) We have insurence for our cars and homes. Are all the risks worth it? Ask teh idits who insist on climbing Everest. Are teh risks justified in the coal mines and oilfields? don't know, but there have always been those who would gladly do those jobs. How bout firemen and police. do those jobs justify the risk? Do you really pay that cop enough considerring that he may have to give his life to protect you from some of the scum that walk our streets?

Probably way off topic...