[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Tales from the Machine Shop (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 5/29/2015 10:01:32 PM EDT
|
Anybody got some good machine shop stories of stupidity/danger?
I'm friends with the guys who run the mechanical engineering machine shop at a state university. Students are free to come down and use machines in the shop once they've had cursory safety training, and these guys basically chaperone. Names have been changed to protect identities. “Karl” is one of the supervisors down there. He was doing some mill work (slow day) when a kid comes down and gets set up on the big drill press to drill a block of wood. He looked like he knew what he was doing, so Karl went back to his mill, which was fairly loud. A few minutes later, Karl noticed a STRONG burning smell. He shuts off the mill, turns around and sees the kid basically doing a chin-up on the feed lever, reefing on it trying to get the drill to feed. Smoke was absolutely pouring off of the wood, and the bit was screeching like a banshee. Karl runs over and shuts off the drill press. What does he find? I shit you not, the kid had somehow managed to chuck up the drill bit BACKWARDS, and was trying to drill through the wood with the shank end. “What the fuck are you doing! You've got the drill in backwards!” “Oh man, sorry!” said the kid, who immediately grabbed the nearly red-hot bit with his bare hand... We get some real special cases down in that shop  .
|
Have a guy that doesn't like to bore jaws (doesn't know how 20+ year "machinist" ) threw a 9 inch by 6 slug . took the door off the machine.  it was cool.
ancient mazak (1986) that for some reason on the 7th part the spindle will spin backwards to count the part., it will stop then spin. (fuck mazaks) Our "maintenance" guy got in the back of the machine to tighten a belt without cutting power..... almost lost 4 fingers when the spindle came on. hand went through the pully , 6 hrs of surgery to fix that mess. We now have Osha safety meetings about once a week, and this guy is in charge of safety now. 
my night guy won't change tools because he can't get figure out the offsets to make to get the part back into spec.
Mazaks are junk. I accidentally hit cycle start instead of turing the spindle on turret came down into the jaws I put on and ripped them off like petals on a daisy.  my first big crash in 9 years of machining. That was on an old ameri seiki
|
|
Student at the university machine shop left the chuck wrench on the mill .... flung off and destroyed a safety window
Faculty member made repeated comments about being the only one trained and qualified to use the fancy new CNC mill. Shortly after he ran the cutting bit into the table Students decided to use a lathe as a welding jig... |
|
From Gunsmith school.
I'm standing next to a guy who's ready to use the surface grinder on his bench block. He forgot to check the "Z" height and hit the table feed. It sounded like an explosion when the grinding wheel disintegrated. Luckily they had it facing into the corner......................... Another time I'm standing next to a guy and he forgets to take the wrench off the collet draw bar on a Bridgeport. Turns it on and snaps the draw bar. 
I had to stay late and help him fix it because I was there. |
|
Quoted:
Have a guy that doesn't like to bore jaws (doesn't know how 20+ year "machinist" ) threw a 9 inch by 6 slug . took the door off the machine. it was cool.
ancient mazak (1986) that for some reason on the 7th part the spindle will spin backwards to count the part., it will stop then spin. (fuck mazaks) Our "maintenance" guy got in the back of the machine to tighten a belt without cutting power..... almost lost 4 fingers when the spindle came on. hand went through the pully , 6 hrs of surgery to fix that mess. We now have Osha safety meetings about once a week, and this guy is in charge of safety now.
my night guy won't change tools because he can't get figure out the offsets to make to get the part back into spec.
Mazaks are junk. I accidentally hit cycle start instead of turing the spindle on turret came down into the jaws I put on and ripped them off like petals on a daisy. my first big crash in 9 years of machining. That was on an old ameri seiki
Been running Mazak's, Okuma's and Mori's for years. Mazaks are far from junk. Currently run and program a 7 axis Integrex. I don't think Mazak is the problem here, seems to be an operator and maintenance issue. |
|
tell ya straight up..
Manager of a facility I worked at.. hired all kinds of idiots, who did and continue to do stupid shit.. to the point that the dopes who are banned from using the machines in my former workplace, show up at my private shop.. expecting me to let them use machines in my current shop..
|
|
Quoted:
tell ya straight up.. Manager of a facility I worked at.. hired all kinds of idiots, who did and continue to do stupid shit.. to the point that the dopes who are banned from using the machines in my former workplace, show up at my private shop.. expecting me to let them use machines in my current shop.. Worked with a guy that was awesome at finding stuff to order. Think up some hairbrained wacked out thing that would make your job easier and he'd find it in a catalog somewhere. Crashed every machine he touched though. Pretty soon the owners called him into the office and let him know that he was forbidden from even touching a bridgeport or manual lathe. LOL We bought a 4 axis Okuma LU-15. signed off on the papers and before the install tech even walked out of the building this guy had crashed it LOL |
|
Quoted:
Been running Mazak's, Okuma's and Mori's for years. Mazaks are far from junk. Currently run and program a 7 axis Integrex. I don't think Mazak is the problem here, seems to be an operator and maintenance issue. Quoted:
Quoted:
Have a guy that doesn't like to bore jaws (doesn't know how 20+ year "machinist" ) threw a 9 inch by 6 slug . took the door off the machine. it was cool.
ancient mazak (1986) that for some reason on the 7th part the spindle will spin backwards to count the part., it will stop then spin. (fuck mazaks) Our "maintenance" guy got in the back of the machine to tighten a belt without cutting power..... almost lost 4 fingers when the spindle came on. hand went through the pully , 6 hrs of surgery to fix that mess. We now have Osha safety meetings about once a week, and this guy is in charge of safety now.
my night guy won't change tools because he can't get figure out the offsets to make to get the part back into spec.
Mazaks are junk. I accidentally hit cycle start instead of turing the spindle on turret came down into the jaws I put on and ripped them off like petals on a daisy. my first big crash in 9 years of machining. That was on an old ameri seiki
Been running Mazak's, Okuma's and Mori's for years. Mazaks are far from junk. Currently run and program a 7 axis Integrex. I don't think Mazak is the problem here, seems to be an operator and maintenance issue. This^ I run Mazaks everyday. Pretty solid machines. |
|
-we had a guy fresh out of the navy who would smoke weed on his lunch break. he started smoking about a month after he started working. he would sling parts out of the lathe about 3 times a week after that, stole a bunch of tools and then quit...
-I was 19 years old loading 60lb parts in and out of a cnc mill (5 min run time was just enough to debur the first part and prep the next). 12 hours a day 6 days a week... on the 3rd week or so I missed my decimal point when setting the offset. "7" and ".7" are much different numbers... thank god we were working in metric. still had to finish the run but the guy next to me had to double check my offsets for the next few days. -I had heard a prank where you fill someones air nozzle with bluing dye, when they spray off their parts/machine it makes a mess... well one of the guys in the shop tried it. boss ended up pissed and told them to throw away the nozzle and clean it up... nozzle ended up on a shelf and a week or so later the boss man was showing his night shift supervisor how the new pneumatic assemblies ran... charged a $600 ram in a finished assembly and when he pulled the nozzle back his shirt, tie, and face were splattered with a nice coat of blue dye...
|
|
Quoted: This^ I run Mazaks everyday. Pretty solid machines. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Have a guy that doesn't like to bore jaws (doesn't know how 20+ year "machinist" ) threw a 9 inch by 6 slug . took the door off the machine. it was cool. ancient mazak (1986) that for some reason on the 7th part the spindle will spin backwards to count the part., it will stop then spin. (fuck mazaks) Our "maintenance" guy got in the back of the machine to tighten a belt without cutting power..... almost lost 4 fingers when the spindle came on. hand went through the pully , 6 hrs of surgery to fix that mess. We now have Osha safety meetings about once a week, and this guy is in charge of safety now. my night guy won't change tools because he can't get figure out the offsets to make to get the part back into spec. Mazaks are junk. I accidentally hit cycle start instead of turing the spindle on turret came down into the jaws I put on and ripped them off like petals on a daisy. my first big crash in 9 years of machining. That was on an old ameri seiki Been running Mazak's, Okuma's and Mori's for years. Mazaks are far from junk. Currently run and program a 7 axis Integrex. I don't think Mazak is the problem here, seems to be an operator and maintenance issue. This^ I run Mazaks everyday. Pretty solid machines. |
|
Quoted:
-we had a guy fresh out of the navy who would smoke weed on his lunch break. he started smoking about a month after he started working. he would sling parts out of the lathe about 3 times a week after that, stole a bunch of tools and then quit... -I was 19 years old loading 60lb parts in and out of a cnc mill (5 min run time was just enough to debur the first part and prep the next). 12 hours a day 6 days a week... on the 3rd week or so I missed my decimal point when setting the offset. "7" and ".7" are much different numbers... thank god we were working in metric. still had to finish the run but the guy next to me had to double check my offsets for the next few days. -I had heard a prank where you fill someones air nozzle with bluing dye, when they spray off their parts/machine it makes a mess... well one of the guys in the shop tried it. boss ended up pissed and told them to throw away the nozzle and clean it up... nozzle ended up on a shelf and a week or so later the boss man was showing his night shift supervisor how the new pneumatic assemblies ran... charged a $600 ram in a finished assembly and when he pulled the nozzle back his shirt, tie, and face were splattered with a nice coat of blue dye...
Had a lead that was huge on practical jokes. I like to get the job done without any screwing around. I ignored all of his pranks for the most part. He used to play basketball every day at lunch. He'd come back in and use the air nozzle to blast the sweat off of his face and the cool air felt good. I'd had it with his pranks so one day I pumped his air nozzle full of grease  fucker never pulled a prank on me again
|
|
Quoted:
This. We bought a V100 and E1850 recently so I might be biased Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Have a guy that doesn't like to bore jaws (doesn't know how 20+ year "machinist" ) threw a 9 inch by 6 slug . took the door off the machine. it was cool.
ancient mazak (1986) that for some reason on the 7th part the spindle will spin backwards to count the part., it will stop then spin. (fuck mazaks) Our "maintenance" guy got in the back of the machine to tighten a belt without cutting power..... almost lost 4 fingers when the spindle came on. hand went through the pully , 6 hrs of surgery to fix that mess. We now have Osha safety meetings about once a week, and this guy is in charge of safety now.
my night guy won't change tools because he can't get figure out the offsets to make to get the part back into spec.
Mazaks are junk. I accidentally hit cycle start instead of turing the spindle on turret came down into the jaws I put on and ripped them off like petals on a daisy. my first big crash in 9 years of machining. That was on an old ameri seiki
Been running Mazak's, Okuma's and Mori's for years. Mazaks are far from junk. Currently run and program a 7 axis Integrex. I don't think Mazak is the problem here, seems to be an operator and maintenance issue. This^ I run Mazaks everyday. Pretty solid machines. meh, run 8 of these in a 300 my thats running windows 95 and get back to me. I'll keep my german made index c200a thank you very much. 
|
|
Quoted:
This. We bought a V100 and E1850 recently so I might be biased Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Have a guy that doesn't like to bore jaws (doesn't know how 20+ year "machinist" ) threw a 9 inch by 6 slug . took the door off the machine. it was cool.
ancient mazak (1986) that for some reason on the 7th part the spindle will spin backwards to count the part., it will stop then spin. (fuck mazaks) Our "maintenance" guy got in the back of the machine to tighten a belt without cutting power..... almost lost 4 fingers when the spindle came on. hand went through the pully , 6 hrs of surgery to fix that mess. We now have Osha safety meetings about once a week, and this guy is in charge of safety now.
my night guy won't change tools because he can't get figure out the offsets to make to get the part back into spec.
Mazaks are junk. I accidentally hit cycle start instead of turing the spindle on turret came down into the jaws I put on and ripped them off like petals on a daisy. my first big crash in 9 years of machining. That was on an old ameri seiki
Been running Mazak's, Okuma's and Mori's for years. Mazaks are far from junk. Currently run and program a 7 axis Integrex. I don't think Mazak is the problem here, seems to be an operator and maintenance issue. This^ I run Mazaks everyday. Pretty solid machines. I'm a Masak fan. 1986 anything is gonna be a piece of crap by default. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
|
We had a student down in the shop who decided to turn down the end of a 1/2" OD steel rod in a big LeBlond lathe. Problem is, the rod was like 8 feet long, and I guess he didn't feel like cutting it down first.
He gets this thing set up with about 6 feet hanging out the back of the headstock, and turns the lathe on to around 700 rpm. Almost instantly, the rod bends 90 degrees at the end of headstock and starts whipping around like satan's flail. It chewed the crap out of the concrete floor and bent the living shit out of a stout welded tool cart sitting nearby. He's incredibly lucky it didn't kill anybody, as people are always walking around back there. |
|
Quoted:
I'm a Masak fan. 1986 anything is gonna be a piece of crap by default. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Have a guy that doesn't like to bore jaws (doesn't know how 20+ year "machinist" ) threw a 9 inch by 6 slug . took the door off the machine. it was cool.
ancient mazak (1986) that for some reason on the 7th part the spindle will spin backwards to count the part., it will stop then spin. (fuck mazaks) Our "maintenance" guy got in the back of the machine to tighten a belt without cutting power..... almost lost 4 fingers when the spindle came on. hand went through the pully , 6 hrs of surgery to fix that mess. We now have Osha safety meetings about once a week, and this guy is in charge of safety now.
my night guy won't change tools because he can't get figure out the offsets to make to get the part back into spec.
Mazaks are junk. I accidentally hit cycle start instead of turing the spindle on turret came down into the jaws I put on and ripped them off like petals on a daisy. my first big crash in 9 years of machining. That was on an old ameri seiki
Been running Mazak's, Okuma's and Mori's for years. Mazaks are far from junk. Currently run and program a 7 axis Integrex. I don't think Mazak is the problem here, seems to be an operator and maintenance issue. This^ I run Mazaks everyday. Pretty solid machines. I'm a Masak fan. 1986 anything is gonna be a piece of crap by default. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile I'm just trolling you guys on mazeks (its like 9mm or .45 ) , not a huge fan but the programing is pretty trick. My place believes maintenance is for faggots. that 1986 machine will not die . I curse it every day because when it dies I get a new multi spindle 
|
|
Quoted:
We had a student down in the shop who decided to turn down the end of a 1/2" OD steel rod in a big LeBlond lathe. Problem is, the rod was like 8 feet long, and I guess he didn't feel like cutting it down first. He gets this thing set up with about 6 feet hanging out the back of the headstock, and turns the lathe on to around 700 rpm. Almost instantly, the rod bends 90 degrees at the end of headstock and starts whipping around like satan's flail. It chewed the crap out of the concrete floor and bent the living shit out of a stout welded tool cart sitting nearby. He's incredibly lucky it didn't kill anybody, as people are always walking around back there. We had an Okuma LC-40. When the spindle would wind up it sounded like a 747 winding up. LOL. Guy crashed it and knocked the upper turret off. There was evidence that the base of the turret was already cracked. Shop puts it up for sale and the salesman comes in. "oh, you know what happened to that before you guys bought it don't you?"
Previous shop that owned it was feeding a 4" cold rolled bar into the spindle from the backside. While the operator was feeding the material in, someone turned the spindle on. 4" can whip like a wet noodle when driven by 80HP LOL. That material hitting the floor moved the 20,000 lb machine about 6 feet. No wonder that spindle sounded like shit. Told my boss the worst thing about your machine moving 6 feet would be when you turned to hit the E-stop, it wouldnt' be there anymore, it would be 6 feet that way! LOL |
|
Quoted:
Student at the university machine shop left the chuck wrench on the mill .... flung off and destroyed a safety window Faculty member made repeated comments about being the only one trained and qualified to use the fancy new CNC mill. Shortly after he ran the cutting bit into the table Students decided to use a lathe as a welding jig... First place I worked at after retiring from the service had a model shop next to our area. It was amazing to see some of the stuff the engineers would do while they were trying to fab their ideas after the modelmakers had left for the day. Saw the chuck wrench go flying more than a couple of times. |
| Mexican male decides to drill castings while wearing leather gloves (against rules/signs/procedure/training/common sense). Said genius cleans shavings off drill bit with shop rag...while it's still spinning. Rag pulls gloved hand into rotating bit. Drill press rips leather glove off hand. Hand was the size of a grapefruit by the time I got there. |
|
I'm going to try to get this down in a semi legible and mostly coherent manner...but I've been drinking and I'm on my stupid phone.
You know that guy in all the little pictures on the machine? That fucking dude that's always doing the wrong thing? The pictogram guy on the Don't Be That Guy stuff? Yeah I worked with that fuckin guy. He lived in the non mezzanine anove the office because he got evicted from the apartments he managed. So one dark morning I unlocked the door and turned on the lights and headed back to make coffee. I hear this odd slap-fwish noise coming towards the office from the shop. Yep, Tragedy Man overslept the alarm clock and is padding barefoot in his tighty whiteys heading for the bathroom to get rid of his pee hard. Goddamn it! Never a good thing to see at any time let alone at 5 fucking am. |
| We just got a Haas CNC lathe the first one in the shop ( this was several years ago ). The guy that was trained to run it was using the bar feeder. The 1" diameter stuck out of the machine about 3 feet. It bent at about 10,000 RPM. Made the machine hop. My office was on the other side of that wall. Scared the shit out of me. |
|
Quoted:
We had an Okuma LC-40. When the spindle would wind up it sounded like a 747 winding up. LOL. Guy crashed it and knocked the upper turret off. There was evidence that the base of the turret was already cracked. Shop puts it up for sale and the salesman comes in. "oh, you know what happened to that before you guys bought it don't you?"
Previous shop that owned it was feeding a 4" cold rolled bar into the spindle from the backside. While the operator was feeding the material in, someone turned the spindle on. 4" can whip like a wet noodle when driven by 80HP LOL. That material hitting the floor moved the 20,000 lb machine about 6 feet. No wonder that spindle sounded like shit. Told my boss the worst thing about your machine moving 6 feet would be when you turned to hit the E-stop, it wouldnt' be there anymore, it would be 6 feet that way! LOL Quoted:
Quoted:
We had a student down in the shop who decided to turn down the end of a 1/2" OD steel rod in a big LeBlond lathe. Problem is, the rod was like 8 feet long, and I guess he didn't feel like cutting it down first. He gets this thing set up with about 6 feet hanging out the back of the headstock, and turns the lathe on to around 700 rpm. Almost instantly, the rod bends 90 degrees at the end of headstock and starts whipping around like satan's flail. It chewed the crap out of the concrete floor and bent the living shit out of a stout welded tool cart sitting nearby. He's incredibly lucky it didn't kill anybody, as people are always walking around back there. We had an Okuma LC-40. When the spindle would wind up it sounded like a 747 winding up. LOL. Guy crashed it and knocked the upper turret off. There was evidence that the base of the turret was already cracked. Shop puts it up for sale and the salesman comes in. "oh, you know what happened to that before you guys bought it don't you?"
Previous shop that owned it was feeding a 4" cold rolled bar into the spindle from the backside. While the operator was feeding the material in, someone turned the spindle on. 4" can whip like a wet noodle when driven by 80HP LOL. That material hitting the floor moved the 20,000 lb machine about 6 feet. No wonder that spindle sounded like shit. Told my boss the worst thing about your machine moving 6 feet would be when you turned to hit the E-stop, it wouldnt' be there anymore, it would be 6 feet that way! LOL Nothing scares me more than a big lathe. Nothing. You've just confirmed my fears, haha. |
|
My first month on the mazak driving solo...
Got the jig and parts all setup and perfect. Was trying to speed though because I was behind and the previous operator was a friggen terminator with 20+ years of experience on me. As I'm typing on the screen, I key in a negative value as oppose to positive and didn't realize it because I'm in a hurry. The cutting head makes a B line from the home position the the jib and runs it over at full speed. Loudest and most expensive mistake I've made in my life. Boss man wasn't too happy either. Luckily nothing unrepairable or expensive was broken.
From then on I had a shadow watch over me and double check my quadrupole checks.
|
|
Just two days ago, new guy on nights decides he would do me a favor and clean the rotary bushing on one of the machines...
Note: "Ran good, cleaned bushing". Ran that machine for a few hours the next morning and then noticed something didn't look quite right, so I started digging in to it. He stripped out the adjustment gear and swapped the whole assembly with a beater from a different model machine we had filed away in a cabinet...... that just happened to be a close enough fit to function.... The best part... There are 8 captured head hex screws that hold the assembly into the rotary..... He didn't tighten a single one. All of them were two turns from releasing. The program running runs for 3 minutes 30 seconds, half of which at greater than 6000 rpm. Several at 7500 rpm. Feeding in and out of the bushing 3 inches per part. 5lb bushing, 7500 rpm, flying through a thin plastic window.
|
|
Had an operator ask me to turn a part 90deg to fit on the end of the sheet he had up on a router. Came back and said its giving him an out of bounds error. knowing they screw up calibrating/surfacing enough that z axis ob are common, I ask him which axis, to which he replies, "O". "O bounds error" And he continues to work nights, running 2 router tables, with no supervision. |
|
Had a guy get one of his digits twisted off when polishing a small bored hole. He was using way too much sand paper and of course it caught.
Guy that worked for us for years and am friends with him still to this day had a couple mishaps that could have ended him. He was turning some nylon parts on the engine lathe, believe the part was 2.5-3" OD and 5 or 6" long. It managed to come out of the jaws and hit him right above his forehead. He was bleeding needless to say. I've worked with plenty of dumbshits in my time. Over the years have a had a few guys not last longer than a couple days for doing shit like running 100% rapid and closing door not watching on the set up part. |
| My old company had a part that started as 1-1/4" black pipe. A guy cut it at 45-deg and sanded down the rough edges on a vertical belt sander. Well, prior to starting the sanding on this fateful day, he put on a new belt...and didn't close the guard. Mistake number two was holding the pipe several inches above the table rest. The 3-ft long pipe slipped out of his hands, the belt slammed the end into the table raft which flipped the pipe so that the end hit the bottom roller on the belt. The pipe then ricocheted off his mouth. Cut through his lip just above his chin, doing some pretty nasty damage to his jaw, gum and teeth. He was easy to find on the break room due to the trail of blood. |
|
Quoted:
My old company had a part that started as 1-1/4" black pipe. A guy cut it at 45-deg and sanded down the rough edges on a vertical belt sander. Well, prior to starting the sanding on this fateful day, he put on a new belt...and didn't close the guard. Mistake number two was holding the pipe several inches above the table rest. The 3-ft long pipe slipped out of his hands, the belt slammed the end into the table raft which flipped the pipe so that the end hit the bottom roller on the belt. The pipe then ricocheted off his mouth. Cut through his lip just above his chin, doing some pretty nasty damage to his jaw, gum and teeth. He was easy to find on the break room due to the trail of blood. We had a maintenance guy get hurt. Looked like someone shot a deer with the blood trail he left to the sinks. LOL There was a screw on the corner of a machine at about head height. Screwdriver slipped out, went up his nostril, hit the cartilage and that deflected it out near the bridge of his nose. When he came back to work, I asked him how much of the screwdriver went up his nose (was about a 12" long screwdriver). "All of it went up, I ended up punching myself in the nose with the hand that was on it". |
I was using a hydraulic piston pin press to knock out press fit pins on some small block pistons, didn't realize I had the dowel in crooked and when I hit the button to press it out the gauge shot too over 7k psi before I could back it off and the dowel exploded into two pieces. Bottom piece dropped out the bottom of the jig while the top shot upwards, hit the roof, bounced and hit the wall behind me and still had enough energy to bounce off that and hit me in the back of the head 
The wall was where my bosses office was, he came running out thinking I had just killed myself. I was fine except for a large knot on the back of my head. I didn't touch that machine for about 3 weeks after that. Another time i didn't have a cylinder head mounted on the rotary broach properly and it fell half way through a cut. I didn't catch it until the pass was over and by then a .005" cut became a .250" cut. We had to re-sharpen the teeth the next day.
Head was useless, luckily we had an extra set that took me the rest of the day to match up but it didn't come out of my pocket.
|
| I don't have a lot of CNC stories, but I watched one kid touching off a part in a HAAS mill using a 2" diameter stubby end mill. He forgot that he had the jog set on 0.1" instead of 0.001". He drove that fucker directly down onto the part at speed, which caused the end mill to explode. It flung a great big chunk of the end mill right through the open door, past his face, and hit the opposite wall of the shop. |
|
Quoted:
I don't have a lot of CNC stories, but I watched one kid touching off a part in a HAAS mill using a 2" diameter stubby end mill. He forgot that he had the jog set on 0.1" instead of 0.001". He drove that fucker directly down onto the part at speed, which caused the end mill to explode. It flung a great big chunk of the end mill right through the open door, past his face, and hit the opposite wall of the shop. Was running a 1" HSS drill on an open More vertical mill one night. "hhmmm that doesn't sound quite right". As I'm reaching for the feed hold button, the drill explodes and a large chunk of it goes flying between me and the control panel. No shortage of close calls LOL |
|
Quoted:
We had a maintenance guy get hurt. Looked like someone shot a deer with the blood trail he left to the sinks. LOL There was a screw on the corner of a machine at about head height. Screwdriver slipped out, went up his nostril, hit the cartilage and that deflected it out near the bridge of his nose. When he came back to work, I asked him how much of the screwdriver went up his nose (was about a 12" long screwdriver). "All of it went up, I ended up punching myself in the nose with the hand that was on it". Quoted:
Quoted:
My old company had a part that started as 1-1/4" black pipe. A guy cut it at 45-deg and sanded down the rough edges on a vertical belt sander. Well, prior to starting the sanding on this fateful day, he put on a new belt...and didn't close the guard. Mistake number two was holding the pipe several inches above the table rest. The 3-ft long pipe slipped out of his hands, the belt slammed the end into the table raft which flipped the pipe so that the end hit the bottom roller on the belt. The pipe then ricocheted off his mouth. Cut through his lip just above his chin, doing some pretty nasty damage to his jaw, gum and teeth. He was easy to find on the break room due to the trail of blood. We had a maintenance guy get hurt. Looked like someone shot a deer with the blood trail he left to the sinks. LOL There was a screw on the corner of a machine at about head height. Screwdriver slipped out, went up his nostril, hit the cartilage and that deflected it out near the bridge of his nose. When he came back to work, I asked him how much of the screwdriver went up his nose (was about a 12" long screwdriver). "All of it went up, I ended up punching myself in the nose with the hand that was on it". Holy shit that had to hurt! Bet he didn't do it again.
|
|
Quoted:
What about guys that think they can set a die in a press without ensuring its at BDC first? Love those guys. We have a few "die setters" that love leaving things on top of hand transfer dies before running a first off. It's amazing how much abuse dies can handle sometimes. |
|
Quoted:
Student at the university machine shop left the chuck wrench on the mill .... flung off and destroyed a safety window Faculty member made repeated comments about being the only one trained and qualified to use the fancy new CNC mill. Shortly after he ran the cutting bit into the table Students decided to use a lathe as a welding jig... We had a trainee put a chuck wrench through his breast. Dr. sewed it up crooked so his nipple was not round, it looked kinda like the symbol for a hurricane.
Another time one of the owners decided he was going to make a coffee table out of a 4' diameter oak stump. We had to re-level two lathes when he slung it out of the VTL. 
|
|
Quoted:
From Gunsmith school. I'm standing next to a guy who's ready to use the surface grinder on his bench block. He forgot to check the "Z" height and hit the table feed. It sounded like an explosion when the grinding wheel disintegrated. Luckily they had it facing into the corner......................... Another time I'm standing next to a guy and he forgets to take the wrench off the collet draw bar on a Bridgeport. Turns it on and snaps the draw bar.
I had to stay late and help him fix it because I was there. I saw a guy do this on a blanchard grinder. Hand fed the grinder down to the finish depth (resurfacing and sharpening a shaper cutter). When he was done he hit the rappid in instead of rapid out. The cutter punched through the managers wall and stone dust hit everyone in a 20 foot radius. |
|
Haas ST40
My partner tries to load up parts almost 4 ft long and 6" Diameter and turn it without setting the tailstock... multiple times now, and has almost tossed the raw stock out of the chuck. (He has 20 years experience supposedly) I keep telling him hes going to fling a part....hurt me, hurt himself, he is a fucking retard. he cant read a blueprint, doesn't know how to read mics, doesn't understand he needs to change speeds and feeds for different material, and is constantly asking me to write his programs and do his job for him. He has also crashed all of our Haas Lathes atleast 6 times, putting them out of service for one day to over a week... Ive watched him run the turret into the chuck twice, drop a boring bar onto a part at 1100rpm, etc. He makes more money than I do 
|
|
A boss that does not understand what he is asking me to do and wonders why it takes so long.
Cases in point: The lathe is a 1980's Microcut (Taiwan made) that swings 32 inches over the bed and about 46" in the gap, and has about 11' between centers. It is rather worn out. It has less cross sectional iron on the ways and bed than the 20" Monarch built in 1952. The thing's cross slide moves between three and four thousands as you bump the traverse handle back and fourth. It took me a few weeks to diagnose why it would produce a six thousandths taper in three inches of travel. I have to use this machine to repair electric motor bearing fits on some fairly good sized machines. The tolerances for these bearing fits are around 0.001 total for a housing. For example, a common housing bearing that I have to sleeve has a finish size that must be between 5.5118" and 5.5128". Then, the boss tells me that I should machine to the larger end of the tolerance for high speed motors (3600 no load RPM), the middle for the medium speed motors (1800 or 1200 RPM), and the bottom of the tolerance for the low speed motors (900 RPM and below). If I have to repair a shaft, the tolerances are reduced even further. I only have a few tenths (of a thousandths) to work with as the bearings are a light shrink fit. A temperature of 200 degrees F should allow the bearing to slide on easily and then shrink to require pressing off the shaft. There is no digital read out on the machines, and I am usually grinding my own tools. The insert tools tend to require too much tool pressure to reliably repeat with this old machinery. I use high-speed steel tool geometry on carbide tools for most of the work. Oh, and the boss has a reluctance to spend money on tooling. When I order tooling, I often only get 1/4 of what I need. |
|
Quoted:
We have a few "die setters" that love leaving things on top of hand transfer dies before running a first off. It's amazing how much abuse dies can handle sometimes. Quoted:
Quoted:
What about guys that think they can set a die in a press without ensuring its at BDC first? Love those guys. We have a few "die setters" that love leaving things on top of hand transfer dies before running a first off. It's amazing how much abuse dies can handle sometimes. Before I got there, a guy set up in the brake press to "size" (squash) castings using large, flat dies. Unfortunately he set the part over one of the corners...where the bolt was recessed. The corner fractured and a piece went through his forearm, breaking one of his bones. They put up a light curtain and foot-pedal+button away from the action after that. |
|
Quoted:
I have to use this machine to repair electric motor bearing fits on some fairly good sized machines. The tolerances for these bearing fits are around 0.001 total for a housing. For example, a common housing bearing that I have to sleeve has a finish size that must be between 5.5118" and 5.5128". Then, the boss tells me that I should machine to the larger end of the tolerance for high speed motors (3600 no load RPM), the middle for the medium speed motors (1800 or 1200 RPM), and the bottom of the tolerance for the low speed motors (900 RPM and below). I'm just a dumb engineer, but he sounds retarded. |
|
In high school we had a benchtop belt sander that wasn't grounded correctly. It sat on a metal cabinet in the middle of the shop. When using it, it was natural to move up closer to the cabinet to see your work better.
Every few days, somebody using it would end up getting too close, and a metal knob on the cabinet would start arcing static electricity right into your johnson. Funniest shit I've ever seen. |
|
Quoted:
Before I got there, a guy set up in the brake press to "size" (squash) castings using large, flat dies. Unfortunately he set the part over one of the corners...where the bolt was recessed. The corner fractured and a piece went through his forearm, breaking one of his bones. They put up a light curtain and foot-pedal+button away from the action after that. Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
What about guys that think they can set a die in a press without ensuring its at BDC first? Love those guys. We have a few "die setters" that love leaving things on top of hand transfer dies before running a first off. It's amazing how much abuse dies can handle sometimes. Before I got there, a guy set up in the brake press to "size" (squash) castings using large, flat dies. Unfortunately he set the part over one of the corners...where the bolt was recessed. The corner fractured and a piece went through his forearm, breaking one of his bones. They put up a light curtain and foot-pedal+button away from the action after that. I've seen some mangled stop blocks, but never watched it happen. Did hear a fork trucks fork shatter once. That'll get your attention especially with 20+k lbs on it |
|
Had a couple guys run a tailstock through their hands. Stepped on the pedal on the right and not the one on the left. LOL
First one put it right through the center of his thumbnail. Never did hear how that turned out. Second one had his hand pushing the part into the chuck. Hit the wrong pedal and drove the tailstock through the back of his hand and into the part. Amazingly he didn't break anything. Center pushed the bones to the side. |
|
Quoted:
Haas ST40 My partner tries to load up parts almost 4 ft long and 6" Diameter and turn it without a center... multiple times now, and has almost tossed the raw stock out of the chuck. (He has 20 years experience supposedly) I keep telling him hes going to fling a part....hurt me, hurt himself, he is a fucking retard. he cant read a blueprint, doesn't know how to read mics, doesn't understand he needs to change speeds and feeds for different material, and is constantly asking me to write his programs and do his job for him. He has also crashed all of our Haas Lathes atleast 6 times, putting them out of service for one day to over a week... Ive watched him run the turret into the chuck twice, drop a boring bar onto a part at 1100rpm, etc. He makes more money than I do Unfortunately there is an unfounded stigma in the industry that years = skill. Dumbest fucking thing ever. Skill = Skill Experience = Experience. They are NOT mutually inclusive. |