Experience

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

A critical gearbox failed and no one could fix it. So they brought in a bloke with great trouble-shooting experience. He inspected the gear drive very carefully. After looking things over, the guy reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Before long, the gearbox was back working!

The owners got his bill for £10k. "What?!" the owners said, "You hardly did anything – send us an itemized bill.”

The reply simply said: Tapping with a hammer. £50 Knowing where to tap. £9,950

Steve

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

A great story, but googling 'knowing where to tap' brings up a huge range of versions – usually boilers in a big ship or building.

It seems the original story had Henry Ford as the client. This is interesting:

answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=183998

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

I seem to remember a joke about the difference between the apprentice, the technician and the engineer?

The apprentice knows that you have to hit the thing to get it to work, the technician knows where and how hard to hit it and the engineer understands why you have to hit it.

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

The rest of Us know it gets hit many times, some in anger!

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Actually that can backfire.

I was asked to alter the design of what would have been a £30K reception desk we were quoting for a client & the extra cost £ 4500-00

Because they complained ( but could not get it cheaper elsewhere & spent 4 weeks trawling the market, so went with us) I went on site & supervised the work personally.I had pre prepared the job & it went like a dream

I actually did the extra part in a day & the MD said " you did that in a day, how can you justify £ 4500" I jokingly said " that only cost £500" he said " what was the " £ 4K for " I said Knowing how to do it"

The bar steward knocked me for £ 4K

I had worked for them for years so refused to do any more, but to get some more work done 6 months later the buyer tried to tempt me with an extra £4.5k as an apology & i suspect the MD knew all about it. I actually accepted £ 4K & we shook hands

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

I came across a true occurrence of the hammer story. Many years ago, when my first wife was a student at Newcastle, one of her friends had an old car.

One morning the starter went clunk and jammed. Suzanne trotted round the corner to a nearby workshop (there was one round every corner in those days) and came back with a man in filthy overalls who brought a hammer.

He slid under the car, fetched the end of the starter spindle a whack with his hammer, emerged and started the car.

When he asked for a £1 (which was worth having in those days) she remarked that he only hit it with a hammer and got the classic reply "but I know where to hit it".

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Posted by Robbo on 27/05/2016 09:08:19:

I came across a true occurrence of the hammer story. Many years ago, when my first wife was a student at Newcastle, one of her friends had an old car.

One morning the starter went clunk and jammed. Suzanne trotted round the corner to a nearby workshop (there was one round every corner in those days) and came back with a man in filthy overalls who brought a hammer.

He slid under the car, fetched the end of the starter spindle a whack with his hammer, emerged and started the car.

When he asked for a £1 (which was worth having in those days) she remarked that he only hit it with a hammer and got the classic reply "but I know where to hit it".

Yes, used to be a common fault, stuck Bendix, you only paid once, after that you hit it yourself. Dave.

[David ColwillParticipant @davidcolwill19261]

I was with a friend once and had to call round to one of his friends that I had never met. They were standing round their television which kept flickering on and off. I asked for a tape measure and proceeded to find a spot on the case. I then gave it a sharp knock at the point I had measured and the television stopped flickering and worked perfectly (and continued to do so for some years)

To say they were amazed was an understatement. They still talk about it now. I knew that there was a possibility that a sharp blow would temporarily sort it out and the tape measure was just showmanship but they didn't!

David

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

To prevent any devices moving in a guarded machine when the personnel gate is open, the power for valves and drives is fed through relays monitored by a safety PLC. The PLC inputs used for monitoring draw very little current through the monitoring contacts of the relay so atmospheric pollution can cause an open circuit. Proper fault finding will determine the fault but a couple of shap blows to the panel backplane will move the contact enough to fix the problem. The maintenance lads love it when I recognise the problem and instead of spending time going through the drawings just give it a quick thump and we are good to go.If the problem reccurs the relays will be changed at a convenient time.

Mike

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Friend of mine had his laptop stolen from the boot of his car. The police showed him a very small ding in the boot lid by the lock. Apparently on that make it was a known problem that the mfr hadn't bothered to do anything about or warn the owners.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Posted by Bazyle on 27/05/2016 12:45:08:

Friend of mine had his laptop stolen from the boot of his car. The police showed him a very small ding in the boot lid by the lock. Apparently on that make it was a known problem that the mfr hadn't bothered to do anything about or warn the owners.

So OK tell us the make and model so other may be warned !

H

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Old valve TVs were often fixed with a thump. Boards with lots of DIL in sockets also respond well to a knock or pressing the chips into their sockets for the same reason – poor contact/oxidation/creeping with changes of temperature.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Dad was a radar mechanic, RNZAF, served in Britain during WW2, and later was a technician with the NZ Broadcasting Service, and his method with valve/tube radio gear was give it a kick, as Neil says it's often enough to improve a connection in a pin and socket joint such as a valve base. Ian S C

[Mark CParticipant @markc]

looking at the picture – anyone who can fix that bearing by tapping it with a hammer is probably worth 10K/hour

Mark

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

He just needs a very large hammer.

At a place I once worked we had an instrumented sledge hammer so you knew how hard you'd hit it. Not as daft as it sounds, it was for seismic testing, where the input energy/force mattered

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by duncan webster on 28/05/2016 20:32:43:

He just needs a very large hammer.

At a place I once worked we had an instrumented sledge hammer so you knew how hard you'd hit it. Not as daft as it sounds, it was for seismic testing, where the input energy/force mattered

That brings back memories of a sesimc survey of chalk grassland when I was a student. The 'explosives' were a large chunk of steel plate and a sledge.

Neil

[EugeneParticipant @eugene]

My late boss the great and lamented Ronnie once said "Experience is something that ****** ***** will have when I've finished with him."

He was right on both counts.

Eug

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

I though that experience means that you know when you're making the same dumb mistake again.

* Danny M *

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

I had a foreman who used to say Experience is built on a mountain of scrap And also The man who never made a mistake never made anything

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

One of the best was watching a student catch a black hot rivet thrown to him with his hands when every one else lifted up their leather apron to catch it. I can recall the Blacksmiths name, 'Blubber' Lay, a big jovial man well suited to being a Blacksmith. Calloused hands and one finger missing.

[steamdaveParticipant @steamdave]

"Good judgement comes from Experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement." – Will Rogers

Dave
The Emerald Isle

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Which of the American astronauts was it who, having fixed a vital piece of machinery by giving it a thump (in just the right place, of course), described the technique as "impact engineering"? It's a description of the technique which has stuck in my head for over 40 years.

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

At different firms I've worked for, the guys who always reached for a hammer even for repairs on delicate machines were dubbed "percussion mechanics". JD

[PeroParticipant @pero]

Jeff

You have me a little worried.

One of my (Oriental) lathes has a manual which describes it as a "Percission Lathe". I had thought this a typographical error but now wonder if it is an abbreviation for "Percussion Precision Lathe", i.e. keep bashing it until you achieve the required level of accuracy!

Pero

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