Workshop Mistakes (True Confessions)

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Mike-

Perhaps in your favour was that having made the mistake, you soon identified it. I have seen very experienced people tie themselves in utter knots by missing a very simple error, because they cannot imagine they'd make such basic errors.

'''''

A Cautionary – or Exemplary – Tale of Two Instructions…

From my sister Sarah, who is skilled in the creative-arts traditionally associated with the distaff side, so whom I would trust to Do Practical Things Correctly.

Her daughter and son-in-law bought a "Garden Room" (big fancy shed ideal for a cosy model-engineering workshop, if given a solid floor and not used an office / guest-bedroom). It arrived of course as a self-assembly kit.

Hubby and S-in-L, with occasional "hold this" help from the others, managed to turn the huge pile of machined timber eventually into a sufficiently effective Big Fancy Shed, but only by a lot of bodging, straining and mis-matching; and not as the manufacturers had intended. I gather S-in-L had tried to approach it in the logical way but was rather sidelined by Hubby's more impetuous nature.

Meanwhile, Sarah proudly told me having narrated the above, she and Michelle had engaged themselves indoors, assembling a flat-pack book-case (Ikea probably).

Sarah described how they laid all the parts out neatly on the lounge floor, patiently identified each by the diagrams and numbers right down to the legendary Allen key, and carefully but quite rapidly put it all together with no problems at all, and just as it was made to do.

.

Moral? Well, we mere males are said to use the Instructions only as a desperate Last Resort; and for some that is certainly so!

++++

Though it was only after I had crossed Mr, Griffiths' palm with plastic in return for the facsimile Operation & Servicing Manual, that I could make my Harrison L5 Lathe cut threads the change-wheels told me they'd be!

Or rather, let us be fair to the still gallantly effective old gal, that I can now cut threads matching my wheels sums.

(This lathe follows the change-wheels with a 2-speed-&-direct gearbox serving both feed-shaft and lead-screw; and I had not understood it…)

I still can't knit lathe-cosies though.

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

Part of my apprenticeship was 6 months turning on a Ward 2a capstan lathe,the work was components for scientific instruments small batches from 20 to 1000 components,after brief instruction on setting you had to do the setting up as well as the work,wich was mainly i brass ,nickel silver ,aluminium,and a few small steel jobs,one day I was setting up for a run of around 1000 brass parts for microscope eye pieces ,which had fine threads for lens locking rings and where the eyepiece screwed into a microscope, threads cut with ordinary taps and dies,I set myself the task of seeing if I could complete the batch without adjusting or resharpening any of the cutting tools,so took a bit of time with the set up and then got going ,while setting up I "lost" 3 parts as they were not good enough,the company was fairly small so the owner spent a fair time in the works,well he came round to see how I was doing ,he saw the the 3 scrap parts in the swarf tray and told me off for wasting the brass (1.5 inch bar ) , though during the week he came back after looking at the time sheets and asked how I managed to get the usual component time down from 41/4 minutes to 31/2 minutes,the fastest that it had been done, my reply was I took a lot of care in the setting up to see if it was possible to avoid stoppages and resharpening ,If I remember it was only the die that needed adjusting,all HSS tooling had not required attention,The main lesson I learnt from this was sod being honest,if in future I have to part off parts that I was not satified with ,dont part off just machine it off to swarf leave no evidence. I still have one of the parts in my tool cabinet drawer 60 years later as a reminder. It was a good example of what can be done with HSS tools and toolbits,if they are ground correctly no need for carbide, and no power feeds .

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Absolutely, they can’t touch you if they can’t find the body!!

regards Martin

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

My absolute favourite was the bloke who drilled a small dimple in the brand new milling machine table.
After a little thought he drilled and tapped it for a grub screw and then stamped OIL next to it.

Brilliant.

regards Martin

Edited By Martin Kyte on 17/03/2023 15:49:43

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by Martin Kyte on 17/03/2023 15:34:00:

Absolutely, they can’t touch you if they can’t find the body!!

regards Martin

Off topic but anyone reminded of an episode of a detective series in which the murder weapon, an aluminium crutch, was turned to swarf on the Myford the weird murderer had in his living room. The scriptwriter obviously had something against model engineers.

[Phil LinghamParticipant @phillingham79132]

Not one of mine but rather amusing anyway.

Back in the early 1990's we were having a number of special purpose automated machines made by Philips in Holland. One of the engineers I was working with told me a they had one designer / draughtsman who was particularly arrogant and claimed never to make mistakes. We were still working with manual drawings in those days and said chap had transposed the dimensions of a bore and an outside diameter. The machinist making the part presented him with tongue firmly in cheek with a cardboard box of swarf and said here's the part you asked me to make. Obviously he was asked why he had brought a box of swarf to which he replied that he knew the draughtsman never made a mistake and that is exactly what the drawing specified!

Whether the portion of humble pie he was force fed had any effect I never found out.

[Norfolk BoyParticipant @norfolkboy]

" Off topic but anyone reminded of an episode of a detective series in which the murder weapon, an aluminium crutch, was turned to swarf on the Myford the weird murderer had in his living room. The scriptwriter obviously had something against model engineers. "

I actually remeber seeing this and I might be mistaken but I think it was a documentary and the crutch was his maothers aid and he disposed of her shall we say without trace in the bath. Apologies for prolonging the off topic semi engineering at least misusing a lathe for nefarious purposes.

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

Must have taken a long time to turn that crutch to swarf if he used a Myford, we all know you can’t take big cuts on them, just think how much quicker he could have done it on these wonderful machines from China, assuming of course that he had stripped it all down and rebuilt it properly beforehand. Think I will get tin hat and hide for a while.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Well he would have been able to fit the crutch up spindle hole on a Chinese lathe, which would make the job easier than moving the fixed steady up the bed every time you turned a few inches of the crutch into swarf on the trusty Myford.

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