we're getting short changed ?

**Disco_owner** · 28th February 2012, 10:22 PM

2 weeks ago at TAFE, while I was taking cuts on one of the horizontal milling machines it started rattling and the power to the machine went out.

I thought I was driving it too hard

somehow the rattling caused a weired short cct internally and caused the circuit breaker to trip and machine lost power .I Called the old experienced bloke over to investigate and explained to him what happended. He says there is a problem with this particular machine so we need to reset the cct breaker in switchboard cupboard.This happended 2-3 times and the machine kept loosing power. so after 2-3 goes the teacher decided that's it , I should use the old dinasour of the czeck republic production , which is an absolute beauty of a machine mind you . but I had set everything up already and clocked the fixed jaw of the vice to the machine and now I had to reapeat the same process again on the one next to it . taking cuts takes no time but it's the set up time that takes a while and i was really poor for time. so our lovely storeman pops a sign on the machine for the daytime students not to use that particular machine. so now out of 2 horizontal milling machine we only have 1 left operating. Tuesdayof last week on my day off I went into class to put in a few extra hours in to knock of some of the skill practices and then on the competency test and to get signed off and guess what . the sign was still there , aarrrgh... that's fine I'll use the other one , just so happens noone else is using it. but while I was working away the maintenance electrician turns up. has a chat to one of the teachers and our storeman and walks around the workshop and then left , noone bothered to mentioned that there is a sign on the Horizontal mill and it's shorting out internally causing the cct breaker to trip or may be they did but the maintenance guy had other priority jobs behind him . no idea . but all I know is that between myself and the rest of the young apprentices there is only 1 horizontal miiling machine operational. That is absolute bullocks.

**Blknight.aus** · 1st March 2012, 04:07 PM

stop whining, do it by hand.

**Disco_owner** · 1st March 2012, 04:21 PM

Sorrry master Dave , it Must have been one of those nights when the Moon wasn't quite alighning with earth

I Just read my post again ,I appologise for Whinging

. it could be a Lot worse . i.e no machine at all .

actually been getting really good finish winding the handle manually I had to do some Spline work last night , fed by hand and good generous supply of Rocol , The Finish was excellent .

**Tank** · 1st March 2012, 07:00 PM

Khos the wheels of Government move slow, when I worked at Cockatoo Island Dockyard there was a large electric crane (over 20T SWL) that rolled back and forward(on rails) beside the main Dry Dock.
You may have seen this type of crane on wharves, etc., they have a large storage roller on the side that feeds the electric power cable into a groove/gutter alongside the track that it runs on. It rolls out and rolls up the power cable (about 3" dia.) depending on which direction, back and forward.
Anyway, 10 years or more before I started work there this roller drum stopped working, so they had to remove the cable from the roller drum and lay it on the ground beside the track and in the groove.
Because the crane was not owned by Vickers Cockatoo Dockyard, but by the Department of Public Works (PWD) (Govt.) Vickers had to wait till PWD fixed it.
In the meantime PWD paid Vickers to employ a fully qualified Electrician to walk beside the travelling crane and assure the power cable did not go under the crane wheels, 3 shifts a day whenever the crane was working, this went on for over 20 years. Imagine the cost to PWD in paying Vickers, they could have bought a new crane, or they could have let Vickers (one of the biggest engineering companies in the world) repair it at no cost, so I wouldn't count on getting your machine fixed anytime soon, but you never know, Regards frank.

**Disco_owner** · 4th March 2012, 03:15 PM

G'day Frank , I have since removed the sign from the machine under the direction of old experienced bloke on Wednesday night. I can't imagine the maintenance sparkie is going to take a look at it any time soon , from what I can understand it's been like this for over a year. Set my angle plate up on it with the cutter in spindle ,started taking cuts . No problem if I don't take heavy cuts .it won't rattle too much. Even the digital display works on this machine .

**justdrinkbeer** · 5th March 2012, 08:51 PM

Mate I recon you should suck it up,. over the next say 50 years of your employed life there are going to be far worse machines you'll have to work on!

**Disco_owner** · 6th March 2012, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by justdrinkbeer

Mate I recon you should suck it up,. over the next say 50 years of your employed life there are going to be far worse machines you'll have to work on!

yeah true , the only difference is , I don't think I'd be able to offer another 50 years of employmentt ,I've just turned 42.

but I get your point. I'm undertaking the Fitting and machining course out of personal interest and by the end of it I don't get qualified as a tradesman in the field I'm not employed as a fitter machinist.

Thread: we're getting short changed ?

Thread Tools

we're getting short changed ?

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions