Shop Pet Peeves

[atex57]

Id have every machine with its own shop vac ......these are very handy for quick cleanups ......and yes ,sometimes stuff gets vacced that shouldnt ...........the alternative is people blowing down with compressed air .

So handy around the mills getting into the tee slots.

Ed.

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

Just thought of another one - this time at the place I went to after Dad's had closed.

Large shop making pumps and such.
Maintenance guy was a real stoner. Always toking up in the garage behind the plant.
He forgot to replace the batteries in the garage door openers that were in the trucks, vans, and forklifts. You can see where this will wind up.
Guy in charge of shipping/receiving was an Asian guy who always ran everywhere. I don't think he was over 4'10" tall and 90 lbs. Never stayed still for a minute.
Steel truck came with large delivery.
Forklift came roaring around a corner, tapped the door opener and ..... well, the security cameras captured the guys expression as he realized the door wasn't opening. Stoner just happened to come around the corner as this all went down. Dude on the forklift grabbed a wrench and chased the stoner. Took 5 guys to hold him back. Woof... that was a bad day.

 

[john.k]

Well ,stoners were vague and slow ,not with it ..........and for sure Id pick one any day to whats young men are like now ......I had a very scary experience just last week ......young guy Ive sort of known for ten years or so ,and sold a bit of stuff to he fixed up and did allright out of ..........anyhoo ,he turns up ,talking gibberish ,not able to get a word out in one piece ......high on meth IMHO ......he happens to mention he's on an AVO ........going on about not being able to see his two boys ....he s running an unregistered/uninsured tip truck (like 25ton gross)..........OK ,my point being young (under 40) men are very likely on meth ,and can be very aggressive.

 

[tylersteez]

I don't mind cleaning up, I've had others clean up after me and that's usually when a parallel or endmill hidden under some chips gets swept into the garbage can accidentally. It's also just part of the workflow. If you finish one job and then have another part to machine of a different material, do you just wait around for a guy to clean up the machine? Id rather just clean up the prior job and get right into making the next part

 

[rjwalker1973]

I'm kinda on the fence over the whole 'clean up' bit....especially in a business. If a person is a machinist, why are they expected to also be a sweep-boy? It seems if I were running a shop, the last thing I'd want to do is pay someone machinist's wages to push a broom.

When Marcus Welby gets done operating, does he get in trouble if he doesn't clean up the operating room?

When Anthony Bourdain - pre suicide - made a fancy dinner for Madonna, did he have to stay late washing dishes?

When Taylor Swift gets done wowing the crowds with her unique brand of hard rock music, does she get berated for not breaking down the stage and cleaning the dressing room?

1. Yes I expect my people to clean up after themselves.
2. Don't ever call Taylor Swift hard rock. Nearly made me vomit in my mouth.

 

[rjwalker1973]

People "adjusting" tool offsets and when they bang up a turret, tell me "the machine just did it on its own!"

.

On another forum my screen name is "The machine just went crazy"

 

[Sam I]

I'm a one man shop and my biggest peeve in the shop is customers / couriers / sales men etc sneaking up on me whilst I'm working.

My shop has a large shutter door that I keep open slightly in the summer to air the shop and keep it cool. To stop people wandering in I have a red and white chain strung across the opening. If someone wants to come in they need to go through the personnel door located all of 10' to the left of the shutter door and that one is rigged up to a bell in the workshop so I know if someone has entered the building. And yet several times a week I'll have my back to the door with my head in a machine or worse - operating the manual lathes with hot chips potentially flying all over the place when someone will come and tap me on the shoulder after stepping over the anti personnel chain!

Not to mention the space around the workshop door is generally used as a goods in space and not a walkway. I have had people stumble after catching a pallet or some bar that's just been delivered when they shouldn't be there in the first place.

Not even a joke but had a courier come in through the workshop door while writing this post!

 

[PegroProX440]

When building a mold or fitting parts like bushings or leader pins. Finding out the components were never ordered.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I'm a one man shop and my biggest peeve in the shop is customers / couriers / sales men etc sneaking up on me whilst I'm working.

My shop has a large shutter door that I keep open slightly in the summer to air the shop and keep it cool. To stop people wandering in I have a red and white chain strung across the opening. If someone wants to come in they need to go through the personnel door located all of 10' to the left of the shutter door and that one is rigged up to a bell in the workshop so I know if someone has entered the building. And yet several times a week I'll have my back to the door with my head in a machine or worse - operating the manual lathes with hot chips potentially flying all over the place when someone will come and tap me on the shoulder after stepping over the anti personnel chain!

Not to mention the space around the workshop door is generally used as a goods in space and not a walkway. I have had people stumble after catching a pallet or some bar that's just been delivered when they shouldn't be there in the first place.

Not even a joke but had a courier come in through the workshop door while writing this post!

You need a big dog !

Regards Tyrone

 

[cnctoolcat]

Worn-out and buggered-up hex and torx wrenches at the lathes used for changing inserts. All ya' gotta do is belt sand or grind the ends back, makes them brand new!

Not writing things down or keeping good-enough notes. About every time the occasional repeat job rolls around, it can be like starting from scratch.

Not checking each other's work. Two sets of eyes are infinitely better than one.

Experienced guys hoarding their knowledge.

Salesmen that stay too long because you happen to be friendly.

Suppliers screwing up invoices---always in their favor.

Jeez, what shop owner couldn't go on?!

ToolCat

 

[eKretz]

Id have every machine with its own shop vac ......these are very handy for quick cleanups ......and yes ,sometimes stuff gets vacced that shouldnt ...........the alternative is people blowing down with compressed air .

In a working shop I have always used air to clean the machines, but *carefully* - never blowing toward way wipers or other areas where fines could get trapped and cause damage, and never using large amounts of air. Just a gentle hiss, only enough to throw the chips with about the same force as though they were being brushed. The advantage of the air is that it moves more chips and faster. The disadvantage is that not everyone is as careful as I am. I do use a Shop-Vac on my machines at home pretty often. But for things like giving the quick change toolpost a quick cleaning before swapping tools, I'll use the air gun.

I have always been of a mind to clean my machine thoroughly at the end of the day. Whether an employer told me to or not. If a machine like an HBM was going to be idle for more than a day, I would hose the entire table down with coolant and scrub it clean, including cleaning out the T-slots. When I was doing a lot more estimating after my back issues, I always added a set time to clean the machine and put away setup materials into the job.

 

[M.B. Naegle]

We're guilty of using air on machines too, but they all have regulators in the back dialing it down. It's for clearing chips from your tool and chuck/work area only, not "cleaning" the machine. Some dufus could dial up the pressure if they wanted, but they could drag a full pressure hose from across the shop too. Can't fix stupid.

We've also used air to clean floors too, mainly for getting ships and kitty-litter our from under machines though. Even that takes some brain cells but thankfully most guys seem to get that the air is just spraying stuff out at random, not gathering it together to pick up. The worst was a co-worker decided to blast some out from under a lathe while I was laying down some floor wax a couple machines over.

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

I generally use air to blast chuck jaws clear, or vise jaws clear, and that's about it.
I have brushes for cleaning out machines and tables.

 

[tylersteez]

I'm a one man shop and my biggest peeve in the shop is customers / couriers / sales men etc sneaking up on me whilst I'm working.

The salesmen drive me crazy, I hate the salesman mindset and job altogether. This one sales guy insists on stopping in constantly trying to sell me on his companies grinding wheels and abrasives. told him many times that I'm fine with ordering off mcmaster and don't really care that you can save me $.05 per quick change disc. I know what I need to order and mcmaster will have them at my door the next day, that service is worth the extra cost compared to emailing some random sales guy a list of things and hoping he reads the email and gets it shipped out to me quickly. The last time he caught me at a very bad time and I definitely let him know it.

 

[Yan Wo]

You need a big dog !

Regards Tyrone

You just beat me to it!

 

[jccaclimber]

I'm a one man shop and my biggest peeve in the shop is customers / couriers / sales men etc sneaking up on me whilst I'm working.

My shop has a large shutter door that I keep open slightly in the summer to air the shop and keep it cool. To stop people wandering in I have a red and white chain strung across the opening. If someone wants to come in they need to go through the personnel door located all of 10' to the left of the shutter door and that one is rigged up to a bell in the workshop so I know if someone has entered the building. And yet several times a week I'll have my back to the door with my head in a machine or worse - operating the manual lathes with hot chips potentially flying all over the place when someone will come and tap me on the shoulder after stepping over the anti personnel chain!

Not to mention the space around the workshop door is generally used as a goods in space and not a walkway. I have had people stumble after catching a pallet or some bar that's just been delivered when they shouldn't be there in the first place.

Not even a joke but had a courier come in through the workshop door while writing this post!

I don't disagree on the pet peeve, but it also sounds like you have a known problem.
A shallow angle metal doorstop on the inside to prevent the door from opening would stop them cold, as would moving the chain to the inside of the door so it blocks it from opening. Of course that doesn't work if you want other people to be able to come in from the outside.
I'm not sure how OSHA would feel about it, but I wonder what a "DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE" sign on the chain would do. I've seen those paired with some well placed empty conduit work wonders at getting fork truck drivers to stop clipping corners off of walls.

While it really shouldn't be your problem, it sounds like a great opportunity for a split door with the lower half locked.

 

[richard newman]

I'm a one man shop and my biggest peeve in the shop is customers / couriers / sales men etc sneaking up on me whilst I'm working.

My shop has a large shutter door that I keep open slightly in the summer to air the shop and keep it cool. To stop people wandering in I have a red and white chain strung across the opening. If someone wants to come in they need to go through the personnel door located all of 10' to the left of the shutter door and that one is rigged up to a bell in the workshop so I know if someone has entered the building. And yet several times a week I'll have my back to the door with my head in a machine or worse - operating the manual lathes with hot chips potentially flying all over the place when someone will come and tap me on the shoulder after stepping over the anti personnel chain!

Not to mention the space around the workshop door is generally used as a goods in space and not a walkway. I have had people stumble after catching a pallet or some bar that's just been delivered when they shouldn't be there in the first place.

Not even a joke but had a courier come in through the workshop door while writing this post!

We use screens to keep insects from entering, would probably work with salesmen as well. You should be able to kludge something to block the opening better than the chain...

 

[redlee]

The salesmen drive me crazy, I hate the salesman mindset and job altogether. This one sales guy insists on stopping in constantly trying to sell me on his companies grinding wheels and abrasives. told him many times that I'm fine with ordering off mcmaster and don't really care that you can save me $.05 per quick change disc. I know what I need to order and mcmaster will have them at my door the next day, that service is worth the extra cost compared to emailing some random sales guy a list of things and hoping he reads the email and gets it shipped out to me quickly. The last time he caught me at a very bad time and I definitely let him know it.

Same here, we finally told all sales people you need an appointment , dont show up unannounced.

 

[rjwalker1973]

Worn-out and buggered-up hex and torx wrenches at the lathes used for changing inserts. All ya' gotta do is belt sand or grind the ends back, makes them brand new!

Not writing things down or keeping good-enough notes. About every time the occasional repeat job rolls around, it can be like starting from scratch.

Not checking each other's work. Two sets of eyes are infinitely better than one.

Experienced guys hoarding their knowledge.

Salesmen that stay too long because you happen to be friendly.

Suppliers screwing up invoices---always in their favor.

Jeez, what shop owner couldn't go on?!

ToolCat

Not a shop owner just a lowly manager, but yes this thread could go on infinitely. The hex and torx wrench part especially bugs me , not to mention when employes don't clean the chips out of the screws before loosening them. I don't even order sets of hex wrenches anymore I buy the most common sizes by the bag.

 

[jccaclimber]

My annoyance isn't just the rounded allen wrenches, but the people that mash them into the grinder until they glow to "make them like new again". If you do it slowly you're fine, but cook them and then they're just soft and round off again soon. A 1/4" allen wrench is right around $1 from McMaster Carr, and 60 seconds of my time costs more than that. Treat them like small drill bits and replace them when they go.