Old Versus New.

 Our Location today is Windsor, Ontario.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Not every day turns out the way we hope it will especially in the manufacturing world. When I spoke to Mile early this morning, I listed what I would be doing and he simply said to have a Good Day.

As soon as I had the Rebuild Unit mounted in the PTA, it only took moments to get the Burner going. Today it was doing double duty, first to burn off Plastic still impacted on the Screw and second to bring it up to welding temperature. I even managed to do a quick touch-up before getting ready to weld using the Plasma Transfer Arc. Lately I’ve mentioned different things that have been happening, that in most part are unexpected, well today took the prize.

I tried bringing the Carriage in place but it wouldn’t move, so I walked over and gave it a yank. It immediately start in the direction it should before suddenly stopping. On the Touch Screen it showed a Fault had occurred, and that the Carriage had reached its travel limit. Being Fifteen Feet from the location needed to do the job was not okay. Vic and I tried various things but none that got it going.

Vinnie the Engineer told me just do the job and worry about fixing it later. ???? As soon as I told Mile what was happening, he was on the phone to the Electrician. (He couldn’t reach him.)

I went back and forth doing repairs and trying to get the PTA going. At lunch I mentioned to Kathy I might leave early.

When you are welding besides concentrating on the job at hand, you also have time to think about lots of other things. We often comment how well New Technology (Computers) works, but we are just as critical about it when it doesn’t. Having worked in maintenance for Forty Years you see a lot of changes. Electrically we used to have Limit-Switches, where today they have Micro-Switches. When I noticed the Micro-Switches were built into the Servo-Motor I asked myself if the Motor had over-run its limit.
Working with Vic again, we ran the Carriage beyond the stop and just let the motor run until it stopped on its own. That was what I was hoping to see. Resetting the Carriage on the track, when the travel button was hit it travelled the entire distance. Now we had to stop it from over-travelling again. I ended up using Masking Tape to hold a Wooden Block in place on the track, ahead of the Positive Stop. Mile could not believe that a solution as simple as that was fixing his Million Dollar Machine. (If it works, don’t knock it.)

Since that job is scheduled to be completed next week, I’ll have to finish welding it tomorrow.

I stopped at Pioneer gas station and fuelled up the Truck for $1.426/Litre ($5.397/US Gallon) while heading for home. Next I deposited my Pay-Cheque at Motor City Community Credit Union. Finally I picked up more Extra Strength Tylenol at Shoppers Drug Mart.

It felt good to be out in the Sunshine but even better to be home. We had more Veggie-Wraps for supper tonight.

Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment, unless it personally attacks someone for their opinion, or is Spam.

Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.

Krackers

Words of Inspiration

If you’ve never met the devil on the road of life, it’s because you’re both heading in the same direction.

Spiritual Quote