OT: Bubba redneck rigs Otis's redneck rig.

On Saturday Otis replaced an air cylinder that had a bad rod seal and bushing. When Otis checked MRO inventory he discovered that the spare air cylinder was the wrong model. Daisy in purchasing found a cheaper one and substituted it without running it past engineering or maintenance; Its cheaper because it doesn't have a magnet in the piston to actuate the limit switches. Now this air cylinder is under the machine, so Otis rigged up a broom stick with a magnet duct-taped to it and tells the operator to move the stick from one limit switch to the next as the air cylinder switches. Fortunately for the operator this cylinder only operates about 6 times a shift.

On Sunday Bubba decided that Otis's broom stick magnet is entirely unacceptable. He grabbed a piece of all thread and bent it into a Z shape. He then drilled an extra hole in the plate the piston pushed and secured the all thread to it with a nut. Then duct taped Otis's magnet to it. A little trial an error bending got the magnet in just the right spot, at least for a while.

On Monday afternoon machine has quit working and Cletus is baffled. So he asks for help. The request goes up the chain until I get tasked with it. At this point neither of us knows about the redneck double rig, but quickly discover it. As I'm looking at the rig and scratching my head and Cletus is marveling at the ingenuity behind it, Otis and Bubba show up to start the swing shift and explain what happened.

"Why didn't you just swap the magnetic piston into the new cylinder?"

Blank stares.

This sure is fun (as long as you have a good sense of humor)

Gee Alaric that sounds like my Crew here.

I have 5 of those guy's total.

They really are a highly skilled set of technicians. But sometimes something like this happens and I just wonder at it all....

Where would we be without American ingenuity?
Was that cylinder assembled by crimping the ends or was it a tie rod?

gas said:

Where would we be without American ingenuity?
Was that cylinder assembled by crimping the ends or was it a tie rod?

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Haven't we all done a quick fix in our lives?

Does,t this come down to one thing, purchasing trying to save money and altering specification along the way, we suffer from this terribly...

for instance a proportional valve we use on various machines all of a sudden started to blow seals at 6.5 bar pressure, nothing was though of it and the valve was replaced, this happened on several machines across several months !! normally these were ultra reliable, only after investigating due to the growing expense did I find that purchasing had been supplied with an alternative at a slightly cheaper price, this had a rating of 6.0 bar maximum as apposed to the origional which was 10.0 maximum...

in the long run it cost more to replace those that had already been changed to the reduced rating than what was saved buying in the cheaper alternatives in the first place.

Purchasings response: well they said it was an alternative... My response: Could I have a porsche company car as apposed to a Ford, after all it,s an alternative and does the same thing !!

John V

What is the common denominator????? Anybody??? Duct tape. Need I say more?

When Duct tape by the case is a stock item in the store room you better lookout.

Mrslipmat said:

My response: Could I have a porsche company car as apposed to a Ford, after all it,s an alternative and does the same thing !!

John V

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So are you driving a Porsche now?

A true redneck genius would have replaced the piston sensors (probably unreliable reed switches) with remote pressure switches, removed all the sensors and all wiring from the cylinder. It would have taken Alaric 20 minutes to find them, but it would have worked for years before anyone noticed...

We need a nickname for "true redneck genius". Its much rare than Bubba's Broomstick, but there are a few examples...

Can I OT an OT?
Could somebody define Bubba's proper job title (maintenance machanic?)so I can transfer him over to this side of the water?

OkiePC said:

A true redneck genius would have replaced the piston sensors (probably unreliable reed switches) with remote pressure switches, removed all the sensors and all wiring from the cylinder. It would have taken Alaric 20 minutes to find them, but it would have worked for years before anyone noticed...

We need a nickname for "true redneck genius". Its much rare than Bubba's Broomstick, but there are a few examples...

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What about few nice time delay relays activated from same output as valves operating the cylinder...

@ Nathan.....

Amazingly still got the Ford !!

The good thing that came out of it is the purchasing department, who by the way have no technical abilities whatsoever now inform the Engineering department if they have been offered an alternative part to that requested by the maintenance guys...

Our alternative to Duck tape this side of the water is cable ties and electrical tape !!

Regards

John V

TurpoUrpo said:

What about few nice time delay relays activated from same output as valves operating the cylinder...

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Yes, if the main valve is open center, you gotta have relays to seal in the pressure switch signal, and relays to break it when the valve shifts again.

Those relays will be professionally installed by Bubba Sr. but we don't need no stinking wire labels. Why take all the fun out of troubleshooting? Where's the prints? Bubba grins and points to his Budweiser ball-cap.

OkiePC said:

Yes, if the main valve is open center, you gotta have relays to seal in the pressure switch signal, and relays to break it when the valve shifts again.

Those relays will be professionally installed by Bubba Sr. but we don't need no stinking wire labels. Why take all the fun out of troubleshooting? Where's the prints? Bubba grins and points to his Budweiser ball-cap.

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I agree, wire labels are for pussies. Real men dont need any drawings also, so no point updating them when making changes. Thats just out of all nice productive changes you could make with time you could take when updating all drawings. No point doing clean and tidy job too, just pull the wires where you get easiest!