Things you don't want to hear on a start up.

[Tharon]

And it was sorta like in the movies with the heads of bolts busting off and flying by - only much quicker. No commercial breaks, and things didn't get nicely wrapped in 30 minutes.

I was on the receiving end of a hydraulic shower due to my boss and some maintenance guys screwing around with a very large hydraulic press while I was sitting on the other side programming the machine.

They used bottle jacks to try and raise the press up manually (something had failed and they couldn't get it up), but didn't make sure the valves were open to tank. They compressed a couple fully extended 6 inch cylinders, and they blew off the back ends of the cylinders, launching the fluid into the air.

I just heard a boom, then felt warm hydraulic fluid falling on top of me like rain. All over my laptop, soaking my paperwork and my hair/clothes.

I went home and took a long hot shower.

 

[JeffKiper]

In another life I was a mechanical power press guy. We did everything mechanical, electrical,etc.
I was in the top of a press pulling out a crank. The gear was stuck on the shaft. So I got out my big jacks and the rosebud. A 30 ton head with 10,000 psi and torched don't mix. Non flammable Hydraulic oil will flash when under extreme pressure. I was INSIDE the press with all of my fall protection on and couldn't get away fast enough.

 

[allscott]

I was starting up a machine with a 300HP vertical turbine pump. After a very long day it was time to start it up. The mechanic and mechanical engineer assured me the valves were oriented so that the water would pump back into a pit.

It didn't and instead shot out of an open end pipe directly into the electrical cabinet housing the PLC and soft start.

You can actually blow I/O cards off a SLC backplane with enough focused water pressure.

The project manager asked if I could fix it that night. I put my lock on the cabinet and left. Two days later we tried again after triple checking the valves and closing the doors to the cabinet...

 

[TConnolly]

I just heard a boom, then felt warm hydraulic fluid falling on top of me like rain. All over my laptop, soaking my paperwork and my hair/clothes.

I went home and took a long hot shower.

You haven't experienced a hydraulic shower until you have left a dry negative silhouette on an otherwise fully oil painted wall. We were starting up a 450HP hydraulic skid. Someone had only just started the bolts on a 10" flange and didn't tighten them. Otis saw it starting to separate and instead of saying something he ran. The rest of us got plastered by a wall of oil, leaving three human shaped silhouettes on the opposite wall. It was hot so I was wearing only a smurf suit without my street clothes under, but Dave was in his regular clothes. He had a brand new car and didn't want to ruin the seats, so he opted to strip in the parking lot and drive home naked. Otis got his though, he had to stay behind and clean it up. That was just one of many, some not so funny, but that one was so outrageous it had us all laughing.

 

[ndzied1]

Ha, I'm on a startup right now. Actually the first thing I didn't want to near was that they were shipping the machine before it was finished. Well now I'm on site in the middle of nowhere and the next thing I didnt want to hear was the sound of the burst disk in the lube system bursting because some put the hoses on backwards and the unit was trying to pump grease into the wrong end of a check valve.

At least everyone here is nice to work with. That can make a big difference as well.

 

[Rube]

My least favorite words in the world--

"all you have to do is....."

 

[noxcuses]

- After starting up a fully automated aggregate processing plant which was all controlled from a SCADA PC, the plant sent the only operator to be trained. I showed him how all the controls worked and how to control the plant... He sat down in front of the computer and placed his hand on the mouse and asked.... " How do you make that thing on the screen move ??" I spent the next week training on how a mouse works.

 

[Tom Jenkins]

In the wastewater business an oil shower is a way to clean up!

The worst $hit shower I had was from a digester overflow one January in suburban Chicago, about 90 miles from home. I got my dose about 10:00 at night, when I was the last guy in the plant. The car was a clunker, so I started it to warm it up and locked up the plant. As I was ready to climb in I noticed a stream of coolant on the ground. The car's water pump had blown.

I hadn't eaten since breakfast 16 hours before. There weren't any drive throughs open (this was a few years ago). It's amazing how fast you can empty a Denny's without even carrying a gun!

I got a motel room, tried to wash my clothes in the sink (no laundry facility), and next morning found a garage to change the pump. I didn't want to empty out the waiting room, so I enjoyed the brisk Chicago January in the parking lot in wet clothes. I was younger then, so pneumonia was avoided. I junked the car shortly after.

Bring on the hydraulic oil!

 

[PLC]

"Business is a little off, there will be a slight
Delay getting you a check"

 

[Dua Anjing]

"Hey ! Do you smell that ?"

 

[David_Emmerich]

Oil marks on the wall...

Before I moved to KY, I was helping start up one of 6 large Husky Injection presses at a plant in Pine Brook, NJ...just across from Mr. Nelson's area,. The top brass in the plant, and some visiting Ties, were standing against a wall behind the clamp cylinder. It seems that Mutt and Jeff, our utility job change crew had been left to finish up prepping the unit for start-up, and had neglected to reinstall a 2 inch plug after retightening the main piston bolt. The plant manager was getting tired of waiting for the check list to be completed, and instructed Mutt to push the start button, which he did, with great gusto...the twin 75 gpm pumps fired right up and sounded great...then Mutt pushed the clamp close button and a solid stream of oil shot out and painted 6 or 7 shadow prints on that nice white wall...you know, they never came to a start up again.
:site::site:

 

[danw]

Oh.

What we really need is . . . .

 

[jdbrandt]

"Is there anybody else at your company who might know how to do this" (actual quote..speaker: 30 y.o. engineer... target: 55 y.o. 30 year controls vet).

 

[leitmotif]

"Is there anybody else at your company who might know how to do this" (actual quote..speaker: 30 y.o. engineer... target: 55 y.o. 30 year controls vet).

You should have said "Why yes. I will go home and call him. He is XX hours away".

Dan Bentler

 

[rdrast]

I think that I had the most billable hours ever on a startup back in 1996.

The company facilities guy called us up, and said they were ready...I drove the 600 miles or so, and noticed a strange thing when I got close to my plant... EVERYBODY was going the other way. There was nobody going south.
Then, all alone on southbound 95, I see blue lights in my mirror... I pulled over, the officer asked me where I was headed. I told him I was coming down to do some work at a plant, why?

"Son... Don't you know there is a major hurricane coming? We are advising evacuation."

---

I ended up going to the plant anyway, only to find that all the facilities people pulled out, but they wanted someone down there to make sure the contractors finished the wiring. Well, they were still only halfway through running the conduit, and most of the expansion didn't have a floor poured. To make matters worse, the electrical contractors were from NC, and as the storm veered away from SC, they all pulled out and left me pretty much alone.

Ahhh, those were the days...