Fun Pictures of Work

[Manuheleku]

Sportster gave me an idea with his post about installing a new boiler. Here is a place to post pictures of happenings where you work!

 

[Manuheleku]

A couple pictures of a boiler being re-tubed from awhile back.

 

[Sherlock77]

I'm not allowed to take photos at my job, at a recycling plant...

 

[Manuheleku]

I'm not allowed to take photos at my job, at a recycling plant...

Neither am I, LOL, but it's sort of a grey zone, my boss suggests that I take photos of things so that I can remember how to hook up wires and put things back together. Also, it helps in that I can show him safety issues and issues with machines that need to be repaired on a scheduled downtime. As long as I don't release any trade secrets, of which I am not privy to, then they don't have a problem. I would never post anything that could hurt the company, that would be unethical. This is why I named the category Fun Things.

 

[Manuheleku]

Ah, that looks like one of those big round suckers. We use Lochinvar boilers for domestic and loop water. They're definitely not as big, but still big enough when you have to wrestle them from behind two other boilers. We had to cut out all the piping just to move the thing . . . UGH!!!

This is going to be a fun thread, so I'll have to be sure to take my camera to work. Considering I work in a university dorm, I'm sure to come across the strange and unusual.

I may have already shared this elsewhere, but as far as I know, I still hold the record for the largest hair clog removed from a shower. Yes, that is just hair:

View attachment 38698​

That is the most impressive hair clog that I have ever seen! You got me beat!

 

[OkRad]

Ah, that looks like one of those big round suckers. We use Lochinvar boilers for domestic and loop water. They're definitely not as big, but still big enough when you have to wrestle them from behind two other boilers. We had to cut out all the piping just to move the thing . . . UGH!!!

This is going to be a fun thread, so I'll have to be sure to take my camera to work. Considering I work in a university dorm, I'm sure to come across the strange and unusual.

I may have already shared this elsewhere, but as far as I know, I still hold the record for the largest hair clog removed from a shower. Yes, that is just hair:

View attachment 38698​

OMGOSH. I almost gagged!

 

[Nitro]

 

[Judge]

 

[Manuheleku]

Sportster at work three years ago, sans facial hair:

View attachment 38712​

Wow, nice and neat. Our shop is a bit messier. I can straighten the work bench out every morning and the next day it looks like a tornado came through.

 

[Manuheleku]

A selfie cruisin' on the forklift!

 

[Nitro]

I no longer work for a living,but this pic was taken about ten years ago in the shop I used to run.

 

[Manuheleku]

What the messy graveyard people left on the bench today. My coworker says that he straightened it up yesterday. I work with slobs.

 

[Manuheleku]

Not a picture but a cool video of where I work. I was up on the scissor lift and thought this was pretty cool, it's 150 pounds of towels being dumped and flushed into a tunnel washer to be laundered.

 

[Nitro]

 

[Manuheleku]

When the tunnel washer gets plugged and starts to break loose. Plugged tunnels are a very bad thing...

 

[Judge]

View attachment 41696

I have to ask. The cylindrical object presumably being lathed. Looks like a pulley of sorts. Or is that just the appearance based on the angle and the light on it? What is it ?

 

[Manuheleku]

I have to ask. The cylindrical object presumably being lathed. Looks like a pulley of sorts. Or is that just the appearance based on the angle and the light on it? What is it ?

Image a series of front loading washing machines like at home but really big and lined up in a row and connected together. Now imagine that they are connected together in a way that when they rotate 360 degrees they act like a corkscrew and transfer the load to the next washing machine or out to an extractor which removes as much water as possible like a spin cycle in your washer. In our case we put it in a giant press which squeezes the water out. By continuously adding and removing loads you can do a dozen loads of laundry in the same time as one load in a conventional washer. Also, more efficient because you can reuse the water by pumping it to other modules of the tunnel and reusing it instead of dumping it down the drain at the end of each wash cycle. Tunnel washers, or continuous batch washers, are totally cool.

 

[Nitro]

I have to ask. The cylindrical object presumably being lathed. Looks like a pulley of sorts. Or is that just the appearance based on the angle and the light on it? What is it ?

It is in fact a drive pulley that was custom machined from aluminum because of the machineability of the material in the groove areas.
Smaller machines tend to chatter during wide faced plunge cuts necessary to cut the grooves,so aluminum was the softer material of choice over mild steel in order to maintain a proper surface finish.
The slug of 6061-T6 was left with the mass on it to help maintain the rotational inertia of it on the belt sander it was made for.

A 6" x 48" belt sander can easily soak up the 3/4 horsepower motor that is on it when facing steel at full width,so I did everything possible to add some flywheel action to the drive so it could maintain a fairly constant speed after loading the motor.

All in all,with machine tools available,often it is advantageous to make exactly what you need instead of using over the counter parts that often are not exactly what you need to do the job properly.

The keyway was also cut using the longitudinal traverse of the carriage with the drive spindle locked in back gear to prevent it from rotating.

 

[Judge]

All in all,with machine tools available,often it is advantageous to make exactly what you need instead of using over the counter parts that often are not exactly what you need to do the job properly.

Very cool to be able to fabricate such things entirely on your own to precise specs.

 

[Nitro]

Very cool to be able to fabricate such things entirely on your own to precise specs.

In a jobshop setting,often times the time factors involved procuring a part will dictate how an item comes into being.
In my case,making it myself gave me the option of making out of an available drop,or leftover from a production run.

Quotations of bigger runs dictate how material is purchased,with barstock available in what they call randoms or what is considered industry standards for material.
Aluminum is delivered in 12 foot lengths unless it is specified otherwise. Shorter than 12' costs the buyer a saw cut before delivery.
Longer than 12 is available,but also costs more per pound because it has to be handled outside of the norm in order to deliver it to you.
On a huge production run,it is possible to use thousands of feet of material,with drops that end up too short to make the ordered parts,so it accumulates and is available for free in the bigger picture.
That material was drops from a production run of oil filter adapter rings for oil pre-luber units for industrial diesel engines that were made and delivered in orders of 250 at a time,once a month.
That leaves you with a lot of drops


The material was bought on speculation just like the stock market,where you buy a quantity of it at a lower price praying that you made the right decision.
Most of the time,you can predict the outcome of the purchase based on the past usage.
Sometimes,you take a hit,but not very often if you keep your eye on the barometer.