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General => General Discussion and ??? => Topic started by: ericheartsu on January 22, 2013, 06:16:00 PM
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Today is one of those days, where everything in the shop is breaking, and everything is not working the way it should.
It started off with a screen that would not burn correctly. It has very very very very thin lines and kept blowing out. I tried different exposure times, screens that had thinner emulsion, and it just simply would not stay.
Then our well on our property, more or less exploded, leaving us with no water for today. And we live on the property as well.
Then a sticker job i have been working on for about 4 weeks, where i've spent about $2k on upgrading equipment to properly cure and cut these stickers, had a screen rip half way through the job. and it's two colors, so of course it was the first color.
so here i am, three employees trying to keep busy, no water, and running out of jobs that are ready to go!
What do you guys normally do?
/vent
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I'm with ya.
1.Esposure unit went out (Bad board) Have 30+ screens to do for jobs that all must go out this week.
2. Screens break down at 500pcs on a 900pc DC job. Used a friends exposure unit in his shop (see above). So of corse they were under exposed....
3. Get my exposure unit runnin today, over night shipping 2 ways to NJ OUCH!!!!!!!
4. Guys start burning screens, will NOT wash out, they figured this out after burnin 5 or so. Ink-jet printer F-up! Film is almost transparent, nobody seemed to notice.......
5. Screen guy tells me he can not get the bolts to loosen on some frames he is attempting to retension.
He torqued them to 180ft/lbs WTF, 4x5 Newman Frames you do the math. So I conduct a "How To Use a F'n Torque Wrench 101 CLASS"
And my wife wonders why I have high blood pressure, and am always stressed.
My answere to this Jack D'ls
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No heat at the retail store. Landlord called hvac immediately. They came in an hour. 20 year old York unit.
2 or 3 days on part from York.
Tractor supply. 6 electric heaters. Run 4 heat presses. Held 63 degrees today. Almost tropical it seemed.
Can't wait for tomorrow. Whee.
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From your time here on the boards you know we all get those days, see above it was just your and a few others turns.
Look at it this way today is over and you are still standing....tomorrow you may not be all the way back but you will be on your way...so you win.
mooseman
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it happens to us all. somedays you want to punt a kitten.
1) haven't had heat since october, it was -15 out today. my balls are still frozen to my legs.
2) had a 150 piece DC job to get out last week, took me 4 SOLID DAYS to get the colors mixed just right...got the order out, there was a typo.....(not my fault thank GOD)
3) had to run a contract job with pennent hoodies, they failed to tell me they were the laced up collars, art was too big to fit on the front. had to reburn all the screens halfway through the job. took an entire day to run a 2 hour job...
4) we can not -for the life of me - get orders in a timely fashion without something stupid going wrong....
on the bright side, new press arrives in about 2 weeks! furnace should be installed tomorrow! new guy has the day off tomorrow so I don't need to bitch slap him....good times....
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pray..
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I spend about 1/3 of my working life either fixing broken stuff or troubleshooting problems. Knowing how to repair your equipment & get stopped jobs rolling again is just part of the landscape. It can definitely get stressful when the deadline clock is ticking & 6 or 8 employees are watching you curse at a balky Mac valve, but that's why they pay me the big bucks.
At least no one dies on the operating table when things go sour -- I have no idea how heart surgeons handle the stress, and I try to remain thankful when a flash won't heat up or something that a plane is not about to fall out of the sky. Keep some perspective, sigh, go outside, take a look up at the sky and ask the heavens for a little wisdom & fortitude. :-)
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We bought a trilight but we hang on to out msp 3140 out of fear :)
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when something breaks I replace it or fix it so it won't happen again soon. I get so sick and tired of working on things. I sometimes enjoy it, but I much prefer it on my schedule.
Most of the time breakdowns are from stupidity. Educating your staff is a huge deal.
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most of the headache today comes from our well pump breaking down, which means, no water at our shop.
I had a call in with my equipment tech about something else, i told him what happened. He said most likely we'll have to pull our well out, and dig it deeper. Problem is, the ding dong that built our building put the well and pump inside of a fenced in yard, inside our building.
So most likely they'll have to cut a hole in our roof to crane out the well.
so looks like we'll be down for another week. oh joy.
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So I guess there is an up side to have no work at all for like 2 1/2 months...
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I start breaking more things...but intentionally. It's actually really good stress relief.
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So I guess there is an up side to have no work at all for like 2 1/2 months...
LOL, you're all kidney.......think about it.
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How do I handle everything breaking? First, I turn the air blue with expletives. Then, I usually get drunk to put things in perspective. Then I fix it and try not to eff it up again.
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I gotta say though the tri-light has never let us down
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Buy new equipment :)...and pray.
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Stoli - apply internally as needed. And i thought we were the only shop in the country who has Murphy living here.
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Fulll time maintenance guy
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I've had those days and I just walk away for awhile and come back...cool off and go at it again, we all know when it rains it pours.
Darryl
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So I guess there is an up side to have no work at all for like 2 1/2 months...
LOL, you're all kidney.......think about it.
I dont get it...
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i keep a lot of spare parts in the closet - mac valves, belts, filters, flame rods, cylinders, fans, sensors, relays, regulators, fuses, contactors, switches, buttons, cords, servo controllers, batteries, pneumatic fittings and hoses. i bought a full set of flash bulbs a while back (years ago) when an employee dropped an "in head" flash onto a platen. when something breaks - order two - one to replace and one for a spare part.
make a list of what spare parts go to what machine. keep a log of why something was replaced, and what part numbers for spare parts were used along with tools needed.
if a complex repair, write up a procedure or make sure the instructions from the manufacturer are kept on file.
if you cant afford to keep spares, keep a repair parts list - make a (hard copy not just computer file) list of parts with expected delivery dates - some parts can be found at grainger, fastenal, MSC direct, or Mc Master Carr - cross reference part numbers (fuses) and find out which parts can be found locally.
we cross train our employees as best we can - one of our press operators broke her wrist and the unloader was able to step into the press operators role.
we have a spare pressure washer, air compressor, and exposure unit. our air compressor tech will loan us an air dryer if needed.
unless we lose electricity we wont be down for more than 3 hrs.
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I like this^^
I'm in a similar mindset, we definitely have many hundreds if not thousands of random elec/pneu/mech parts lying around. Waiting for ground or paying for air makes it seem cheap to me.
I can empathize on the timing though--seems like our old school POS dryer likes to take a dump every year or two, usually during something important. Luckily our presses are M&R, so I've never been down more than ten or fifteen minutes on unscheduled maintenance.
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the owner emphasized that a $1000 part sitting on the shelf is less than the cost of downtime.
four automatic presses, two dryers, two air compressors, three pressure washers, two exposure units, five quartz flashes, two ink scales, two gas dryers...
it equals lots of spare parts - shelves for each press, boxes labeled with contents - i used the screen tape boxes and spray tack boxes.
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you can also use tackle boxes. Works great for individual presses. You can sort the smaller parts in the top and the bigger parts in the bottom. I use one for our auto..and another for embroidery.
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We do it the way JSR does it (Zelko) same with embroidery. We pretty much have extra everything and have a maintenace log which includes regular preventive maintenance
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Maintenance is key, as is spare parts (we replace when getting old, and keep the old as a spare to get us through)
but yes, it does seem like everything goes at once.
The Epson decides it doesn't want to print anymore and the dryer see's that and decides to take a couple hours off.
Then the cable modem gets wind of everyone slacking off and decides to crap the bed, etc.
Walk away, deep breaths, come back to it before you break it worse.
I will say this. My MHM's have not let me down, not once. Nor has my Kaeser compressor.
Everything else, absolutely.
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One of the auto flashes just went down. Wheeled in a backup. With all of the recent acquisitions we have acuired so much equipment that some of it is cannibalized for parts
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I spend about 1/3 of my working life either fixing broken stuff or troubleshooting problems. Knowing how to repair your equipment & get stopped jobs rolling again is just part of the landscape. It can definitely get stressful when the deadline clock is ticking & 6 or 8 employees are watching you curse at a balky Mac valve, but that's why they pay me the big bucks.
At least no one dies on the operating table when things go sour -- I have no idea how heart surgeons handle the stress, and I try to remain thankful when a flash won't heat up or something that a plane is not about to fall out of the sky. Keep some perspective, sigh, go outside, take a look up at the sky and ask the heavens for a little wisdom & fortitude. :-)
great post, thanx for the perspective realignment!
pierre
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i think i spoke too soon about being prepared.
ordered a gallon of crystalina - shipped from west coast to the east coast via FedEx 2 day air. the bucket was cold when it came in so we put it in the shaker. the bucket promptly broke and emptied its contents inside the shaker. now we have to get a second bucket sent Next day air early AM.
lesson of the day. transfer ink to a warm container before shaking - im assuming that the bucket was too cold which made it brittle.
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Had the handle on 5 gallons of 187 red break while coming downstairs Sunday, spilling
entire contents on to floor.
This right before the niners won of course.
Lesson learned no pails more than 1 foot off ground level.
Are all industries like this or just ours? Anybody work in any other industries where stuff like this happens?
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Are all industries like this or just ours? Anybody work in any other industries where stuff like this happens?
i was stopped at an intersection a few years back and saw a Home Depot flatbed delivery truck take a corner - the truck was fine, but the dozen buckets of sheetrock compound were rolling around the flatbed like marbles.
that must have been fun to clean up.