Ill venture another, and Ill try not to spell to badly or "thumb type". Yue cea watt I meen.
Back in the mid 8ty's I worked as a industrial electrician for a world wide aluminium giant. One night [2nd shift] I hear a call for an electrician on "press 12" over the intercom. Now "press 12" is an extrusion press half the size of a house, not including the billet ovens that feed it or the run out tables or the cut off saws or the heat treat etc.
There are alot of people invovled and many interlocked systems making extrusions.
So, I hurry down to press 12 and on the way I pass the break room which I see to have alot of people smiling and sticking change into vending machines. I quickly refocus on my job. Get the damn line up and running. I do the same thing as I always do. I get out the program book and start "working the problem". I even have what in those days we called a CRT. It is a monitor which lights up every circuit and sensor along with control panel start/stop, cycle, manual/auto, bypass, you name it. Should have been a piece of cake [now is that i before e after c] well anyway I wrestled this problem over and over with production foreman looking on.
Could not find where the CONTROL CIRCUIT was open! Then something happened I still cant explain. I got down almost reptile like a peered under alot of mechanical "stuff" behind the control panel that housed the PC's, etc.
Well low and behold there was a residential [ivory] 15amp SP switch mounted on a stub up 1/2 ridgid conduit, to include hany box and cover.
Real electricains dont use that kind of gear in hostile industrial applications. So I knew I found something. I trace the conduit back to the CP and notice two "red wires" that enventually end up with a yellow tucked back in behind a spagetti mess of wiring.
Well, I GOT IT. I FOUND IT. I close the SP ivory and WHOOOOM!!! Suddenly the whole line is ready to run. I hand it back over to prodution and go on my way. I said nothing to anyone.
This particular plant was a bastion [spell] of hostilty between trades, production, management, etc.
The very next night I hear the same call, "electricain, press # 12". What do I do? NOTHING!. 30 minutes later after repeated call for "press 12" my foreman plows in to our maint' room all agasht with a production foreman in tow.
"MACK what are you doing?"We need you down on 12. I calmy get up ask request that they both follow down to 12. On the way I point out the crowd in the break room. I then lead to a spot and have them kneel down to examine peculiar [switch].
I stretch over and close the afore mentioned switch witch returns the line operational. I tell them of the previous night which convinces them the the press operator is deliberatley shutting down production costing thousands of dollars per minute.
I then sternly ask the production foreman, "What are you going to do about it" His reply:
"Well, their [union], I cant do anything". He says to me.
Not long after, this plant which had operated since WW2 was closed putting myself and alot of other people out of a job.
I edited this thing once, I tried, so now I will just "ghoe gwrabb ae beeah".
Last edited by Gmack; 12/14/07 04:38 PM.
