Burrito Bozo

[Incogneeto]

Shitville!

Kentucky.

[ghuns]

My worst spinny fast things story:

When I was an apprentice, we had about 25 guys in the shop and only one microwave located way in the back. Me and this old toolmaker played a little game where we would place ourselves strategically to have the best shot to be first in line when the lunch buzzer went off.

One day he was working on a lathe, that just happened to be the closest machine to the microwave. I was lollygagging around behind the chip guard on the backside of his lathe talking trash about how I was gonna beat him to the microwave.

That day he was working on a 12"x12"x6" square cavity block with larger radii on all 4 corners that needed a large circular detail in the center. He judged it faster to rough out the stock on the lathe than on a Bridgeport with a rotary table. The only problem was we didn't have a 4 jaw chuck big enough for the block on that particular lathe. To solve this problem he center drilled the block on a Bridgeport, mounted a face plate on the lathe, lowered the block into position with a jib crane, brought the tailstock forward with a center, and toe clamped the block to the faceplate with 4 1/2" studs and clamps.

I had a lot of lathe experience prior to starting my apprenticeship and I found his ingenuity admirable but the set up made me a bit nervous.

I was telling him that as I inched closer to the microwave and away from the backside chip guard on his lathe.

He told me to STFU, he'd been running lathes far longer than I'd been alive.

He stopped the spindle to check size and decided to change RPMs. He'd been in the high gear range but wanted to slow down a bit. This required turning the RPM dial to the desired setting and shifting the range selector to low.

I don't know if my trash talking was in his head or if he was worried about me beating him to the microwave, but he turned the RPM dial and neglected to shift to low gear. Instead of spinning several hundred RPMs, the lathe spun several thousand RPMs.

The 1/2" studs holding the block to the faceplate just exploded. Clamps, triangle blocks, and shards of studs went everywhere.

I remember it like it happened in slow motion but have no recollection of the sounds. Bet it was loud AF. I recall thinking, fuck. That shit flying around might as well be bullets fired from a gun. GET DOWN, dumbass!

I dove for cover under the next lathe in the row, a big old South Bend with a tracer.

I then though, were the fuck did the 12"x12"x6" chuck of steel go?

When I spotted it, it was still spinning very fast. On it's way back down after knocking the rear chip guard off the lathe and tearing a hole in the sheet metal ceiling 20' above.

It hit the tool post of the lathe I was hiding under, bounced around a bit gouging the ways, came off of the lathe and rolled down the aisle about 10' before coming to a stop.

I looked up at the old toolmaker. He was dead white and hadn't moved an inch. The lathe was still screaming. He had blood gushing from a from a huge wound on his left bicep and more from a gash on the left side of his head.

I stomped the foot brake stopping his lathe. This seemed to snap him out of his trance. He looked at me and asked, you OK, kid? I was like, uh... I think so. He said, yeah. I'm not. And down he went.

Me and the shop foreman bandaged him up with rags. He came to after a couple minutes and asked the foreman if he could take the rest of the day off. Foreman said, good idea. Ambulance came and hauled him off.

He was back to work the next week sporting a shaved head, arm in a sling, and hundreds of stiches.

He finished roughing that block on the Bridgeport with a rotary table. And from then on I always let him beat me to the microwave.

[Newbeeee™]

I was running a production job during apprenticeship - manual lathe thin part facing in a 3 jaw, not much sticky out. Three square swissfile (triangular) ground point and a touch on the OD just to break the edge (deburr) but DON'T TOUCH THE JAWS.
Anyway....a mate was stood next to me and talking about Wrecker (the guy's surname was Reeman and he was clumsy AF so hence the nickname).
Wrecker had just had apparently just hit the factory roof running thin parts pressure padding - never had the tailstock tight enough and they all flew, and this side of the factory had no Mezz floor so the roof height was prolly 35 feet.
Anyway, as mate was telling me this, I clipped the jaws with my file and the thing snatched out of my pinkies and cutone bad.
I'm stood looking at pinky, stop the machine, and wonder where the file is.
Turn around and mate is white as a sheet and pointing at the ground. File is stuck vertically sticking out the concrete floor like an arrow, a couple of inches from his toes.
When he could speak, he said he heard the "tink" as it hit the roof, looked up but couldn't see it coming down....

[Incogneeto]

Please stay on topic you old phuckers.

Red sauce or Green sauce.?

Rice and Beans??

Queso Blanco??

[Zoffen]

I'm guessing the door locks are removed/overridden to allow the spindle run to 12K rpm with the door open.

     


S&F on the burrito:
-From Local Tapatio Food Truck
-Chicken, bean, rice, veggies, cheese, red sauece
-Approx 8" x 3" x 4" when fully stuffed, about 1lb


I keep thinking how funny a death it would be to take a probe stylus to the temple. Then the machine would be running at 12k with me dead on the floor, doors lock.

I bet it would be over a week until anyone noticed anything to come looking....

[Incogneeto]

     


S&F on the burrito:
-From Local Tapatio Food Truck
-Chicken, bean, rice, veggies, cheese, red sauece
-Approx 8" x 3" x 4" when fully stuffed, about 1lb


I keep thinking how funny a death it would be to take a probe stylus to the temple. Then the machine would be running at 12k with me dead on the floor, doors lock.

I bet it would be over a week until anyone noticed anything to come looking....

GAWD!!! FINALLY.

Really Chicken???



"I bet it would be over a week until anyone noticed anything to come looking"....


And I bet they would make you use up your PTO.

[Brian]

I bet it would be over a week until anyone noticed anything to come looking....

Man! That's exactly what I used to think when I was renting space in the front of Peter's shop....I'll be banging away at 1AM and do something stupid, and he won't find me till the next morning cold and dead in a pool of blood! I did almost fall asleep standing up one night (ahem-morning), but not quite....coffee only goes so far it seems.

[Zoffen]

I've worked (mostly) alone for so long that I've kinda internalized a number of behaviors that are optimized for "survivability"....physically, mentally, socially, and financially.

There have been times when i'm stepping backwards down a step ladder with parts in my hand and a kart behind me when i think if i just fell backwards here that edge on the metal cart is in perfect location to jam right into the back/bottom of my neck killing me instantly.

All i ask is that if i'm destined to die in this shop that you please please please make it quick!

[Incogneeto]

All i ask is that if i'm destined to die in this shop that you please please please make it quick!

Start wearing a Tie to work.

Not a clip on.

[Newbeeee™]

There have been times when i'm stepping backwards down a step ladder

Seriously....take care! Again apprenticeship - a guys Dad died and he was mid 50's at the time which sounded old He was cleaning the windows on a 3x step ladder, stepped down once thinking he was now on the ground but wasn't. Fell back and hit his head....

[Zoffen]

Start wearing a Tie to work.

Not a clip on.

Only have mills. I'm thinking i need to get into using 10"+ dia boring heads with no counterweights....

[Zoffen]

Seriously....take care! Again apprenticeship - a guys Dad died and he was mid 50's at the time which sounded old He was cleaning the windows on a 3x step ladder, stepped down once thinking he was now on the ground but wasn't. Fell back and hit his head....

Yup i go real slow now in my shop. The older i get, the slower i go, the more i get done!

Slow is smoothe and smoothe is fast! #1 goal everyday is not dying!

[Incogneeto]

Only have mills. I'm thinking i need to get into using 10"+ dia boring heads with no counterweights....

Have you considered playing with the electrical box in back of the machine with a screwdriver?

Would be quick.

[Brian]

All i ask is that if i'm destined to die in this shop that you please please please make it quick!

Please please please don't let it get to that point in the first place! I wasn't exaggerating about my friend who fell off a ladder. He worked night/graveyard shift at a local medical center as a stationary engineer, maintaining the steam plant. I guess he was alone at the time of the fall, which shattered his upper arm (the humerus, I believe) and kept him out of work for a whole year. Surgery was required, and he was left with a metal rod in place of the bone-all metal from the shoulder to the elbow! I recall they required all ladder work to be done with another person present, and he himself was not to ever again use a ladder on the job.

Sadly, he died a few years later of a heart attack on his front lawn, leaving a couple of kids and his wife to figure out their new life without him.

[Incogneeto]

I would ease up on the Big Burrito for Lunch.

If you die you might Shart your Pants.