worst crash ever

Your 'it's too late comment' made me think of something I've wanted for a long time. A remote e-stop. Wear it like a watch, or clip it to your belt. I mean hell, If I can open the trunk of my car from 100 yards, why can't I kill my machine tool the second it starts whining/grinding? Instead I have to RUN! to hit the brakes.

I was sitting in my office, just a few yards from a haas vf-6, everything running fine programming away at will. Heard what I thought was a car coming through the wall, ran out to shop right in time to see the left hand sliding door of said machine coming to rest against another machine. Seems operator had "forgotten" to remove vise handles from 3 kurt 8" vises. When machine rapided to part change position, one of the handles was directly in line with the handle area of the door, ummm, bang. Thankfully, no one was standing in front of machine, although there were 3 folks standing close enough to change colors! Mind you, doors are about 5 ft wide and probably weigh 150 lbs! Hottest friggin job in the shop at the time, took 1 1/2 hrs to flatten the sheet metal back out and get it back on the machine, amazing what you can do with a dead blow hammer and a few pcs of alum!!

rectally operated would probably work fairly well!

Goerge,

Geeeez,,, and I thought my Hurco experiences were scary. Did the operator freeze in horror, or was it unattended. I don't let anyone leave our Hurco unattended, I don't care how long they have to stand there. Fortunately, it's only used for simpler prototype parts

Well, that's PC based controls for ya, all of em as far as I can tell.

Real-time tasks and PC's don't work. One little interrupt from the O.S., and the whole house can fall down,

Mark

This is not really a crash, but it is somewhat amusing. I had an employee accidently pick up the wrong tool in MDI. The tool, however, was not a tool at all, but the tool holder with interapid indicator. Guess what ? indicators don't cut as well as end mills.

Needless to say we diddn't send it out for repair, even though I suspect some of the parts found there way to the repair shop on their own.

Actually the repair guy from Dyna and I were standing right there, I was between him and the control panel where the big red button resides and I wasn't about to push it, they had me so pissed by then I was glad to see it self destruct right in front of him while running a program HE created. Your right about the PC and real-time tasking...Too bad really because the Dyna machines (we have 3 of the DM-4800's with Mits controls) were pretty good machines for the money. If they hadn't tried to re-invent the wheel by messing around with their own control design they might still be selling machines here in the U.S.

Ever noticed how it seems, time wise, like you're running in knee-deep molasses when that happens?

--=20

-JN-

I guess if you're gonna trash an indicator, it may as well be worth something, eh?

I heard something crash a few weeks back, but it was just my boss remembering why you don't pick up aluminum 2x4s with bare hands right after they get heated with a torch and removed from the part they were bonded to. Some lessons seem to have a 30-year repeat cycle.

Later,

Charlie

When I worked at an interior trim place, we used 150 watt soldering guns with some copper blades in them to trim guilford cloth.

Well, at the time, one of my duties was to make them. You basically beat some copper rod to put an arrowhead shape on one end and file a sharp edge on it.

I was thinking I could speed up the hammering process by heating up one end of the rod. Of course, I was holding the other end with my fingers finely calibrated for holding steel rod in a flame, not copper rod. It seems like I just touched the far end of that copper rod with the oxyacetaline torch when my hand was telling me I have just been branded.

Wes S

ROTFLMAO!

I don't know, the kid only worked for me about a month and took the pictures with him. He got a really sweet job with LCRA and still works there.

"Joe788" wrote in news:1148565993.805110.102040 @j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Had an H-400 Mazak that decided of it's own accord to plunge into the tombstone. Never did figure out what happened to cause it. Tool was spinning at 10,000 rpm. Broke the clamp deal and knocked the tombstone off, along with ruining the spindle. Fortunately, no parts escaped the machine.

Mistakes do happen, but when any of my guys make a dimension or offset change they double check the decimal points and look at it in graphics before hitting the go button for real. What you described was easily preventable.

Bill Smith

"jimz" wrote in news:Eg0dg.38792$Lm5.34602 @newssvr12.news.prodigy.com:

Pretty much all of our machines are automated in some fashion. It can get very interesting when you mix automation and CNC machine tools. I've seen loaders torn completely off the machine when something goes awry and the slide and loader meet at the spindle. Especially on something like a Mazak Squirt where the slide is moving at 1181 ipm. There have been too many crashes of that sort to even count. Of course, we do a good investigation and figure out what went wrong and try to put a fix in for the root cause, but there are some instances where you just can't prevent it.

That reminds me of a situation that happened to a fellow Mazak user about 45 minutes from me. One of his FH4800s was shredding along at

12,000rpm in aluminum when the pull stud decided to break in half. If I remember the numbers correctly, it was about $21,000 for the spindle, and $4,000 for the labor to repair it. This is why nobody should ever own a high dollar machine without insurance for operator error or other such problems. His insurance covered almost the whole bill.

"Joe788" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Yup..spindles are not cheap....no matter the brand.

Some points of fact. I am NOT a machinist. My husband IS a machinist. We just bought a "mini-mill". I told him I would like to learn to use it. He is teaching me to use it. I read this ENTIRE thread. I do NOT want to be a machinist. I respect all of you and what you do. Good luck out there guys. Christina

Did not mean to scare you.

If properly used, machine tools are very safe. You just need to take the extra time and keep safety in mind. I have been at this work for over 35 years. I went from manual mills to punch tape to state of the art CNC. I also have played classical piano all my life. The thought of a serious hand injury has always kept me on my toes.

Yes I have had my share of mistakes, but the safety equipment has always saved me from serious injury. The mechanical junk can be replaced.

Don't give up. Just stay smart.

Here's one for the old timers.

My Father worked at Ohio Crank Shaft in Cleveland ( now park drop forge) for a few years before starting his own business. Well, during the war there was a huge demand for large shafts and crankshafts that went into huge diesel motors and such. They had an enormous lathe, capable of turning 3-4 ft. diameter shafts 15 ft. long. The operator had to ride in a cage along with the tool bit. Neat stuff back then.

Well, seems the set up man put the turning tools below the centerline of the shaft. The guy gets about half way down the shaft, and the shaft starts riding up over the tool post. The bend force was so great, between the chuck and the center, it snaped the lathe bed in half. The operator was shaking so bad, he was sent home for the rest of the day.

Fortunatly, the management had the forsight to have had 2 castings made when they built the lathe, and had a spare bed stored outside for future expansion.

Amazing what they did back then without computers.