What would you do?

[Inferno]

Once again I have to ask . Is anyone onsite able to fix this ? Does your maintenance department have qualified people to do this type of repair ? This would be my question to the owner . $4000 output doesn't seem like a high production machine in terms of manufacturing these days , but it is what you have . Working on lines that produce $975,000 per day , you have my answer .

I am able to fix this machine. If we had the parts, there are three others that could fix it.
I'm the only one that could repair the part. I'd just have to take it home to do it. But the MM has forbidden me to even touch any repair (shooting himself in the foot but I break that rule almost daily on other machines)

I understand that it doesn't seem like a lot. The operational cost of the machine is only $600 per day.
This is one machine in one production department. I have 13 machines of varying types in this department.
The important part is that this machine was being used for a deadline. So I already have to move that production to a different machine that had other deadlines and the cascade effect is happening. There are only 3 machines that can run this job so, essentially, 33% reduction in production for that line.

Not all companies can be running Million dollar/day production machines. That sounds more like a billion dollar company as opposed to a multimillion dollar one.

 

[mmcmdl]

I worked in print shops most of my life.

I spent 4 years at the Balto Sun keeping their 48 4 high 2 deck Goss Colorliners going . Same thing , you miss a printing , you lose the advertising dollars . The papers had to be out at the dock at 4 am every morning . Busted my arse making it happen . The difference maybe was we had a full size shop with any and all equipment available to me . No-one before myself even looked at the machinery . I've posted this many times on here . Bottom line , gotta get it running . ( They still have the 17" and 20" Clausing Colchesters down in the shop with no-one left to run them . My son's former baseball coach runs the whole kitencabootal of the Tribune plants that are left . Balto and Allentown Pa . I keep in touch just in case the equipment would ever be leaving .

 

[mmcmdl]

That sounds more like a billion dollar company as opposed to a multimillion dollar one.

136.4 billion now but they have shed quite a few larger products . Unilever HPC . Damn good company to work for .

 

[Inferno]

I spent 4 years at the Balto Sun keeping their 48 4 high deck Goss Colorliners going . Same thing , you miss a printing , you lose the advertising dollars . The papers had to be out at the door at 4 am every morning . Busted my arse making it happen . The difference maybe was we had a full size shop with any and all equipment available to me . No-one before myself even looked at the machinery . I've posted this many times on here . Bottom line , gotta get it running . ( They still have the 17" and 20" Clausing Colchesters down in the shop with no-one left to run them . My son's former baseball coach runs the whole kitencabootal of the Tribune plants that are left . Balto and Allentown . I keep in touch just in case the equipment would ever be leaving .

I always worked sheet fed but know the machines you're talking about.
Luckily, in sheetfed the deadlines can be a little more forgiving than a newspaper. The place I worked at two jobs ago had a production manager that was good at fixing things. Coincidentally, I just found out he died yesterday at 58.
Anyhow, he and I worked separately but together. He was an "everything needs a hammer" kind of guy where I was more of a "there's a reason there's a half million different tools" kind of person.

He didn't know much about me, although he was the one that hired me. He gained his respect by a couple small things I did during my first couple years. One of them was diagnosing a frozen main bearing on one of the two main presses. It had been down for a couple days and the tech wasn't available for a month.
They had all the covers off the machine and I started looking at a likely culprit for why the drive motor kept overloading. I saw a big giant brass sleeve bearing that was the main one. I put my hands all over the brass bearings that were there and that one was almost 30 degrees hotter.
As the PM was walking by I casually said "Your' problem is there" and pointed at the bearing. I didn't say anything more.
They kept working on the machine trying everything for a couple hours. Finally he pulled out a laser thermometer and saw the difference in temps.
It was end of day when he did that.

The next day they fired up the press and it did the same thing. He had already read the temps on the bearings so he had his baseline. After 20 minutes of running, the motor popped. He scanned that bearing and, sure enough, it was 60 degrees hotter.

He ended up pulling the bearing and cleaning up all the scoring. The main shaft was OK.
Right before he put it back in I walked by and casually said "Clean out the oil port or You'll be doing this again tomorrow."

Sure enough, the oil port was clogged.

Again, there was never a "thank you" but after that we had an understanding. If I saw something, I'd casually say something and he'd look at it.
Another part of the understanding as if I was working on something it was because someone wanted it done "my way" and not his way.
And the other part of the understanding was if he screwed something up, and I fixed it, I wouldn't say a thing. It happened more times than I can remember.

He wasn't a bad guy. He just had a different personality. He'd, literally, give you the shirt off his back an hour after making you feel like he hated your guts. RIP!

 

[Inferno]

136.4 billion now but they have shed quite a few larger products . Unilever HPC . Damn good company to work for .

Our company is considered successful when it has $2MIL in profits in a year.
Can I come work for your company?

 

[mmcmdl]

Not many people left that enjoy this type of work . I feel that I have job security at least until they shut the plants down . If you go thru some of my older posts , my new boss is an old friend of mine that I hired 36 years ago when I ran the plant . He served his apprenticeship a couple years behind me and I actually taught the classes . He also worked in my basement shop part time . He's a smart guy coming from the floor . I don't have to ask him anything or need his approval to fix things , I do it and send him a text as I ran the nightshift . I won't say anything about my old boss . This site is PG rated , but you catch my drift !

 

[mmcmdl]

Can I come work for your company?

Don't I wish they didn't pull out of Baltimore 7 years ago . All 3 plants were shut down and moved . Our plant which was soaps and detergents . The ice cream plant in Hagerstown Md . The butter/margerine spread plant on Southwest Blvd being the last . All union plants .

 

[JimDawson]

I would go with C or D. But I would buy a better coupler than you can get on eBay. McMaster and Automation Direct have good ones. There is nothing wrong with non-key clamp on couplers and for most cases they work much better than keyed couplings. They will transmit an amazing amount of torque.

 

[Just for fun]

I would also go with option "C"

Tim

 

[atx_metalbot]

I’d pick “C” from your list.

While I think this is the correct answer, "B" is easier to sell to a conservative manager. You get the machine going using cheap parts, place the order for the Italian replacement. That establishes that "this is just a temporary fix to get this machine running during the unknown period of time that we're waiting". If the cheap parts work well, leave them on, and the Italian spec part is the expensive replacement that can sit on the shelf.