I worked in a fabrication shop where anyone was allowed to use anything. Some of my tools and jigs that I made got locked up when I left but the place was still a pig sty by next day. Mechanics would come in and haul a length of SS off the rack, cut off a foot or whatever and leave the 10' sitting there. The next guy comes and does the same. I spent half my time cleaning the place up. A favourite trick was to bend 1/4" SS flat bar in the sheet metal brake. Round bars too. Nice little eyebrows on the platten.
One day I decided I was not cleaning it up any more. I wanted to see how bad it would get before some one else would clean up. A month later it was almost impossible to move around. Then a knock came on the back door. A truck load of SS angle, bars , etc. arrived. I assumed there was a big project coming up so we unloaded it. I called my boss to find out what it was for and he said that one of the mechanics said there was no stock in the racks! I suggested to boss that he come a check the situation out. He just about had a cardiac when he saw the mess. They had bought $70,000 worth of material we didn't need because the mechanics were too lazy to put stuff away after they had cut what they needed. I suggested that he call me before ordering material in the future. I finally racked it all up because it was getting dangerous to move around. I figured that if they wanted to pay me to clean up, so be it.
My favourite was one day when I was trying to turn a pice of SS on the clapped out old lathe we had. One of the mechanics came up while I was grumbling about what a POS this thing was. He said, "Yeah at the last place I worked you couldn't even straighten a shaft on the lathe".
I was puzzled by this and asked what he meant. He said, "you know when you put a bent shaft in it and pound it with a hammer to straighten it out"! I gave him a short lesson on the difference between an precision lathe and an anvil. Don't think it sunk in. The metal butchery that went on in that plant would make my junior high shop teacher go fetal position in the corner and suck his thumb.
One day I decided I was not cleaning it up any more. I wanted to see how bad it would get before some one else would clean up. A month later it was almost impossible to move around. Then a knock came on the back door. A truck load of SS angle, bars , etc. arrived. I assumed there was a big project coming up so we unloaded it. I called my boss to find out what it was for and he said that one of the mechanics said there was no stock in the racks! I suggested to boss that he come a check the situation out. He just about had a cardiac when he saw the mess. They had bought $70,000 worth of material we didn't need because the mechanics were too lazy to put stuff away after they had cut what they needed. I suggested that he call me before ordering material in the future. I finally racked it all up because it was getting dangerous to move around. I figured that if they wanted to pay me to clean up, so be it.
My favourite was one day when I was trying to turn a pice of SS on the clapped out old lathe we had. One of the mechanics came up while I was grumbling about what a POS this thing was. He said, "Yeah at the last place I worked you couldn't even straighten a shaft on the lathe".
I was puzzled by this and asked what he meant. He said, "you know when you put a bent shaft in it and pound it with a hammer to straighten it out"! I gave him a short lesson on the difference between an precision lathe and an anvil. Don't think it sunk in. The metal butchery that went on in that plant would make my junior high shop teacher go fetal position in the corner and suck his thumb.
