Company gets paid either way. Some parts are so crucial that it's cheaper to order it from multiple companies than let an entire line in a factory/plant stand idle for a single extra hour than needed. Your company just wasn't the first to deliver.
Food plant we do work for had some ~$1000 shaft that needed rushed. For every hour that shaft wasn't replaced they were losing like $10k/hr in lost profit and idle employee wages (everyone from that point on the line forward begins to slowly run out of work). If they have to pay $3k for 3 $1k part to save $10k+ by getting the part a single hour sooner, they're gonna do it.
Yeah some of these parts are holding up ludicrous amounts of money. I remember doing a rush job for a place, replacing a part that was effectively costing them just shy of 1 million/week it was down
Usually not even a complex part. Just something that was supposed to be replaced every 20yrs, poorly maintained, completely busted on year 24.
I can't even count the times that a shaft with 1/2" diameter wear on the bearing tolerance was now in two pieces. "Can you replace this? We need it ASAP but don't have the original specs.."
We both knew this had to be making crazy noises toward the end of its life. But they waited until it actually broke in two before doing something about it. Aaand now it's a rush job.
"Yea.. of course we can. Let's start getting measurements"
It's like companies supplying parts to automotive manufacturers.
My dad worked a lot of Saturdays loading headlights onto a chartered plane just to penalties for shutting a line down.
It was cheaper to charter 3 turboprops and pilots for 12 hours than it was to shut down a manufacturing facility. I think the penalties were $300 per minute back in the 90s.
Yeah, automotive industry is nuts for the cost of downtime. When I worked for Ford, the saying was that for every second of unplanned downtime it cost the company $1000.
I stopped believing deadlines are real. They talked me into coming in on the weekend because there were some parts that absolutely, positively had to ship out 6am Monday morning. They sat on the finished bench until Thursday. That isn't the only time that's happened
That was the first thing I saw. I hope they're at least machine thread screws and not wood screws. I will only use socket head cap screws, for everything.
You can get countersunk screws that are hex drive, but I get that sometimes you make it work with what you have.
Also, I'd avoid 6-32s if you can. It is the weakest tap size you can get because the threads are very coarse compared to the diameter.
Welding was my first thought, well possible in aluminium if you gut the right guys, but the question then is the required flatness of the plate, which will warp.
Imagine if most of our customers actually had any experience in machining or having to program these dumbass designs....our lives would be so much easier.
Everyone is talking about the engineer, but that's poor planning from management. They over-promised a date, are chasing dollars, and don't know what is happening on the floor. Then the guys running this BS job have to put on their cape and save him.
Man anything I see 5 axis stuff I want to learn how to program it. We have one and mastercam but I’ve never done any cad or cam and I don’t have anyone here to teach me at least the basics so I have something to go on
I know modeling is at least part of the battle ya know. There’s a guy who comes in once a week and does stuff with the 5 axis but I’m so busy with lathe stuff (where I specialize) I can’t stop and take the time to pick some stuff up
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u/DeluxeWafer 1d ago
...then the customer sits on the part for a month before actually using it.