Hello my name is Shade Murphy and I am 21 years of age. I started in a machine shop a year ago through a temp agency in dire need of a job.
When I started I didn't know what a lathe was, but had a strong background in mathematics and computers, so the company I am currently working for decided to hire me on.
It is a part shop, and I was fortunate enough (unfortunately for the company) that within my 3 month temp agency time, all but two of their experienced employees had quit or gotten fired.
What I know:In the last 9 months, I have been taught alot by my manager and at this point I can handle any set up on any of our Okuma lathe 1 spindle-1 turret, or 2 spindle-1 turret machines.
I am able to program indepthly, edit programs to improve cycle time, calculate feeds and speeds, and troubleshoot new/old setups efficiently and accurately.
My problem: Recently, I am seeing less setup time, and had been training some of our newer people ( our average employee experience level is around 1 year) to set up. Naturally, I have been given the oppourtunity to no longer troubleshoot for myself (operating and set up),but for others.
I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed because I found that I am not a very good teacher, and when I start to become overencumbered by 3 or more people asking me to come fix their machine, I get flustered and make mistakes. Big mistakes.
A week ago we had a barfeed error, which i fixed, but the barfeeder bugged and tried running an inch long part while holding on to approx .150. Needless to say it crashed. I was in a rush when I came to fix it and didnt realize that when the bore crashed it got pushed back.
Well the face groove came in after and tried rapiding in .025 farther than the afroementioned pushed back bore had bored out. (500 dollar face groove, needed to be shiped from Sweden= 2.5 days of downtime on our newest machine)
Then today, we had an operator run a spade drill into 316 without coolant. I attempted to pull the same spade drill out and replace it, but we had none in stock. I asked him to hang it while I was helping another operator, and when I looked over i seen him using my brand new indicator to dial it in.
Afraid that he was going to break it, i ran over and suggested to take over, and lost in translation was the fact that he hadnt touched it off in z yet. Break bell ran, And i forgot to touch it off. Load monitors had been turned off by said operator, and so when the shorter drill didnt drill as deep as it should, a rough bore, finish bore, profile bore, and a carbide ID threader all got wiped out
But it doesnt stop there. We were using a 3 jaw chuck in a 9 tool setup. The insert drill and spade drill were hung in blocks next to eachother but the jaws had been turned down. After replacing all the crashed tooling, I touched every tool off in z and x.
When the shorter spade drill ran during its last .200 the Insert drill clipped the top of the jaws. Now the turret needs realigned.
TLDR: I crashed 2 machines in a month and am facing possible suspension.
My question: How did some of you adjust to becoming the goto guy for everyone. Should I tell my operators to not touch the machines until I get there, or trust that they can do it themselves with verbal explanation?
What can I do to stop further mistakes? Should I just tell my employer that maybe I am not ready for a job where I have to take responsibility for so many other people?
Sorry for the wall of text, but you know how difficult it can be to describe any situation in a machine shop.
Thanks in advanced.
-Shade
When I started I didn't know what a lathe was, but had a strong background in mathematics and computers, so the company I am currently working for decided to hire me on.
It is a part shop, and I was fortunate enough (unfortunately for the company) that within my 3 month temp agency time, all but two of their experienced employees had quit or gotten fired.
What I know:In the last 9 months, I have been taught alot by my manager and at this point I can handle any set up on any of our Okuma lathe 1 spindle-1 turret, or 2 spindle-1 turret machines.
I am able to program indepthly, edit programs to improve cycle time, calculate feeds and speeds, and troubleshoot new/old setups efficiently and accurately.
My problem: Recently, I am seeing less setup time, and had been training some of our newer people ( our average employee experience level is around 1 year) to set up. Naturally, I have been given the oppourtunity to no longer troubleshoot for myself (operating and set up),but for others.
I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed because I found that I am not a very good teacher, and when I start to become overencumbered by 3 or more people asking me to come fix their machine, I get flustered and make mistakes. Big mistakes.
A week ago we had a barfeed error, which i fixed, but the barfeeder bugged and tried running an inch long part while holding on to approx .150. Needless to say it crashed. I was in a rush when I came to fix it and didnt realize that when the bore crashed it got pushed back.
Well the face groove came in after and tried rapiding in .025 farther than the afroementioned pushed back bore had bored out. (500 dollar face groove, needed to be shiped from Sweden= 2.5 days of downtime on our newest machine)
Then today, we had an operator run a spade drill into 316 without coolant. I attempted to pull the same spade drill out and replace it, but we had none in stock. I asked him to hang it while I was helping another operator, and when I looked over i seen him using my brand new indicator to dial it in.
Afraid that he was going to break it, i ran over and suggested to take over, and lost in translation was the fact that he hadnt touched it off in z yet. Break bell ran, And i forgot to touch it off. Load monitors had been turned off by said operator, and so when the shorter drill didnt drill as deep as it should, a rough bore, finish bore, profile bore, and a carbide ID threader all got wiped out
But it doesnt stop there. We were using a 3 jaw chuck in a 9 tool setup. The insert drill and spade drill were hung in blocks next to eachother but the jaws had been turned down. After replacing all the crashed tooling, I touched every tool off in z and x.
When the shorter spade drill ran during its last .200 the Insert drill clipped the top of the jaws. Now the turret needs realigned.
TLDR: I crashed 2 machines in a month and am facing possible suspension.
My question: How did some of you adjust to becoming the goto guy for everyone. Should I tell my operators to not touch the machines until I get there, or trust that they can do it themselves with verbal explanation?
What can I do to stop further mistakes? Should I just tell my employer that maybe I am not ready for a job where I have to take responsibility for so many other people?
Sorry for the wall of text, but you know how difficult it can be to describe any situation in a machine shop.
Thanks in advanced.
-Shade