It’s not pretty
You are supposed to make a nice loop in order to reduce losses
We didn’t have the slack for that
New machine works real good not one fusion failed
This run was damaged and should have been replaced
But D made the call he wanted to try with what we had.
B didn’t want to pull a new cable
I was indifferent because they are not paying m enough
Cover is on and they can see the node so the only ones that know how ugly it was are me and you
And you not going this tell are you
Wallace,
You made it work, didn’t you?
Yes, they are not paying you nearly enough.
When I was installing auto paint systems we had a job with Mazda. They had some kind of a joint venture with Ford and converted an closed down foundry into an assembly plant. This was around 1986 or 87 and we were using programmable controllers for all our stuff by then but Mazda wanted all wired relays and provided the panels. Enclosures were about six and a half foot high and stuffed with hard wired relays. The precision of that wiring was unbelievable. Every wire perfectly bent and exactly the same spacing from the one around it. I don’t think any American could have done that kind of work.
An American could have done it. No American company would want to pay for the hours and hours of skilled labor. Can you imagine the cost of copper wiring, and all those relay coils, and all the power supplies just to run the relays? and which one went bad??? I don’t want to have to fix that. Computers are a pain, but a few lines of code replaces a lot of relays!
And I guess we should move to another topic… 
The American auto industry embraced automation as a way to reduce costs and improve quality, but also speed changes.
Japan was slower to embrace some of this thinking.
MODICON ( modular electronic controller ), is the brand we use the most up here in my industry.
You can trace the roots back to GM for the brand, they were developed in the late 60s to replace all those boards of relays.
As far as the quality of the workmanship I have seen wiring done in Canada and the USA done to very fine quality second to none.
Trouble is you have to be prepared to pay for it most places won’t!
First generation automation and systems were designed to last they were well made and repaired and programmed by the people who installed them at the plant so.
This looks like hell today but consider it old and in an unfriendly environment with no one coming to maintain it.
Time has marched on and it has been adapted to work with fibre and Ethernet rather than its native MB+ and copper cable.
Look real close at the encloser and you see a full length piano hinge that’s rotted away heavy steel construction that has not rotted throw, paint that did a good job of sticking and a rats nest of wires all cut open from what was once some very neat tidy and colour coded to function.
Brown was inputs and orange was outputs…
You have to want to pay for quality and then pay for people to keep it up.
If you don’t pay this is what you get ( sooner or later it will stop working )
Here’s the future.
You skip the PLC hub and use smarter starters that a central computer systems can monitor.
Make the processes simpler, bite sized and dummer to the point where the stater itself is all that is left.
Then the guys someplace else can run monitor and trouble shoot from a remote location.
Local people do not need to know whats going on or how to run it…
Its saves in labour costs, training and equipment.
All of these things can be made cheaper and disposable now.
Yes I do remember the big boards or relays though.
I could listen to the clicks and tell you what was going on above me on the floor.
And when it stopped I walk down the length of the big MCCs and logic boards and tap a hung relay pretty fast to restart everything.
A mean operator in a pullet someplace could make those relays do tricks and keep me running all night if he wanted ( maybe he did not know what he was tripping but he could learn the systems responses to his inputs and remember what went wrong last time and do it again )
A good operator could also tell you what was happening and speed up a break down.
Machines still suck at this ( but they break down less so I think its a wash ).
Time was you learned your plant, your equipment, the people you worked with and expectations of the bosses.
If you could find a common ground to work together then the plant hummed…
Japanese plants hummed a long real well because they were and still are better at this than we are.
We however have tried to and succeeded in making every mistrust each other to the point you cant hire people, don’t train people, don;t properly compensate or reward people, and we have no loyalty to your employer.
We had some visitors Sunday at the plant.
Our Manager ( an Engineer I respect and speak to often ) and the CEO… and every strata in between.
The people at the very top do not speak out language, and even if they did they still do not understand.
The manager is told what to do from above.
In the days before the information and data metrics flew around at the speed of light the manager might get a phone call from Toronto or NY and tell him what our numbers were, what was going on and what we needed and daily operations were in his hands.
Now I don’t expect him to be able to decide the colour of his shirt. ( in fact he has to wear a green one with the company logo on it ).
Still a nice guy though, but there is no decision he can make to really control the operation of the machine or help me with my task of maintaining it.
That’s why we don’t make things in this country anymore.
I mean we do but we make the cheapest simple things that don’t require pride or skill.
We have become the people that make the junk that they used to make in poor countries.
Ironic then that we see people in poor countries with higher levels of skills making things by hand with no machines at all.
Funny how I get off on a tangent and ramble…
Sorry
Started a new topic for us:@Wallace @tcholton717 @madflower69 @Tone
I Love to Hate my Job: A Journal for our Times - Off Topic - Drive On Wood!
Hi Chris, just wondering if anyone else is having any problems on this site. I have been getting a Ah Snap page up and I have to reload the page after it locks up. And the site seems to be running slower loading up pages. I am using my Tap E tablet and I am not on my phone.
Thanks you Bob
Good morning Mr. Bob .
All is working good here 
I thinking it is my Table E tablet it is getting old bought it in 2017, I will need to have it checked out. Thanks Wayne.
I have some trouble with this page locks up too, it just “loading” and that “spinning thing” keeps rotating 
Have to close and open againg, only trouble is if it happens when im writing/posting some, some get lost.
It works fine for me. It could be numerous issues. The easiest place to start is to clear all your cookies and browser cache. Which you have to look up for your particular platform and browser because they aren’t all necessarily in the same place.
We have already had ticks. 
I have tried to get this site to operate correctly. With out the Ah Snap screen showing up. Shuting it down. I cleared my search history on Crome hoping that would help. I log out of DOW and relogged in. It is still doing the samething. I do not seem to be having a issues on any other sites. I can hardly believe I got this far typing with out it dropping out with the Ah Snap screen showing up. May be just reporting this, it fixed it. Lol. Ya right. Thank you for any insights in helping with this.
Bob
Good morning Mr. Bob.
The DOW seems to be working OK here in my neck of the woods .
Thanks Wayne, for the report, it seems to be a problem with my Tablet. The site is working great on my phone. I wonder if my tablet is using a the phone app. or not. Tring to figure out how to change the tablet over to the phone app. and try it on that. My tablet is a 4g and not the new 5g tablets.
Bob
Bob I had the same problem on my old cellphone, they just get left behind after a few years in the speed department.
Bob,
I have always used a (Windows xx.x) laptop computer, saves time and trouble, as a mentor used to repeat often. My eyes, and my butterfingers work better that way, and DOW is the least data-intensive site I use regularly.
Here is a sandbox site for the Discourse forum software platform that is used by DOW. See if the problem follows??
Discourse Demo
I am also using the https:// version, because I was tired of looking at the “Unsecured” site warning.
Drive On Wood! - Woodgas Power.
I am on a Verzon account. On my my old phone verzion put a program in my phone to cause it to not charge ofcouser they wounld not admit it . When I up graded to a new phone and did not trade the phone in, but keeped it, the phone is now okay. Now I have a good spare phone if this one breaks . I think Verizon is doing the samething, mess with my old tablet. They can’t make monies if they don’t sale you the latest new bells and whisles on the smart phones and tablets.
Bob
The Devil has many names Bob. One of them is Verizon. You need an exorcist. Also there is little chance of you having 5G in rural location. Do your happy dance.
To late Tom we have been 5G here for a long time now and it has affected me a bit. For a long time and has afect me bit, for time long and me efect me no what was I talking about
