Just one of a buttload of problems at work today.
Thankfully it was for the compressed air system and not a water line.
We’ve been having problems with the air compressors for months.
Management has been made aware of this the entire time.
They are over a hundred grand, almost two hundred thousand to replace so obviously they have been recalcitrant to pull the trigger.
One is dead dead now and we have been fighting the other one for a couple days. All morning we fought it. That pipe is for hooking up an auxiliary compressor and it got water behind the shut off valve and Kablewie.
Froze up with the cold weather we have been having. I think it was a whopping 18 degrees out this morning.
This is just one problem among many that cropped up today so we were running around like crazy all day.
Welp. the one remaining compressor shit the bed about twenty minutes before quitting time, while I was busy working on something else.
They called in the people who installed it originally and who have worked on them in the past but I have a sneaking suspicion they won’t be able to get to it right away. They are pretty flaky that way.
A diesel powered compressor big enough to run the 300,000 Sq, Ft building runs about $9000 a month.
Somebody is going to have some decisions to make and I won’t be involved with that.
Which is exactly the way I like it.
I watch my immediate supervisor beat his head against paperwork, and the QC and Production departments. Driving the poor bastard nuts. People wondered why I didn’t apply for that job. I’ll tell ya why. My sanity is worth more than a couple extra bucks, a week. I like being just a grunt, again.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
That pipe looks copper. Are you running copper pipes for air line? Way cheaper to run mild steel but then you have to worry about carry over moisture and corrosion.
I’vd seen a lot of places that kill compressors by having too small of a reservoir tank.
I remember one machine shop that had moisture traps like every 10 feet or so of line. I remember this because I used to help the guy who drained them everyday first thing in the am.
and they also had a moisture trap at every outlet.
they worked with plastics and did a bit of spray painting too
it used to take as long to do while the coffee was brewing.
As some wise blacksmith said a thousand years ago (and now said by millwrights and mechanics)…….
Pay now, or pay later. Either way, you pay.
Weird how a pipe exposed to the cold can just fail like that lol. Today was a shit show all around. Cant wait for this weather to clear up over the weekend.
Another case of management kicking the can down the road until they run out of road. I find it comforting, in a sick kind of way.
“If you don’t schedule regular maintenance, your machinery will schedule it for you.”
I’ve seen management types decide to rent a compressor, keep it on site for years at $10k a month, half the time it’s not even running. Just there as a backup for the primary compressor. They’ll spend 2 or 3 times the cost of a new compressor on rent. Which sounds stupid, but …
As I’ve learned, if the company buys it then it becomes a taxable asset. Big pressure from downtown to keep the taxable asset value as low as possible. You also have to allocate money for service and maintenance (which is already built into the rent amount). You also have to get a whole ‘nother line of higher up signatures to “buy” something, while the unit line manager can sign off the rent check by himself. So I can choose to rent something and have it on site and running tomorrow, but if I want to buy it there’s at least 6 months of arguing with upper management and still a pretty big chance of getting told no.
The only consolation is that this line of fucked up thinking is pretty consistent across all big companies. If just one company would pull it’s head out it’s ass you’d think they would be super successful. But I’m a few years away from retirement and no longer give a shit. Give me the rent ticket, I’ll sign it and get that damned thing hooked up ASAP.
You can deduct the whole cost of rent forever. If you buy it, as pointed out, it becomes an asset and its value is depreciating. The bean counter mind set wins every time.
WE USED THEM ON LARGE circumference pipelines in testing. they are just big. Of course if mis-handled they are dangerous
Some bosses never learn. I for years tried to get better dryer systems for ours. Finally added up all the beveler repairs and other damaged items. Water is an abrasive under pressure but the money controllers sometimes are too dumb.
ps Better dryers came with new compressor systems, they were that worn out. Glad it wasn’t my money.