"The RONCO (tm) smokeless ashtray!" Topic

Hi All,

Have a couple of days off and I figured I'd catch you up on something I posted back in Febrary, namely this little tidbit:

TMP link

It turns out that the cause of this cheery little blaze was someone using the dust collector as both a fume extractor AND an ashtray. Needless to say our shop cameras picked him up doing it. What makes it bad are the following things:

1) He is an experienced press brake operator.

2) He has many years in working at the shop.

3) He is the 2nd shift lead in the press brake department.

As such they couldn't fire him, they did get him to compensate the company for damages done (to the tune of $2,000 USD for new filters) out of his pay. Yes he's still with us which is an overall good thing as he really is one of the best utility players we have and Lord knows we need him. Still that was one of those "Stupid human tricks" that should never have been done in the first place. Oh yeah, his name is Ron.

He's a lucky bloke, many places don't think of staff as indispensible. Not to mention if any one had been hurt.

Rules and regulations – I mean, who needs them?

This is one of the rare times when I've seen "special circumstances" working to help someone of talent and skill. This guy is one of the best press brake operators we have, he can setup and run the turret stamping presses, is a skillful enough mechanic to be able to help out in tons of little ways that makes life (and productivity) so much better in a place where for various reasons we are too small to afford the loss of the knowledge of the processes and limits of our customers and what they desire.

Typically the people that "get saved" are the unskilled, untalented, and sycophantic hacks. This guy's only real sin was that he was guilty of being "Stupid in a no-stupid zone".

My Dad was the Air Force rep at Rockwell the first time around on the B1 bomber project. As such, he was responsible for all AF activity. Well, the AF had one of their little Leer jets in the workshop. It required work in the tail section, a very tight space. Rockwell had a 'small' person to do just that work. Unfortunately, he loved his cigars and cigars and glue don't go well. In the end, the jet was completely burned out. The AF gave Rockwell a choice, fire the man or replace the jet. They chose to replace the jet because they didn't have anyone else qualified to do his work.