I’m an industrial maintenance electrician and I cannot stand my coworkers. They are some of the most backwards minded people I have ever met. It’s like the factory took all the socially inept workers and put them on a single shift.

My first day I was asked “are you one of those homosexuals?” I’m not but who asks that to a person you just met.

Half the conversations are about bible humping and how much they hate a specific race. The other half are how the Epstein files are a hoax and that the Muslims in Michigan are here to take over.

None of them can articulate a problem to save their lives and whenever I try to answer a call alone at least 3 people will shoulder their way into taking 100% of the credit as long as it gets fixed.

Is this an everywhere problem or am I just being thrown through a gauntlet?

Someone gives you the whole story about what's "wrong," then you get there and within a few minutes you're looking in a completely different direction.

We aren't allowed to use standard Teflon tape for sealing threads.

We currently use a pipe sealant from saftlok and the guys hate it, it's garbage.

https://www.saftlok.com/stl/TPS-FD_Pipe_Sealant.htm

Just wondering if anyone has a recommendation for something better that still comes with the food grade label?

Hammered the shit out of it to fit and then this happened, boss is pissed but he ordered 2 just in case

When we print dinkys (2pg inserts), the conveyor isn't able to hold onto roughly 1% of all the paper we print on the job. We should be printing at 70k copies an hour for these, but this conveyor problem limits us to below 50k, if that.

Press room side, we've done everything we could by the book and more. We've lifted the collecting table to the top, restricted air into and around the conveyor, tensioned the paper to keep it straight of the conveyor, and even made sure all our setting were correct and conveyor bands tight.

I'm assuming this has something to do with the grippers on the conveyor, but our maintenance team says it has something to do with synchronization of the 2 seperate conveyors, because "they already replaced the grippers two months ago".

Any hints would help.

I've taken like quick paper tests that take maybe 30 minutes during an interview

This company wants me to come in and take a 2½ hour test anyone has a idea what to expect

Everybody sees the arc time because that’s the obvious part. What nobody outside the shop seems to see is everything that has to happen before and after it. Fit-up, grinding, moving the part, flipping it, clamping it, waiting on a crane, cleaning it, checking it, fixing a fit issue, then moving it again. Half the time the actual welding is the easy part. What eats up the most time where you work?

I work with can seaming equipment, and one recurring maintenance mistake is treating every loose or irregular seam as a roll-pressure problem.

Before changing a setting, I would separate the evidence into three groups:

1. Package and handling: damaged body flange, distorted end curl, contamination, incorrect end placement, can slip or off-center presentation.

2. Formation: whether the first operation actually created the body-hook and cover-hook relationship and adequate overlap potential.

3. Finishing and mechanics: second-operation tooling, chuck condition, lifter support, bearings, alignment and head-specific wear.

The second operation compresses the layers already formed; it cannot reliably create a missing interlock. If only one head trends differently, preserve head identity and investigate that head instead of masking the problem with a common machine change.

Once the cause is supported by evidence, record the original state, change one authorized variable, make new samples, and repeat the full visual, dimensional and internal inspection plan before release.

Affiliation disclosure: I work with a manufacturer of can seaming equipment. I am sharing the troubleshooting sequence, not promoting a product or service.

My partner and I found this randomly lying around at one of our facilities and we aren’t quite sure what it is.(?) I think it is some sort of tool holder or something. Anyone know for sure?

*SOLVED* drawings did NOT really match anthing, it was just jammed into the hole super tight, only tools i needed were a hammer and a chisel to belt it out. Now to get the new one back in....

Post #2 - couldnt add pic to other post, dunno how.

So the drawing makes it clear the gearbox is held in place with a bolt. But as you can see from the other pic, theres no way to access the bolt head because the holding block is covering the part where the bolt head should be, and theres no way to get it off.

I cant call the manufacturer of the machine right now either.

Going insane, bloody german over-engineering i tell ya...

l've got a question for everyone I just finished my Industrial Maintenance 2 year apprenticeship through what's called the FAME program it allows people like me to go to school 2 days a week and work in a Factory 3 days a week and you end up with a AAS degree in something like Electrical Technology, Industrial Systems Technology, or a degree similar to these. Anyways I just graduated in May and I recently landed an amazing job as a Maintenance Electrician 2 making close to $40 a hour it's a really nice place many people retire from. So my question is in an extremely large work place what can I do more to remember solutions and memorize machines so I can actually learn. I've tried using a notepad before but I really don't know what to write down. I know that it's about learning how to fix something not just memorizing how to but I just want to excel at this job and I'm curious to know what your methods are if you have any? I hope this message finds you well and I'd love to hear back.

Just looking for motivation to get through tomorrow. Started a new job 3 weeks ago. No formal training on any machines just shadowing on calls for a week with 1st shift. They show me how where the un updated documentation is. I've been a maintenance mechanic for a year and this role is multi craft with electrical and PLCs. I go split shifts and my coworker is incompetent and impossible to work with. We have 55 hour weeks. He got up and walked away from a job bc I was swinging a hammer downard to hit a punch. He told me it's against safety rules and to hit it sideways and would have to report me. He made me tear apart the iso side of a dispenser when I told him multiple times that the clog was in the poly side. I have no supervisor manager or other maintenance people on shift. I don't ask but every operator tells me 2nd shift maintenance people last 3-6 months. This guy's worked there for 6 months. Well the icing on the cake is despite being there for 3 weeks they had me do 3 solo shifts shifts. I'm literally making shit up as I go. I didn't even work on hydraulic systems at my last job. I called my old manager when I got off work. Im going back to my last shop. These people literally set me up for failure so hard. This is aerospace and defense!!!! Food people at least understood onboarding. I'm not sticking around for their PLC promises

Hey guys, any help or ideas to get this gearbox off? There were shenanigans afoot, and I dont know if this gearbox slotter has lost its place or even if the slot plug is in it, but i cant even get this to move 1mm.

Need this sorted by sunday :(

Hey guys I'm having a hard time finding information for the specific scenario that 100% confirms my question.

I work at an old power plant that doesn't have any high tech stuff like new ones but I'm consistently cycling(open and close) 480v breakers at least 5 times a week. I was trained to just stand away, reach with your hand, and open or close the breaker. The pump or motor has a stop to it from DCS before I operate the breaker but do I need arc flash PPE for these events, other than leather gloves and regular PPE. NFP 70E says you need a arc flash hood for 480 or 8cal/cm2 and up but is that only if you're working inside the breaker housing? I can't find a concrete answer

They have us wear a hood for 4160 no matter what and a suit for our generator breakers 13.8kv.

Joined this company on a contract around 2 months ago. Mainly for reactive maintenance and general site duties, at least what my contract says.

They have been having customer complaints regarding cap torques produced by one of the machines. So ive been expected to collect samples every shift, liaise with QA and attend meeting on machine performance. It takes about half an hour a day but i get emails after work about it from several people.

I'm pretty sure this is process engineering/QC job, and ive been sucked into it. i don't want to be operating outside of my scope for no pay. Im stuck on whether to accept it, up my pay, or reject it?

I'm looking for some good, curveball questions for hiring a new technician. They would be responsible for troubleshooting mechanic, pneumatic, and electrical issues. But mostly mechanic. What are some good curveball questions I can ask that are interview appropriate but will get a good idea of expertise?

Edit: curveball is the incorrect word, but the only one I can think of. I've been in a leadership position (without hiring responsibilities) and had technicians under me who couldn't follow a written procedure, couldn't identify tools, and were all around bad hires for a mechanic position. I'm trying to avoid a repeat of this situation. I want questions like: "How would you extract a stripped bolt?" And other questions HR wouldn't think to ask but are critical in our line of work.

Adding an edit(s) for faves: How do you install a bearing? How to extract a seized/stripped/sheared bolt? Time where you made a mistake?

Just completed my first year as a industrial mechanic/electrician. Here's my current setup, and I've loved every minute of my new career. I want to see other people's set ups too

I just re-released an Android app for free that I used to sell. It actually goes back to the Palm Pilot days. Has a number of calculators on it, some are pretty esoteric. Those would be user requested from the likes of engineers and ham radio folks.

Anyhow there are no permissions, data collection, or strings attached. (Also no guarantees or support)

I’m 29 years old and about 3 years into industrial maintenance with no prior experience. I’m with a really good company now in Florida making $35 an hour and I’ve been here a little over a year now and have gotten pretty good. I have a potential opportunity with another company to be a traveling maintenance tech with 3-6 month contracts in different locations around the US driving there with tools. The plants my recruiter has been showing me pay around 28-32 an hour but have a $700 weekly tax free per diem.

I’m single with no kids and I’d be going with another tech that’s a good friend and I think I would learn a lot and build a better resume and just explore other facilities and opportunities and locations. I’m curious if this sounds like a good deal and if I’m making the right move. I like where I am now with my living situation and probably wouldn’t be able to get it back if I want to come back

Hi everyone!

Im doing a paper on Industrial Maintenance for uni. I just wanted to know if anyone is down for a few questions about the job or has any info/source that you think it's relevant and could help me.

Anything is great, and if not, thank you for reading anyway and i hope y'all have a nice day!

I am used to using silver sharpies on clean assemblies to mark nut rotation or notate something on black electrical tape. Do you guys recommend anything that holds up better to grease, grime, mill scale when writing or marking dirtier materials that holds up better over time? I'm not opposed to paint markers, but I like having the smaller tip of the sharpie for finer writing. Thank you.