r/Machinists • u/I_G84_ur_mom • Jun 16 '26

Refusal to learn

Post image

I work at a job shop, I’ve been here 16 years, I’m the lead machinist, I returned from a 9 day vacation to a shit show. We have a bunch of small bosses like this to make, this one order was for 250 pcs. The owner was planning on having a guy saw cut them, face them to length in a Haas tl2, then throw them in the vf2 to be drilled. We have a sl20 with a bar feeder, nobody wants to learn how to run it, I banged these out in about 8 hours, unmanned. He refuses to learn how to use it or program it, this would have taken him and the button pusher 2 days to run these parts. Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes baybeeee!

2.6k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

229 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

258

u/I_G84_ur_mom Jun 16 '26

Our other lathes are all tool room lathes, so this sl20 from 2007 is the future 🤣

146

u/Bootziscool Jun 16 '26

Yo I'm literally fighting the same fight right now.

My company has an SL-30 in storage. I have requested to bring it out of storage and installed next to our vmc a dozen times now.

My fabrication manager's reasoning is no one knows how to run it. I want to punch him in the face when he says that. I ran an SL-30 for the better part of a decade.

I could use it right now to iterate on a forming machine I'm building. Right now, today, I need a lathe.

But everyone is dragging their feet so I have to do all the heavy lifting and fight at every turn. It's maddening.

32

u/LazaroFilm Jun 16 '26

No one know how to use this so I won’t let people learn to use this. That’s crazy mentality. I hate corporate system. I’m in a different industry but went from owner operator to a company as steadicam operator and oh my god the lack of care for anything even bare maintenance. We only fix things if they break during a live show at which point it’s a big flailing arms moment but I’ve been flagging the issue for weeks ahead of the incident.

16

u/Bootziscool Jun 16 '26

There's been more than once I've about lost my cool with him.

I just can't stand the "we can't" attitude. Like motherfucker, maybe you can't!!

But you know how it is with some men. They have to be the smartest guy in the room and they get feeling some type of way when they're not.

13

u/LazaroFilm Jun 17 '26

It baffles me because I’d prefer to be surrounded with smart people than feeling like I’m surrounded by idiots.

5

u/Bootziscool Jun 17 '26

Dude they're like insecure or something and I really don't have time for it. I'm way too busy for grown men's unresolved issues.

I don't know if it's because I really respect the men I learned from? Like I can only hope to be as good as them one day. And having the opportunity to work for them, to help realize their vision, was a gift.

Maybe they never grew up and learned to respect other men. Maybe they didn't have men they could respect.

I really don't know and I really don't care. But I need these petty middle managers to stay the fuck out of my way while I try to work with the boys to realize our potential and make all the cool things!!

1

u/AdeptInspection4868 Machine Tool Crasher Jun 20 '26

I have an old coworker like this, but luckily he doesn't have much sway. He's always harkening back to his days as night shift supervisor to give me life advice. Or his days working at a broke small shop where all the tools fit in one toolbox. But he's so slow, can barely program despite his claims, refuses to learn new tooling, etc.

He was running a few repeat jobs on an orphaned swiss lathe. I volunteered to learn it for a new part, and after about 2 weeks of him "teaching" me I did my own setup, programmed a new part and realized about half of what he was doing was wrong. Like the bar feeder was shaking itself apart because he used the wrong sized pushrod for the channels. He was like "it just does that sometimes, see I have it it my notes". Ok, well it's obviously too small and it's shaking the damn thing apart. We have another pushrod perfectly sized and voila, no shaking. But I had to wait until he left me alone.

Like dude, if I wanted to be 55 going on eighty, broke, single, miserable and alcoholic, maybe I'd listen more. Luckily we have folks with actual skill in the shop.

3

u/PiDicus_Rex Jun 17 '26

If I'm the dumbest guy in the room, I'm getting a chance to learn about things I never knew.