Well it has been a busy week at work for me. I got my work visa last week and the plan was I was going to head up to Canada on Thursday to do some winter services. Well on Wednesday Our trucker called from Point Roberts and said he had a flat tire and his air gun couldn't break the lug nuts free. Well my service truck is the only one that can run the one inch gun. So I went up there just to swap a tire and it ended up being a 4 1/2 hour service call with all the traffic. I was then up in Canada on both Thurs and Fri just doing winter services. I also had to work on Sat to help get caught up in the shop.
48 hours this week (between work and school)
Quarter total: 171 hours
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
SPQ13 Phil
Week 3 of school
On Wednesday I went to Canada to get my 2 year visa. What is different about this one is previous years we only got work permits that were only good for 6 months. With the new visas we will be able to work year round so we wont be so slammed going into the season. Other that that is was a typical week in the shop. I did a few bigger jobs, one of which was pulling out a rear bolster or stinger of a 7420.
In class today we talked about lockout/tagging out equipment and making sure it is not functional until it was fully fixed. It reminded my of something that happened in our shop. We had a bench grinder that was missing some guards and so it was tagged out but left there till the guards could be replaced. However one of the other mechanics still used it so the plug was cut off the power cord. So as a joke the same mechanic just stuck the wires in the power outlet to run the grinder. The grinder then promptly disappeared from the shop. While the grinder was just tagged out because of missing guards it is a good example that simply tagging something out is not always enough to keep it from being used.
I have another story that falls in with what Jeff was talking about when there is a hydraulic failure and the operator makes things worse by still running the equipment. Last season I went on a call to a picker that the operator was complaining that the front wheel was locked up. When I arrived you could see big ruts down the rows and the operator proudly announced that even though the wheel wouldn't roll he could just drag it along with the other wheels. Sure enough the front wheel drive motor had grenaded and with all the driving he did it sent the metal to the other two drive motors. All three had to be replaced and they run about (if I remember right) $2,000 a piece.
Learning reflection this week: A good reminder to always be safe around hydraulic systems. Always take your time to make sure you do things safely.
40 hours this week (between work and school)
Quarter total: 123 hours
On Wednesday I went to Canada to get my 2 year visa. What is different about this one is previous years we only got work permits that were only good for 6 months. With the new visas we will be able to work year round so we wont be so slammed going into the season. Other that that is was a typical week in the shop. I did a few bigger jobs, one of which was pulling out a rear bolster or stinger of a 7420.
In class today we talked about lockout/tagging out equipment and making sure it is not functional until it was fully fixed. It reminded my of something that happened in our shop. We had a bench grinder that was missing some guards and so it was tagged out but left there till the guards could be replaced. However one of the other mechanics still used it so the plug was cut off the power cord. So as a joke the same mechanic just stuck the wires in the power outlet to run the grinder. The grinder then promptly disappeared from the shop. While the grinder was just tagged out because of missing guards it is a good example that simply tagging something out is not always enough to keep it from being used.
I have another story that falls in with what Jeff was talking about when there is a hydraulic failure and the operator makes things worse by still running the equipment. Last season I went on a call to a picker that the operator was complaining that the front wheel was locked up. When I arrived you could see big ruts down the rows and the operator proudly announced that even though the wheel wouldn't roll he could just drag it along with the other wheels. Sure enough the front wheel drive motor had grenaded and with all the driving he did it sent the metal to the other two drive motors. All three had to be replaced and they run about (if I remember right) $2,000 a piece.
Learning reflection this week: A good reminder to always be safe around hydraulic systems. Always take your time to make sure you do things safely.
40 hours this week (between work and school)
Quarter total: 123 hours
Monday, April 15, 2013
SPQ13 Phil
This week consisted of mainly PDIs. One of the highlights of the week was OXBO gave a 2 hour class on the plus-1 computer system. All the new pickers are now coming with it and its really cool to see technology finally coming to the harvesters. I also worked on a '07 7420 that had been badly abused. What was hard about working on this machine was the customer didn't want a lot of work done to it because he didn't want to spend a lot of money so as I was working on it I had to skip over a lot of stuff that really needed to be done.
Next week will be a busy one because on Wednesday I'm getting my work visa for Canada and there is a ton of worked stacked up for us in Canada.
Learning reflection of the week: Make sure you have basic electrical down! As you start moving into sensors and computers you will get all mixed up if you don't have the basics.
40 hours this week (between work and school)
83 hours this quarter
Next week will be a busy one because on Wednesday I'm getting my work visa for Canada and there is a ton of worked stacked up for us in Canada.
Learning reflection of the week: Make sure you have basic electrical down! As you start moving into sensors and computers you will get all mixed up if you don't have the basics.
40 hours this week (between work and school)
83 hours this quarter
Monday, April 8, 2013
SPQ13 Phil
Ok so the first week of school is over now. I've been keeping busy at work with servicing pickers and doing major repairs to get ready for season. We also have a bunch of new machines coming in that we have to PDI (pre delivery inspection). I got to take the new korvan mechanic out on a call to a harvester that blew a wheel drive hose on the road. He has been training in the shop for a while now and is a good mechanic but this was his first real service call.
I also spent some time working on my Bronco 2 with a wiring issue. There was a short in the turn signal circuit so after a lot of chasing it down we narrowed it down to a un-used circut so we just cut the wires and everything worked good.
Hours this week 43
Quarter total 43
I also spent some time working on my Bronco 2 with a wiring issue. There was a short in the turn signal circuit so after a lot of chasing it down we narrowed it down to a un-used circut so we just cut the wires and everything worked good.
Hours this week 43
Quarter total 43
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
SPQ13 Phil
On my last post I mentioned Orchard Rite but didn't say what they were. Orchard Rite is a company that makes frost control fans. They basically will kick on when temperatures are near freezing, forcing the warmer air down to the ground causing the buds on the plants to not freeze.
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