Shop Time w/T.W. Friends. Torque wrench on spark plugs, we need answers so cast your vote now

Oh so you're the guy over-greasing everything!

We have a couple of those at work, but they're supposed to only be used on curve belts that are chain driven. They take a whole tube of grease monthly. But guys will grab it to do their regular PM's that the bearings only are supposed to take 1-2 pumps. The number of blown bearing seals around that place are ridiculous...

 

I'm hungry now...wife's got some chicken bake going...any time now...

 

Well, I didn't mess up any cuts, BUT, I did miss measure and not buy enough plywood

 

Ugh.... nothing worse than not having enough material!

 

I have Hot Burn just reading it!!

 

One of my regular return guys quit his job of 15 years, 6 months into the year. That Fall, he come to work and said he made in six weeks what he made the first 6 months! I kind of think he may not return after last outage, seems he got attitude with the wrong guys, like the top 2 managers, all over mask requirements. Bummer.
I somewhat have hope to retire from full time work and catch a shutdown in the spring and fall to carry me to 67

 

The seals around here seem to come blown out from factory. With how many bearings/assemblies there are to grease around here, we only have electric grease guns. The rule of thumb given to every person that uses a grease gun here is "hold the trigger until you see new grease come out"

 

We also just lost a skid steer a few minutes ago. One of the guys was using it to pick up a shaft from a garage door, left it in the lane of travel for our big Volvo loaders... loader came around the corner with a 7 foot tall bundle of 2x4x14 and donkey punched the rear of the skid steer. Shoved the engine cage forwards about 8 inches, blew up the radiator and who knows what else. Oil and coolant and hydraulic fluid everywhere. Thankfully nobody was in the skid steer, and the loader operator barely felt a bump.

 

Wtf!! Sorry to hear

 

That goes again everything I've ever been done/taught. We use Dodge and Seal Master bearings and even with most being blown out from over-greasing seem to be holding up amazingly well. The ones we have trouble with are the 22205E sealed bearings. Unfortunately they're in an assembly that can't be lubed, so we have to use sealed bearings. The ER19 and ER21 sealed bearings from Seal Master seem to hold up well though. There's supposed to be a big retro-fit to take care of the 22205's to an external style.


Sorry for nerding out on bearings guys. I memorize way too many of these part numbers

 

A Nephew to one of the Operations guys got his 18 month associate's degree and promptly landed a job at coal plant down the road...$40.00 a hour to start. So couldn't have been much over 20 year old. First thing he did was go out and buy a brand new Mustang GT

 

I recall a training session and the instructor said if you grease that bearing until grease comes out, you've ruined it. I also remember him saying it's always best to grease while running if possible.

 

It is a good practice to do it while it's running, but there's some instances I'm not taking the drive guards off and sticking my hand in there. Some guys do it, but not me. I'm quite fond of my right hand... for reasons...

 

My wife likes my right hand as well!

 

I'm not saying the way we it is correct by any means. There are a couple tool arm assemblies where the grease seal is installed "backwards" to allow old grease to push out and no dust/dirt to get in. At least that's the way it was explained to me.

Edit: those assemblies each take an entire tube of grease every week.

 

You got me there...

 

Yeah, truthfully, I'm not sure I fully understood what he meant by not greasing a bearing until you see grease coming out of the seals. Or, does a sealed bearing ever even need grease? You sure can't add much without it coming out. And then there's other bearings, like the u-joints I greased the other day, you pretty much have to grease them until you purge some old out... no?

 

I do this... purge the u-joints... nice and slow

 

@six5crèéd You asked for more sawmill pics, I deliver. This is looking through our twin band saw in the direction the logs feed through it. I was in there replacing the face plates on our canters, essentially chippers that take down the sides of the log to leave a flat face. Followed by the twin band saws to bring it even further down to dimension and get a 1-2 inch slab off either side of the log if it's big enough. Press rolls help keep the now cut log on the appropriately named "sharp chain" as it is a chain made up of little teeth to drag the log forwards whether it wants to or not.

Edit: The band saws themselves aren't pictured as they were off getting changed out for sharp ones at that moment.

 

Thanks for sharing and explaining! Looks like a complicated operation to keep going