Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Cobbler]

Maybe you're right, there was more than one like it, albeit smaller in size. Each time I fathomed one of them out I was amazed how many mistakes I found

Often people like that are hiding the fact that they are struggling, out of their depth…….. just realised it’s a water works, but ironic that

 

[Keith 66]

I didnt do a formal apprenticeship, but worked early on with an old shipwright who though a grumpy old sod was ok most of the time. Taught me a lot, some of which was how not to do things as some of his ideas were distinctly out of date. A couple of years later i busted my arm & was off work for 5 months. When i went back it was to find my toolbox & tool cupboard had had their padlocks cropped & most of my tools were missing. There were just the two partners & four full time employers there but strangely nobody saw anything.
I had a row with one of the partners a few months later & walked out. After this i got on ok with the other one & in fact went to his funeral last week.
I lost a lot of respect for my workmates who damn well knew who had nicked my tools but didnt have the balls to tell me.
Some years later working at another yard I discovered some of my missing tools in that blokes toolbag, nicked em back with interest.

 

[oldbikedavey]

Dog in the manger stuff .
Standard behaviour for grasping yokels; may they rot, fester, and perish miserably.
Most of them have, and they won't be coming back to haunt us .
Alleluia !

 

[Robotstar5]

When I was a tech fixing water works I did a spell at a local one. The previous tech was a devious guy who kept everything in a book, never left a circuit diagram of mods anywhere, and there was this "green panel" - a rats nest of loops with connections coming and going everywhere. So I spent days on my knees in this panel, with a tatty old original drawing, pulling redundant, and sometimes not, cabling out. More times than I should I brought the whole works to a standstill. Quite a few times I found simple series loops that went twice around some remote instrument, for absolutely no reason. This told me that Mr devious was not as clever as he pretended to be...

One place I worked had a lot of "rats nest" panels, which had been modified by different folks over the years with no drawings, I only stayed 3 months.

 

[sparkysy]

I hate opening a panel to find that sort of adaption.
Some years ago I went to a recycling plant panel that looked similar to that, I say similar as the one I went to you couldn't see half of the relays or contactors for all the cables!

 

[Erie Fred]

"The little Black Book".....many guys kept notes to make the job faster, and they thought they could sell
it at retirement or hold it hostage.

Never worked.

My father had one, he gave it freely upon retirement, went out of his way to make sure the next person could do his job properly.
He did allot of old, obscure, replacement armature coils for motors of all sizes.

 

[Morrisman]

I worked with one guy doing shifts, I was opposite him, on a capstan lathe machining up 13” diameter aluminium impellers. I’m pretty sure he would change the dials slightly when he knocked off, as the first impellers I machined on shift were always undersized.

I soon cottoned on and I’d take smaller cuts, measure, then reset the markers first one of the shift.

Plus he always did two tiny dot punches on each impeller, so he would know which ones were his, if ever any failed inspection. So I did the same with every one I made.

 

[Robotstar5]

I hate opening a panel to find that sort of adaption.
Some years ago I went to a recycling plant panel that looked similar to that, I say similar as the one I went to you couldn't see half of the relays or contactors for all the cables!

I suppose they all start off tidy, I built this one about 15 years ago, I wonder what it looks like today, if it still exists.

 

[Erie Fred]

I suppose they all start off tidy, I built this one about 15 years ago, I wonder what it looks like today, if it still exists.

View attachment 457093

I love it when they start with adding wire nuts......

 

[Robotstar5]

I love it when they start with adding wire nuts......

Luckily, not very popular in the UK.

 

[Erie Fred]

Luckily, not very popular in the UK.

I could send along a container (40' or 53') or two of them......

 

[sparkysy]

We don't tend to see wire nuts over here very often @Erie Fred , usually screw connectors or chock blocks until everyone discovered WAGO connectors!

 

[Erie Fred]

We don't tend to see wire nuts over here very often @Erie Fred , usually screw connectors or chock blocks until everyone discovered WAGO connectors!

We are just seeing them at work this last year. (Wago)
Wiring engineers have made some posters for selecting and applying.

 

[sparkysy]

I must admit they are excellent compared to our old screw connectors or joint boxes!
They have actually been around for a considerable amount of time!
I don't know why they have had so little use until recently.

 

[Robotstar5]

We are just seeing them at work this last year. (Wago)
Wiring engineers have made some posters for selecting and applying.

They are an improvement on the old screw terminal junction boxes

Before

After

 

[Red'n'Black]

One place I worked had a lot of "rats nest" panels, which had been modified by different folks over the years with no drawings, I only stayed 3 months.

View attachment 457081

We have some end-of-line test rigs that look like that inside. The guy who built them is long gone, very clever bloke but never quite finished anything. Documentation? What's that?

There's a new starter who's picking all this up, a proper time-served wireman, and it shows - wires all labelled and dressed neatly, documenting everything as he goes. I hope he sticks around, I've helped where I can from memory of what the rig was supposed to do but as usual with these types, he kept everything a bit too close to his chest as he didn't want any critique of it.

There's some Arduino code in there somewhere as well, that probably looks like spaghetti and all.

 

[dobbslc]

Luckily, not very popular in the UK.

I've just now taken some out of an old light fitting.


Still tight after 40 odd years but I dont like them!
Here's the fuse board that feeds the light...

I'll rewire this one day

 

[Hitch]

Talking of panels, dug this out from my old insta stories...Nice work.

 

[minimutly]

One place I worked had a lot of "rats nest" panels, which had been modified by different folks over the years with no drawings, I only stayed 3 months.

View attachment 457081

Yes seen a few like that, at least it's not big enough to get inside. Fixed a few in my time, now thankfully not my job anymore.

 

[oldbikedavey]

Irreplaceable men ?
Graveyards are full of 'em.....