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Interesting video on bearings by a guy that rebuilds gearboxes.

DrEntropy

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Good vid, David. Thanks for posting that. His explanation for the galling on a ball-bearing race vs. cone and roller was a good one. Some of the outfits supplying "kits" for rebuilding systems would benefit from watching it! :smirk:

Grandfather, father, uncle, brother and self all worked at some point for a company that made seamless tubing for bearings. LTV, Timken and New Departure were among the customers for the product. Dad, his brother and I were in Quality Control. Unfortunately, the foreign manufacturers' government subsidies (and in no small part, domestic labor unions) killed off most domestic producers by the late '70's.

Learned the difference between "pipe" and "tubing" at an early age. Same with "motor" and "engine." As a pre-teen I got the benefit of observing and learning during the development of some of the first ultrasonic testing equipment for steel tubing. A physics PhD, a metallurgist and Dad (E.E.) were among my tutors. A real "leg up" to understanding things mechanical and electrical.
 

waltesefalcon

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Doc, I imagine that many of the companies supplying the rebuild kits already know this, but don't care as ball bearings are better for the bottom line.
 

Boink

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Doc, I imagine that many of the companies supplying the rebuild kits already know this, but don't care as ball bearings are better for the bottom line.

Read an article a while h=back that said most larger companies are now run by people who come out of financial management backgrounds and not as experts in whatever the company makes. Don't know how true overall that is, but it does make the obsession with increasing profit and continued expense cutting as primary goals over the actual business product make sense. I see that here all the time.
 
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DavidApp

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That has been going on for a long time.
Back in the 1970s I remember that changes were made at the company where I worked by account types. Bronze parts were changed for brass as a cost saving. "Its the same thing really" Failures followed after the accountant type had moved on taking his cost saving plaque with him to his new post.
At another company our high speed machines used Klingelnberg bevel gears which were very expensive to make but ran very smoothly and quietly. We had purchased the special gear cutting equipment to make them in house.
The accountants decided cost savings could be made so we went to regular bevel gears and scrapped the gear cutting machines.
Noise levels soared on the machine and the gears did not last. That was a plus in the accounts eyes as we sold more spares.

David
 

DrEntropy

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Mike said:
most larger companies are now run by people who come out of financial management backgrounds and not as experts in whatever the company makes.


When the bean-counters are allowed to make production level policy decisions, RUN! I believe most of us here have lived long enough to have seen it at least once, if not repeatedly,in many different businesses.
 

Gliderman8

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When the bean-counters are allowed to make production level policy decisions, RUN! I believe most of us here have lived long enough to have seen it at least once, if not repeatedly,in many different businesses.


I worked for a German manufacturing company. One day I had a lady call me desperately needing a grab bar as her husband was coming home from the hospital the next day. Color did not matter what so ever to her as she just needed the grab bar. We stocked only a handful of bars in best selling colors; everything else was made to order.
Since she needed the bar quickly I told her we could ship a biscuit color one out today since we had one on the shelf.
After the order shipped the “bean counter” let me know that they had to manufacture one in a rush in order to get it out the same day. When I told him we had it on the shelf his reply was “if we shipped THAT ONE we wouldn’t have any on the shelf”.
His reply was beyond belief!
 

John Turney

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I worked for a German manufacturing company. One day I had a lady call me desperately needing a grab bar as her husband was coming home from the hospital the next day. Color did not matter what so ever to her as she just needed the grab bar. We stocked only a handful of bars in best selling colors; everything else was made to order.
Since she needed the bar quickly I told her we could ship a biscuit color one out today since we had one on the shelf.
After the order shipped the “bean counter” let me know that they had to manufacture one in order to get it out the same day. When I told him we had it on the shelf his reply was “if we shipped THAT ONE we wouldn’t have any on the shelf”.
His reply was beyond belief!
Did he have pointy hair? That's straight out of Dilbert! :applause:
 

Gliderman8

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Did he have pointy hair? That's straight out of Dilbert! :applause:
Without saying something I shouldn’t... That was the mentality of the company.
We also had a same day shipping policy that said same day shipping was only possible if the order was placed by noon.
I had a very well known cruise line place a small order for same day shipping at 12:30pm.
The plant manager asked me if “the customer knows what time it is?”
I transferred the call to him and told him to ask that question to the customer.
 

NutmegCT

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Speaking of bean counters ...

When Henry Ford first let his son Edsel manage the company, Henry and Clara took an extended vacation.

While they were gone, Edsel had a visit from the chief accountant, saying they were running out of room for accounting staff. Edsel approved an expansion of the accounting building.

When Henry returned from the trip, he asked what the new building was. When he learned it was for the accountants, he had the construction crew tear down the new building.

(Edsel had a miserable time as Henry's son. Everything he did, Henry told him it was wrong.)
 
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DavidApp

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We had an expression in England. Rags to Rags in 3 generations. Sounds like Edsel was trying to speed up the process.

The company I worked for in the US was a subsidiary of a British company. We designed a machine here in the US which was very successful and made a lot of money. When things slowed down in England the head office decided to take over our machine. A year later the designer was called to a meeting in England as they could not understand how we made so much on the machines as they were losing on every machine. The designer explained that the first few did not make anything but when we started buying parts in bulk we made a profit.
The accountant said "What difference does buying in bulk make" The designer was amazed and left the meeting to fly back to the US. There was nothing more to say at the meeting.

David
 

waltesefalcon

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Bean counters are the bane of pretty much every working man's existence. Once a company no longer has people who know what they are doing in management and only has guys with business degrees and accountants, the company takes a dive.
 
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We get the phrase "better, faster, cheaper" all the time. Being in the software development and maintenance business the bean counters don't want to understand that two of the three are usually easy but all three tend to contradict each other. And the thought that because an idea can take just moments to define, why can't programs. Like saying "build me an aircraft carrier", then 3 months later asking, "why does it take so long, you must not be organized correctly"...
 

Basil

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I was going to reply to this thread, but I realized my reply had no bearing on the discussion. :p
 

Gliderman8

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I was going to reply to this thread, but I realized my reply had no bearing on the discussion. :p
You're creating friction here.
 

waltesefalcon

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I find your puns to be galling.
 
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