dust on my lathe. Have had some workpieces damaged due to arcing. Also, my
machine has a quirk of jogging the electrode into the work once in awhile.



Reminds me of a story.....


About 24 years ago, when I was an apprentice, and about 17 years old, we had
a Handsvet that would drift (the ram would go down) sometimes. We had made
this aware to the boss on multiple occasions, but he was too cheap to fix
it. I had my Mititoyo indicator in the ram to indicate a part, and needed a
rubber hammer from the other room to adjust the plate I was working on. I
went to get the hammer, and when I came back, the machine had smashed my
indicator. I was pretty ticked. After all, I was making all of about $3.35
per hour, and tools were hard to come by for me. I stomped into the bosses'
office, and demanded that he get my indicator fixed. I was kinda shocked.
Not only did he send it off to get fixed, he loaned me his Best Test to use
until mine came back. His indicator was rather special to him. He had even
memorized the serial number on it because it ended in 187. He called it his
3/16ths indicator.

A couple of days later I was using his indicator to straighten a plate on a
mill. I couldn't get that stupid plate to move, so I rared back and gave it
a good whack with the rubber hammer. You guessed it, I missed the plate
completely and nailed his indicator. Pieces flew all over the shop. I was
shocked, and scared. There was no way I could afford to replace his
indicator, and there weren't enough pieces left of it to have it repaired.
My mind kept playing back the little fit I threw when "his machine" broke my
indicator.

I found a small paper sack, and gathered all of the pieces. I carried it
into his office, and handed it to him. I offered to replace it, but he
refused. I thought he was going to cry.


Roll the clock forward about 18 years. I had since left that shop, and
worked at a couple more. I was contemplating starting my own, so I went back
to my old boss to ask for some advice. He was still running his little shop,
and things hadn't changed much since I was there last. As we talked, I
followed him into his office. There on the back corner of his desk was an
old brown paper bag that he wanted to show me. Sure enough, inside the bag
were crumpled pieces of his old indicator. He had never taken it off of his
desk!

He still won't let me buy that thing from him, and everytime I see him, he
points the bag out to me again.