Some people believe they look better, when they bad mouth others. To me, it
just makes them look like bad mouthers.

When I was about 19, I took my Dad's car to a muffler repair place. They did
the warranty work, which had originally been done by another store that was
no longer there. They spent the time knocking the "mickey mouse outfit" and
"no good" guys at the other store.

Shortly after that, I needed my phone line repaired. They sent out a guy,
who climbed up the ladder and found some damage. Being cooperative, I gave
him an opening "Was it the no good guys on the other shift, the mickey mouse
outfit?" or some thing I said. I hope to always rememeber his reply. Old
guy, on a ladder, looking down from the wire.

"Never knock your fellow worker!"

And, in the decades since then, I have tried not to.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in message
. 3.70...
I'm wondering why the hell people who don't overlap one-another's market
still have a need to "compete" with others. Mostly I'm talking about
building up one's image at the cost of belittling another's.

I had an experience. I am not a "precision machinist" by any stretch.
My primary offering to my customers is innovation, and machines that work
to improve their productivity.

Last year, I built a press and explosives composition mold for a friend
way-far out west. When he started using it, he was using pressures
several TIMES higher than what I had designed it for (and what he spec'd
out), and the mold cavity liners were slipping a little bit on ejection
of the product. So I made him a liner retainer plate that would hold
against that extra pressure. It has 54 cavity holes and 74 counter-sunk
bolt holes in an array that will surround all the cavities and hold the
plate against the liner flanges (they look a bit like a flanged oilite
bushing, but made of Acetal). I machined the cavity holes, and drilled
the bolt holes in a single clamp-up on CNC.

His task was to take the mold body to a local machinst (who only normally
repairs auto parts, but has a couple of general-purpose machines), and
have matching holes drilled and tapped to fit the plate. The guy said he
could do it, and even had "CNC software" so he could match the array
exactly.

The next day, the machinist called him to say that all the holes were
"all over the place; up to 30-thousanths off-centers", and he was going
to have to take the plate to a better-equipped shop to have all the holes
probe-plotted to make sure his holes lined up. His new price reflected
that. He also told my friend that "next time, you need to hire someone
who knows what he's doing." (ouch!)

So, the liners have finally worn out. Expected by both of us. They were
made of acetal, for pressures far lower than what he is now using. We're
going to change to a high-lubricity brass. He sent the whole mold back
for me to re-line.

I've been chasing this inaccuracy problem ever since his first phone call
about it, and could never replicate anything remotely like it. My only
issue with my machine is poor surface finish, because I have yet to
rebuild my spindle. But when I got the mold, the first thing I did was
take it apart and start measuring. I deliberately did not refer to my
drawings or the CAM files. I just started manually measuring holes,
center distances, and diagonals all over the plate.

Everything is dead-on to within a half-thou in every direction (the best
my measuring tools will do for distances larger than 2"). There are no
center-to-center variations, no cumulative changes across the length or
breadth of the plate, no out-of-square condition... nothin', zip, nada.

Then I checked the drawings and CAM files. They exactly matched the
physical part.

He and I don't compete; we're fifteen states apart and do different
things. Maybe he thinks we do.

Why? Why do people do this crap? Is it just the bux, or is it trying to
build themselves up in their own eyes?

Damn. Well, at least I know my mill isn't misbehaving, after all.

LLoyd