Lockwire as Torque Retention

Good ranting skills!

I'm with you on this!

Maybe you could make more imaginative use of the emoticons..? (joke)

I expect you'll get to hear all our favourite pet hates...should be fun!

My pet hate is those slidey visor safety shields on pillar drills (drill press) which are a hazard themselves...as they stop you seeing the work, and generally get in the way.

Every man is his own safety officer!

Del

Here here, and every woman his Healtth & Efficiency partner.

I'm still trying to decide about my pet hate, the list is looooooooong.

I agree lock wire only keeps the fasteners from becoming completely loose and falling in to the works and really causing a problem.

Bosses that think that CNC's are idiot proof and willing to put one on it to prove it.

Operator's that can't seem to tell what end of the part goes it to the machine. Especially on a Monday morning.

Mysterious broken equipment that just broke but no body was using.

list goes on

Ohhhh where do I begin....

How about the engineer who, when he knows the design will not be ready on time, compromises the design to made some marketing puke happy about a trade show?

I guess I've worked with too many engineers who would rather be unemployed then settle for high warranty cost because they knew better. I knew one or two who quit on principal. (the company begged them to come back, they did but only after they got the project dates moved.)

Stick to your guns guys and gals.

More to come on this... got lots to rant about.

I'm pleased to see the warm reception . It is gratifying to know there are other sane (okay, mostly sane?) folks out there who appreciate your frustrations !

So now I'll throw my second biggest professional pet peeve - properly supporting clamps. Most clamps are P shaped, with the line (hose, tube, cable, whatever) going in the round (duh) and the mounting tabs which overlap each other coming off tangential to the bottom of the round. P clamps are designed to be structurally supported to the CENTERLINE OF THE LINE, NOT just the bolt hole in the tab!

This information is provided all over the place, from the specification controlling the manufacture of the clamp, to industry and military installation guidelines. They even mention the addition of a 'stiffener' bracket that would rest on the top-side of the mounting tab for use in high vibration environments. I have never seen one in use.

Butterflying (having two clamps bolted to each other, and not to structure) is not recommended (though admittedly sometimes necessary - but overused for its ease), neither is stacking multiple clamps on one bolt.

Helicopters are HIGH vibration environments. Bad clamping leads to chafing, galling, misrouting, lines rubbing on each other, etc.

It drives me nuts that OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers - the people who design and make the aircraft) do not design in proper clamping. I have not yet seen it, I'd love to know if anyone has.

I would love to see something properly clamped. Someday.

(How's that for emoticon usage? )

Ha, that's reminded me of another...

Molded plastic clips and fingers which are NOT tapered !!!

Oh dear it's snapped off at the root...quelle surpise!!!

Haven't these guys ever seen a tree bend in the wind? Didn't they ever make a bow and arrow as kids? (Yes they did but it snapped in the middle!! )

( To be fair some of those lugage strap/sandal strap clips are Very well designed.....Ohhh NO ... now you all know I wear sandals )

My pet peeve is more towards EE's and their lovely designs for Wiring panels and equipment.

Isn't it great when a panel is designed to use what appears to be the maximum amount of wire possible to get from one point to another.

An then to top it off lets use a different color wire for each connection.

Then lets use a different number on each side of the relay controlling a circuit even though the circuit is the same and perchance a different color of wire to boot.

Oh Oh now lets draw this magnificent schematic of the whole works and not include a single color reference in it, even though they have used every color under the rainbow to make this contraption.

Then lets follow that up with making design changes whilst building the contraption and not include them in the drawings.

And finally the capper to it all.

Lets include components from other manufacturers and not give a single reference drawing to those components nor the diagrams necessary to troubleshoot those components. Better yet lets not even show anything but a square box with lines going into it that may or may not have reference numbers on them and may or may not have any color coding on them and give no reference to what the little box might be representing.

In case your wondering this happens alot with Japanese and British equipment which I have a lot of in my shop.

Oh an I tried to include a few emotes for you Del

& Don't forget the ever popular, terminal strip @ the back corner of the box w/3 connections on each lug so it's nearly impossible to replace, say a broken prox [ you know a 6mm, with wires sooo tiny ]. or 5 schematics, no real indication of which 1 [ if any ] are accurate. or all the wires are the same color & the #s are made w/that ink that fades completely after 1 year. or the service manual that has absolutly no pictures & bearing described as a "rotational support element" or something else that's been badly translated or if there are pics the parts list is on the back.

Yup your right forgot about those little fun items.

My pet peeve is when the Sewer district reviews a sewer plan that actually works but insist that you change it because they don't want you to tap into their VERY OLD BRICK sewer.

Even though you can show them the calcs that it will be overloading the sewer they want you to tap into farther down stream.

Then when it gets built their way and backs up into the neighbors basements blame you for poor design and then makes you redo the system the way you originally had it designed. And tries to make you pay for the damages and cost over runs.

I've so often wondered how we'd fight another war.....

...hang on a minute???

What are complaining about???? At least your company uses safety wire.

I'm a contract designer who tries to convince my clients to use some sort of

safety element for retaining fasteners. Some are so cheap, I have been yelled at

for calling up red Loctite and a yellow marker to denote that the fastener has been tightened.

What gets me most is when an apprentice of 2years or more says he/she knows what they are doing! eg. when connecting lights in a false ceiling, when you show them for the umpteenth time and they still get it wrong! I had one guy who connected the earth of all the lights to the phase conductor therefore energizing the whole ceiling grid when he tested them! I was not amused, but shocked! I wish people would say they are unsure of what they are doing and not just pretend they know it all!

I am pointing the finger at the apprentice in general! If you are unsure, ASK! don't just carry on regardless!

I have to agree with you on this one for sure!

My youngest son is in his final year in electrical training and I have been trying to make sure he understands ALL the safety needs of an electrician.

Luckily on my part he listens very intently to his instructor and has a healthy respect for what electricity can do.

I think he will do well and hope that there will be no hazardous incidents on his part.

Great point...

It's soooo important to recognise when you don't actually know.... this seems surprisingly difficult for some!

phrogengr

Lockwire's job is simply to stop items from backing off completely and retaining them, preventing them from becoming FOD

Your statement, above, is the one and only purpose for lockwire, also called safety wire. It will only do as you described.

DON"T CALL IT LOCK WIRE!!! It's proper name is safety wire, and it needs to be installed properly to hold the NUT in the safe position.

And Del, yes there is a nut in this post!!!

I DIDN'T CALL IT LOCK WIRE --- I responded to the title of the post, and did point out that it is also called SAFETY WIRE.

BUT in most circles either one is acceptable, as most folk skilled in areas where it is used understand no matter which you choose to call it. In addition, I have never seen anyone get upset over it and YELL.

You are correct about the silliness. If the folks working with phrogengr need to ask if this piece wire can retain torque then maybe they need to look for another line of work.

As he stated this is ridiculous, and yet the folks he works with don't get it.

Quote: I get glazed looks at this point, even from people who should know better.

I won't even mention the people who use lock/safety wire in place of SHEAR wire .

Oh wait, I guess I did.

How bout cotter pins are they capable of handling torque????

Just kidding

sorry the redneck in me just came a poppin out