Started work at 0600 this morning, right after the presses were shut down and the night shift left, jumped in some disposable coveralls and scrubbed the hydraulic cylinders, ten of them on Press One...These aren't small by any means, forty inch diameters each that are connected to a large twenty inch thick platen for pressing melamine sheets on particle board...The hydraulic cylinders have been leaking a little and the manager they fired was supposed to take care of this problem, now left to me, but they were so dirty and with old fluids coating them the first thing needed was a good cleaning...So yours truly took the dirtiest job of climbing up between all the cylinders with a pump sprayer of ZEP and another of water with a scrub brush and towels, hand cleaning each large cylinder all around each one with a tech on each side of the machine vacuuming out the cleaner and water from the top of the Platen along with the excess hydraulic fluid that has been leaking out...
We had to clean the cylinders first to see where the leaks are coming from, as it was they were way too dirty and grimy to tell, five hours later they are very clean, we finished about 1100 after putting all the tools and cleaning supplies away and scrubbing down my arms and hands of dirty hydraulic fluid and grease...When they run Press One on Monday we will watch for leaks and record the issues so we can order parts and/or seals and repair them...Press Two will get scrubbed down next Saturday morning the same way, only it has fourteen hydraulic cylinders, not ten, a large machine and will take more time...Its cylinders aren't leaking as bad as Press One, just four I think out of fourteen, but all need some scrubbing down...Press Three is a new machine, installed about 18 months ago, its is still shiny and spotless lol...After finishing the work the two techs told me they were damn impressed with my efforts jumping right into it and taking the dirtiest part of the job, they both said they hope I stay on in that facility as their new boss, they said after working with me today and what I did that they would do any job I asked them to do...
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