I forgot to take a picture, but..... My buddy/neighbor called me last night asking if I knew where he could find a keyed shaft, about 2 1/8" diameter, 24" long. I laughed and said "Boy, you don't ask for MUCH do ya. You know it's 8 o'clock on a Friday night in Edmonton Alberta, right ?" Apparently there's an office tower downtown that had a flood a few months back, and they've been running on a 2 megawatt rental generator ever since. Power is due to be restored in another week. Yesterday, the shaft that drives the generator rad fan (this fan is as tall as a man) snapped on the pulley end. It was obvious when I saw it that there had been an internal flaw in the shaft metal from the day it was made, and it had been slowly working its way outward over the years. Apparently when it finally gave up the generator engine overheated and shut itself down. The backup generator kicked in to keep the emergency lighting on, unfortunately, it's nowhere near enough power to run the entire building so they evacuated it and sent everyone home. I told him to hold on while I looked out in the garage to see if I had a piece of steel that was suitable. By some miracle I did have a piece of 2 1/4" that was long enough. He brought the shaft over, and we got to work. It took us over an hour, but we managed to get the hubs off the old shaft, and the shaft out of the pillow blocks (supporting bearings) As it turns out, the shaft diameter was neither metric or standard. It was 53 thou over 2 1/8" and somewhere in the 1/2mm size range. The manufacturer has made it so that you couldn't just go get a piece the right size and cut it to length. Nope...you'll buy this from us if you ever need one, you'll pay our asking price for it and you'll like it. On top of that, it's not a part that really ever wears out, so there probably isn't one to be had on the continent. The only place you'll find one is in another generator....assuming you can find another 2 megawatt generator of the same make and model that is sitting idle for you to rob the part from. Anyway....I needed to cut it a little longer to have a bit for the lathe chuck to bite on. That's when I found out that my center rest wasn't big enough to support a piece that diameter for center drilling. Aside from that, with the drill chuck in the tail stock, it was too long for the lathe anyway (31" OAL) We marked the center of the shaft, and drilled it by hand. It's amazing how a hole can look so centered, and be so far off. We tried doing the same thing on the other end, and got pretty much the same result. Fortunately, there was just enough material on the piece that I was able to turn it down to size and not have an unmachined spot when I was done. With the tail stock hanging over the end of the lathe bed, but the lock still able to grab on, we got it mounted on a live center. Once I had it to the correct diameter, I parted it off to length (28 1/4"), and over to the mill we go. I cut a couple of half inch key ways 7" long into either end for the fan hub and drive pulley keys. by 2:45am this morning, and after much protesting by my wife over the noise, it was done. We loose fitted it, and shazam...everything looked good. My buddy is downtown with one of his guys putting it all together right now. If we hadn't managed to pull this off, that building would have been shut down until at least Tuesday...and that's IF he could have found a machine shop first thing Monday morning that could have started on it right away. If people only knew the lengths that we tradesmen go to in order keep their lives going.......lol. What are the odds my buddy, who works for the generator company, would know a millwright, on a Friday night, with a machine shop in his garage, who had on hand a 2 1/4" x 31" chunk of steel......I don't know what they do in that building, but I'm convinced that some divine higher power really wants them to get it done. BTW....The Lab of Deadly Prototypes is what we call my home fabrication shop due to the strange nature of some of the crazy stuff that's come out of there. LOL.
That is good. Nice to know there are folks out there with skills that they can use right in their own shop to get important work done. I hope your work is appreciated.
Yes sir. A huge thank you....and a "you're getting paid for this" as well. I dont know how much though. I dont really care to be honest. I'd have helped out anyway. Sometimes you've just to do what's right and help people out of a jam. I believe in karma. Someday, I'll need help and itll be there.
Yup, true words. 99.9% of our towns population has no clue we were out 2 different nights this week until 12:30 AM keeping their water on... Nice work Den
Exactly what I was thinking. Good job!, Even if you don't hear it from your boss. We know you guys did a great job.
Lol. I dont even work for them. I'm a heavy mining mechanic/millwright. My buddy called today. A new shaft, plus shipping, plus some "overtime" inscentive....$800 !!! I'm sure not going to complain about that for 6 hours of not very strenuous work and a piece of scrap metal (an old fork bar from a telehandler) that I had in my garage.
