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Showerthought: The new guy tried to cool a mold with a garden hose
About three summers ago, we had a trainee named Dave who was convinced he could speed up the process. He saw a hot sand mold sitting on the floor and ran to grab a garden hose from the yard. He got about two seconds of spray on it before the steam explosion sounded like a cannon and covered him in wet sand. The foreman just walked over, looked at the mess, and said, 'Son, that's why we use time, not water.' Dave spent the rest of the shift sweeping. Anyone else have a story about a well-meaning but disastrous shortcut someone tried?
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lisa_brown4mo ago
But honestly, can we blame him for trying? Sometimes the old way of doing things is just too slow, and a little creative problem solving moves the whole industry forward. If nobody ever tried shortcuts, we'd never have innovations. Maybe his method was wrong, but the desire to improve a boring wait time is how progress happens. What if he had just used less water or a different spray pattern?
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evah404mo ago
Yeah, but here's something I haven't seen anyone bring up yet - @emery603 mentioned Dave's steam explosion being terrifying, which it was, but nobody's talking about what happens after. If that spray pattern or less water didn't work, you're looking at a busted machine and a costly repair bill. Creative shortcuts are fine in theory, but when you're messing with something that's already working, you better have a backup plan. Innovation is great and all, but it's also why people end up with busted knuckles and empty wallets trying to fix what they broke.
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