What is the oddest machine you have worked on or operated

[Joel/ak]

I helped design and worked with a supercritical carbon dioxide extractor. It could dissolve substances out of objects without them ever getting wet, and had a chamber about the size of a home washing machine interior. It operated at 10,000 psi. The plug closing the chamber was held in with a single, enormous nut. The plug had three million pounds of force trying to push it out during operation.

Can't even imagine that kind of pressure.

 

[MossRoad]

Check out Float Plane Movers...

 

[chim]

Being in the electrical / mechanical field, there have been quite a few oddball things along the way. From installing heat lamps in a doghouse earlier in my career to orchestrating a pipe test (MFL) on several miles of old steam pipe before reusing it years after being taken out of service. Don't want to bore anyone, but here's one I just recalled.

One day I got a call from a pharmaceutical customer asking me to meet him at the factory. They were having trouble with the final coating on certain pills cracking. It was assumed the problem was that the pills weren't drying sufficiently before coating. He ran through what they thought they needed. Pills were dumped into containers similar to IBC totes. Wanted to have plastic pipe "trees" made that could be assembled through the hole and run dry air through them. Needed air supply with -50C° dew point, so many CFM's for each of the 6 containers. Strip chart recorders for each, yada, yada. Got with an engineering firm and worked out the details. Real long interesting story Went through all the validation and passed. Pills dried without cracking.

BUT: I hadn't heard much from them after the validation, so one day when discussing the next job I asked how it was working. The guy said they weren't using the system. I pressed a bit and he assured me that we didn't do anything wrong. Unbelievably when the completed pills were tested it was found the coating didn't dissolve while the pill was in the stomach. A year or two later they gave me a CO while doing another project to demolish the drying stations.

 

[SmallChange]

Can't even imagine that kind of pressure.

There was a small hydraulic cylinder, maybe 3" bore, with a couple feet of stroke, on a small jib crane. Its purpose was to lift the plug once the nut was loosened, and swing it out of the way, to get access to the chamber. The nut itself was tightened and loosened by other hydraulic cylinders.
The company that machined the chamber for us specialized in high pressure vessels, especially vessels with large openings. Their standard catalog offerings included vessels for as high as 160,000 psi, though these were much smaller, maybe an inch ID. We visited their factory. They machined these vessels out of solid stainless rounds several feet in diameter and several feet long. They'd actually bore out the interior, so the vessels had no seams.
They had pressure testing facilities, masonry pits in the factory floor like swimming pools. Pressure tests weren't supposed to end in explosion, but they occasionally did, and the pits would direct much of the blast upward, to minimize danger to the people (and I guess their factory too). They told us of the time a vessel had been assembled for testing, but accidentally using the wrong grade bolt to hold on the end, which was more or less like a manhole cover but several times thicker. The bolts failed catastrophically and the end departed the factory vertically, tearing a big hole in the roof. It was never found. They repaired the roof by building a new cover over the hole area, and left the hole visible from indoors as a reminder.
They also had a walk-in enclosure for blast protection. Its walls were many layers of steel plates and wire cloth woven of 1" steel cable. Heaven knows how you weave 1" cable into cloth, when I can barely make it bend.

Very interesting place.

 

[kenmbz]

When I worked with high voltage power supplies, we had a person who also worked high current transformers.
He showed pictures of the transformer test room after a catastrophic failure.
I think the walls were cement with a metal layer sandwiched in and the outside covered in a few layers of bricks on top of that.
the door was a honeycomb multlayer steel and very thick.

When the xformer went, it popped the door and bent it. He had that picture to show.

The other picture showed the outer wall scattered out, covering the bosses car, which he parked in front of the "do not park here" sign.

Lots of respect for people that have to maintain these power grids!

Always wondered if the insurance company paid out his bosses mangled car...

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I had a business in town and about 15 years ago the HV line (10kV I'm thinking) broke from a lightning strike. I was at my desk near the window & saw it happen. The HV wire was whipping all over the lawn like a snake & I immediately called the power company and they came right out. Although I was an electronic technician I couldn't imagine the repairman in a bucket repairing line in a downpour.

 

[TBob42]

I can think of two that vie for the oddest title. I helped repair a walking beam pit saw. It was powered by a water wheel and long leather belts approx. 8" inches wide All the drives were oak and I think the shafts were Hemlock. It was a nice distraction from what I was doing. I finally got to see it rip the first log about 35 years ago. Later I got roped into helping restore a Bucyrus Erie Steam Shovel. My efforts were focused on the drums, gearing and clutches of the shovel drive. There were other guys working on the tracks and steam aspects. It took that bunch of guys another seven years after I moved away to actually make it operate. It was a fun project and I enjoyed myself. I've also had some fun with hit and miss engines.

 

[bmaverick]

Early 1600s farm hand tools in Italy. For the country being the peak of the Roman Empire, farming sure lacked with the common tools. The historical foundation mentioned, if farm technology improved early on, the need for slaves would of been diminished sooner. The Ox was the real source of raw farm power like tractors are today. The tools used were still rude and crude in that era.

 

[jgmo]

so what do they do with the fish? Eat them? Count and weigh them? Move them somewhere else?

I believe that the fish wheel has been pretty much put out of business on rivers in Alaska because of overharvesting of salmon and low fish counts.
1st nation folks used the fish for eating and feeding their sled dogs.

 

[jgmo]

View attachment 850697
CAT 631 Probably the funnest off road machine, 500+ HP, hauls 30+ yards and goes 35MPH. When you are riding you get to look down into the cabs of dump trucks and tractor trailers.

That's a "little" one. It "only" digs and hauls 31 cubic yards of dirt. My company commonly used 657 B Cat scrapers....almost double the dirt of the 631 !