Miracles Do Happen

That or the engineers who designed them.
TRUTH! Oh man that comment has me missing my grandpa now. He was a building mover and one heck of a mechanical problem solver on the fly. I recall him just about shaking with frustration at how user-unfriendly a particular vehicle had been made, like they did it on purpose so the average joe couldn’t fix it himself. He did fix it, he wasn’t the average joe by a long shot when it came to that stuff…but I remember him muttering under the vehicle while I held the flashlight (again, as a little boy)

“What I would do to the dirty pig that thought up THIS MESS!” Not profanity technically, but said in an most profane way! 🤣. For whatever reason that was his insult when he was actually mad…. ”dirty pig”
 
I bought one of those Husqvarna AWD walk behind years ago to use at my gf's place to more step does along the road and ditch. Her old Honda was losing the drive and she was pushing it mostly so I said use the husky. She called me a week later and said the mower won't self propel so she was using the old one again. Not sure what she hit but the tab on the transmission that the cable connects to for tightening the belt, was broke off. Had to replace rear axle, still have the broken one here. Still don't know how she broke that off, I was mowing diagonally across a short slope along the fencline while walking in the ditch and it was fine.
 
My wife doesn't like for me to cut our yard, she wants to cut it. It is a few acres for her to cut, it is the most peaceful 2 hours I get a week
You have one of those as well.... My wife doesn't want me to mow, said I don't make it look pretty, I just tell her knock it down, it will grow back if you don't like it. 😉
 
I’ve thought if I were the owner of a car manufacturing factory I would have my engineers sign a working contract that when they designed something if it didn’t work right or was hard to work on they would have to go to the assembly line and work on it themselves till they figured out a better design.
There is a lot of engineer hate going on in this entire thread so I'm going to provide a little rebuttal:
1. Cost - Almost always the #1 priority
2. Time - Related to item #1, we often don't get a lot of time to work on things. On a $100k project, you are going to have $5-$10k budgeted to engineering that needs to include all aspects of the project from initial design through hand-over to production. This is going to be split between project engineer/manager and several displine engineers and include travel. The rate is going to be 2-4 times what we are actually making.
3. Difficulty of adjustment or maintenance - It is always important the item can be assembled reasonable easy the first time but after that it is a mixed bag. Sometimes it is overlooked but it is often a feature. There can be liability issues the company is trying to limit. It is usually cheaper and faster to design something that isn't meant to be maintained plus extra profit from additional sales, that isn't the engineer pushing that agenda. Operators and maintenance are essential but they will also mess things up fast if given the chance. After adjusting the slide gates on a dust collection system, we used to mark the correct position but they would always be "adjusted" quickly so we started screwing them down. Wasn't long until the screwdriver came out so we started welding them down, now the grinders have come out. At least it insures you will have steady work.
4. Difficulty - We started having more site participation in the design process a few years ago. The main things that have come out of it are a longer design process (more meetings, site can't decide what they want and want to try different options that don't work out but need to be explored), higher cost (site always wants the gold plated version until they see the cost estimate) and lack of standardisation (no two sites can agree to do the same thing the same way). Engineering cost have increased as a percentage of budget because the change was forced upon us so it was easy to justify, which is good. Good design changes do come out of the new process, either because we have more time to notice the issue or it comes from the site. Also, the site sees why we couldn't do it one way or another and accept certain things are not going to be perfect. It has been a very mixed bag, can't say if the benefits outweigh the cost in totality.
 
There is a lot of engineer hate going on in this entire thread so I'm going to provide a little rebuttal:
1. Cost - Almost always the #1 priority
2. Time - Related to item #1, we often don't get a lot of time to work on things. On a $100k project, you are going to have $5-$10k budgeted to engineering that needs to include all aspects of the project from initial design through hand-over to production. This is going to be split between project engineer/manager and several displine engineers and include travel. The rate is going to be 2-4 times what we are actually making.
3. Difficulty of adjustment or maintenance - It is always important the item can be assembled reasonable easy the first time but after that it is a mixed bag. Sometimes it is overlooked but it is often a feature. There can be liability issues the company is trying to limit. It is usually cheaper and faster to design something that isn't meant to be maintained plus extra profit from additional sales, that isn't the engineer pushing that agenda. Operators and maintenance are essential but they will also mess things up fast if given the chance. After adjusting the slide gates on a dust collection system, we used to mark the correct position but they would always be "adjusted" quickly so we started screwing them down. Wasn't long until the screwdriver came out so we started welding them down, now the grinders have come out. At least it insures you will have steady work.
4. Difficulty - We started having more site participation in the design process a few years ago. The main things that have come out of it are a longer design process (more meetings, site can't decide what they want and want to try different options that don't work out but need to be explored), higher cost (site always wants the gold plated version until they see the cost estimate) and lack of standardisation (no two sites can agree to do the same thing the same way). Engineering cost have increased as a percentage of budget because the change was forced upon us so it was easy to justify, which is good. Good design changes do come out of the new process, either because we have more time to notice the issue or it comes from the site. Also, the site sees why we couldn't do it one way or another and accept certain things are not going to be perfect. It has been a very mixed bag, can't say if the benefits outweigh the cost in totality.
Fair perspective thanks for sharing (and I don’t know how serious anyone’s hate is here haha)

Passing the blame further down the line to the accountants and lawyers (cost and liability as the number one consideration) seems a sensible approach 🤣.

It’s the garden of eden all over again! God Confronts the man: it’s the woman’s fault, the one YOU put here with me, she talked me into it! God Confronts the woman: it’s the serpent’s fault, I was tricked! The serpent at least has the decency to not even try slithering out of its predicament 🤣. Not at all equating accountants and lawyers with serpents…but there are some striking similarities at times 🥴🥴🥴🥴🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
There is a lot of engineer hate going on in this entire thread so I'm going to provide a little rebuttal:
1. Cost - Almost always the #1 priority
2. Time - Related to item #1, we often don't get a lot of time to work on things. On a $100k project, you are going to have $5-$10k budgeted to engineering that needs to include all aspects of the project from initial design through hand-over to production. This is going to be split between project engineer/manager and several displine engineers and include travel. The rate is going to be 2-4 times what we are actually making.
3. Difficulty of adjustment or maintenance - It is always important the item can be assembled reasonable easy the first time but after that it is a mixed bag. Sometimes it is overlooked but it is often a feature. There can be liability issues the company is trying to limit. It is usually cheaper and faster to design something that isn't meant to be maintained plus extra profit from additional sales, that isn't the engineer pushing that agenda. Operators and maintenance are essential but they will also mess things up fast if given the chance. After adjusting the slide gates on a dust collection system, we used to mark the correct position but they would always be "adjusted" quickly so we started screwing them down. Wasn't long until the screwdriver came out so we started welding them down, now the grinders have come out. At least it insures you will have steady work.
4. Difficulty - We started having more site participation in the design process a few years ago. The main things that have come out of it are a longer design process (more meetings, site can't decide what they want and want to try different options that don't work out but need to be explored), higher cost (site always wants the gold plated version until they see the cost estimate) and lack of standardisation (no two sites can agree to do the same thing the same way). Engineering cost have increased as a percentage of budget because the change was forced upon us so it was easy to justify, which is good. Good design changes do come out of the new process, either because we have more time to notice the issue or it comes from the site. Also, the site sees why we couldn't do it one way or another and accept certain things are not going to be perfect. It has been a very mixed bag, can't say if the benefits outweigh the cost in totality.
I get where you're coming from. But there's No need to take it personal. And I am sure you have ran into a few bad engineers in your time. lol
 
So if you recall my .270 build from Hades trying to remove a barrel that had threadlocker which finally ended up at a GS. Still was sob to break but his tools better!

Well, picked up a used 700 06, put barrel into vise, tightened down, gave tap on Wheeler action wrench....and it spun right off. Now I know how Matt Damon felt....and nobody around to see it....
View attachment 481324
GREAT depiction of being related getting a tough job done..

A lot really depends on how the barrel was installed originally (and time/metal has a factor)
We had a barrel that was installed from RRA and just needed to get the "Flash suppressor removed". Nothing that I could do besides using our Bandsaw or cutting torches to remove it.
Sent it back to RRA and the GS/Tech used heat to breakdown the Thread Lock the RRA put on. Didn't work for him. He spun the metal in the barrel (twisted the barrel so it had Flutes in it) They ended up giving me a new completed Upper. Was lucky again after i tuned everything up was getting < 0.3000" groups with .224 - 65gr SGK.

Recently had some customers that could not turn the barrel off their actions and wanted us to try. Was lucky using the Viper Barrel Vise and also the "Wheeler" Vise and Action Bar with a 3' extension.

We tell everyone that are doing "PreFits' especially with Stainless Steel. Use a Good Moly Lube so the metals don't fuse.
 
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