Horrible Mechanical Failures: Looks Like the Tin Man's Undies After Taco Tuesday

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Horrible Mechanical Failures: Looks Like the Tin Man's Undies After Taco Tuesday

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heat: Sep 4, 2003; The Mad Monk

Skyssx posted:

Ultra-violet light. Argon is inert.

I know argon is inert but I assumed that it was needed to keep oxygen away from the reaction; turns out that's wrong, and the UV or high temperatures is enough. That's what I get for not being skeptical about chemistry advice from a guy who poisoned the living poo poo out of himself.

# ? Sep 26, 2011 18:17

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 18:54

Shaocaholica: Oct 29, 2002; Fig. 5E

Shaocaholica posted:

Has this been posted?

http://youtu.be/IY1hXAoOnLg

Looks like its still drivable.

I just watched this again and can anyone else tell if the rear tire looks flat? Because that would be super awesome.

# ? Sep 26, 2011 18:18

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

How about horrible electrical failures?

Took me 2 hours to figure out what the gently caress was going on, and that was after my friend replaced the cam positioning sensors, starter, and crank positioning sensor.

It's a Nissan VQ30DE if anybody wants to figure out what that is and what it's caused by.

Symptoms: Car refused to start. The RPM gauge would freak out while trying to start, and the car would backfire and sputter sometimes.

Good luck!

# ? Sep 26, 2011 20:19

Puddin: Apr 9, 2004; Leave it to Brak

Complete opposite end of the spectrum vehicle, but when I had it, my 1978 Ford Escort has a similar problem, tacho going haywire, sounded as though I had dropped a cylinder, but it was my alternator that was shot.

Replaced it and everything was fine.

I know it's completely different, but couldn't hurt to check?

# ? Sep 26, 2011 21:02

MrChips: Jun 10, 2005; FLIGHT SAFETY TIP: Fatties out first

Just saw this on AvHerald.

Douglas DC-9 operated by Aeropostal in Venezuela made a hard landing. How hard? Really hard:

# ? Sep 26, 2011 21:10

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Let me be the first to say Holy loving poo poo!

# ? Sep 26, 2011 21:23

Nuevo: May 23, 2006; Fun Shoe

Cakefool posted:

Let me be the first to say Holy loving poo poo!

Seriously.

Here's the page with the description: http://avherald.com/h?article=4438e8ff&opt=0

Which also contains this :supaburn:

video of an MD-80 coming in hard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pk1N6GzeOo

# ? Sep 26, 2011 21:39

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

Puddin posted:

Complete opposite end of the spectrum vehicle, but when I had it, my 1978 Ford Escort has a similar problem, tacho going haywire, sounded as though I had dropped a cylinder, but it was my alternator that was shot.

Replaced it and everything was fine.

I know it's completely different, but couldn't hurt to check?

Nope, I fixed it and it wasn't anything big.

# ? Sep 26, 2011 22:40

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

ratbert90 posted:

Nope, I fixed it and it wasn't anything big.

Man that sounds like an interesting horrible mechanical failure. Nothing like playing the old "guess where this trace came from" game.

# ? Sep 26, 2011 22:51

kastein: Aug 31, 2011; Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

heat posted:

Did you read the part of the article where he was welding with it? It won't decompose into phosgene without argon.

and if you use non chlorinated brakleen, it's impossible for it to decompose into phosgene since it only contains pure hydrocarbons (with the exception of the single oxy in acetone, but you're adding a significant quantity of oxygen at some point anyways.) All it can do is flash some fire at you to warn you that you should have been smart and waited a little longer before striking an arc.

# ? Sep 26, 2011 22:57

Queen_Combat: Jan 15, 2011

ratbert90 posted:

Nope, I fixed it and it wasn't anything big.

For the future (and because Google seems to love SA as of late) what was the problem? For future generations, like when you search for a computer problem, and someone has the exact same issue as you, but all they say down the forum thread is "nvm I fixed it."

# ? Sep 26, 2011 23:27

Paul Boz_: Dec 21, 2003; Sin City

ratbert90 posted:

It's a Nissan VQ30DE if anybody wants to figure out what that is and what it's caused by.

Symptoms: Car refused to start. The RPM gauge would freak out while trying to start, and the car would backfire and sputter sometimes.

Good luck!

TPS
PTU
coolant temp sensor
oxygen sensor(s)

Any of those will cause that problem. Need more clues.

[edit] starter relay
alternator

plz refine.

Paul Boz_ fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Sep 27, 2011

# ? Sep 27, 2011 00:10

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

Paul Boz_ posted:

TPS
PTU
coolant temp sensor
oxygen sensor(s)

Any of those will cause that problem. Need more clues.

[edit] starter relay
alternator

plz refine.

All replaced.

The Sign wave goes to the rear engine positioning sensor. It would stutter and backfire while trying to start.

# ? Sep 27, 2011 01:08

Dr. Despair: Nov 4, 2009; 39 perfect posts with each roll.

ratbert90 posted:

All replaced.

The Sign wave goes to the rear engine positioning sensor. It would stutter and backfire while trying to start.

Sign waves never seem to work right until you change them to sine waves, was that it?

# ? Sep 27, 2011 02:32

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

Mr. Despair posted:

Sign waves never seem to work right until you change them to sine waves, was that it?

Hah, I'm tired. The shielding around the sensor plug was trashed, causing the entire sensor to pick up a ton of garbage. 0_o

# ? Sep 27, 2011 02:34

Ron Pauls Friend: Jul 3, 2004

Boat posted:

Seriously.

Here's the page with the description: http://avherald.com/h?article=4438e8ff&opt=0

Which also contains this video of an MD-80 coming in hard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pk1N6GzeOo

I caNt stop watching this

# ? Sep 27, 2011 02:59

Muffinpox: Sep 7, 2004

Mr. Despair posted:

Sign waves never seem to work right until you change them to sine waves, was that it?

That's a signal from a hall sensor which are square waves. There shouldn't be the little blips prior to the main block but I wouldnt be able to tell you what caused them from just the read out.

# ? Sep 27, 2011 04:14

Dr. Despair: Nov 4, 2009; 39 perfect posts with each roll.

Muffinpox posted:

That's a signal from a hall sensor which are square waves. There shouldn't be the little blips prior to the main block but I wouldnt be able to tell you what caused them from just the read out.

I know, I was just pointing out that the word is Sine, not Sign :ssh:

Here's some intentional horrible mechanical failures though. An implosion similar to this set the SuperK experiment back 5 years when it caused a chain reaction of implosions, that wound up destroying 6,600 of the PMTs (each one costs about 3 grand).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBDT47polxo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5NO_t9crBE&feature=related

# ? Sep 27, 2011 22:40

Carbonate: Aug 3, 2005; [img]https://forumimages.somethingawful.com/images/newbie.gif[/img]

I know it's just another catastrophic engine failure, but I have some personal involvement in this one.

This is the remains of a BMW 318 motor out of a very quick car that decided it didn't want to live anymore at the last race weekend of the year. Popped at about 8k going down the back strait, but made zero noise. The driver thought it was a driveline failure, so he didn't pull off. I don't know how much oil this particular motor requires, but I do know that every drop of it was atomized on the line for the better part of 500 meters of racetrack at a width of 3-5 feet wide.

So I'm up in the tower doing race control, I hear the corner mention that said car has experienced a mechanical failure and was slowing with smoke. Waived white and surface flags out! He was leading on the 3rd lap of the first race after lunch, and when the 2nd car had arrived at the turn, the 2nd car simply shot off the road. Waved yellow! At this point it was quite obvious that there was a severe amount of something bad on the track so we shut things down. Luckily the car that went off was the only car and he didn't actually hit anything - which was nice.

Stoppage lasted 1h 45min with every available body pouring and scrubbing concrete dust on the oil "patch" (we don't use kitty litter for huge calamities like this because it absorbs like poo poo and takes forever... real expensive stuff is apparently around but we're poor)

Where the madness started.

The fun things you can do as a corner worker at a race track! We found most of the oil pan all over the place too. The owner still doesn't know exactly what caused it, but the whole bottom end is hosed.

# ? Oct 3, 2011 00:06

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Looks like it was a bad day for BMWs...

The lady that owned it was actually pretty calm about the whole thing.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 05:18

ickna: May 19, 2004

PhotoKirk posted:

Looks like it was a bad day for BMWs...

The lady that owned it was actually pretty calm about the whole thing.

what happened here?

# ? Oct 4, 2011 06:16

heat: Sep 4, 2003; The Mad Monk

ickna posted:

what happened here?

Well it appears that it was on quite a bit of fire

# ? Oct 4, 2011 06:52

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

ickna posted:

what happened here?

My wild-assed guess is an electrical problem. The car was only about a year old. The security guys emptied five fire extinguishers on it before the fire department arrived.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 12:44

kimbo305: Jun 9, 2007; actually, yeah, I am a little mad

A horrible failure in safety, sure, but a success in being holy poo poo awesome:

quote:

Amalie M. heard a loud clanking sound coming from the back of the factory, near the ovens, where there ought not be any clanking whatsoever. Curious, and a bit worried, she grabbed a hard-hat and headed onto the floor.
*whirrrrr*� *whoosh*� *clang*

Before she could take a step onto the floor, the factory's operator came bounding from around the corner. The old greybeard was moving faster than she'd ever seen. "Hey," he called out, nearly skidding to a stop, standing between her and the stairs to the catwalk. "What're you doing here?"

"Scheduled maintenance of the equipment," she said, stating the obvious. Her company provided all the robots and machine vision equipment for their client's automobile engine factory. "Same as every month."

"You usually come on the fifteenth," he retorted.

"It is the fifteenth."

"Oh. drat." he said, looking lost, shaking his head. "Working here alone, just me and the robots-- I lose track of the days."
*whirrrr*� *whoosh*� *clang*

Amalie cringed. The sound rang in her ears-- so much louder now. Nothing on the floor should make a sound like that. She looked up at the operator, who slumped a bit.

"Yeah, so I bet you're wondering what that is. The furnace-to-finisher conveyor belt broke down a couple weeks ago."

A broken conveyor belt? That literally didn't sound right. "Why didn't you call for a service visit?"

He huffed. "I'm perfectly capable of fixing my own problems without racking up your billable hours."

"You aren't certified to work on the equipment," she said, her ears still ringing, "It sounds like you made it a whole lot worse!"

He took a step towards her. "I learned your system well enough. I used to build robots you know. And now--" his shoulders slumped, "-- now I just pick up after them. Give an old man a break, will you? I spend all my day forklifting pallets onto transport trucks. I just wanted to do something useful."

Amalie sighed. "Fine. I appreciate your effort, but whatever you've done, I'm probably going to have to undo and fix to spec."

The operator nodded. "Of course, of course. You don't have to worry about it. I'll even take it all offline for you. Why don't you get a coffee across the street while I do that?" He stepped forward, shooing her towards the door.
"Ok, but--"
*whirr* *whoosh*� *CLANG*

The sound stuck in her ears-- but worse, something caught the corner of her eye. Just a flash of something, beyond the machines. A metallic blur. What the hell?

She spun around the operator and dashed up the steps, ignoring the calls for her to stop. She could see the entire factory floor from the catwalk. She spotted the broken conveyor belt right away-- the last belt in the line, between the blast furnace and the pallet stacker. The conveyor belt had buckled, and the motors were exposed. She could see plenty wrong with it-- but what worried her the most was that she couldn't see what this 'fix' was. And yet, the assembly line was running. A neat pile of engine block casings were stacked at the end of the line, and a new one was rolling fresh out of the blast furnace.

The operator caught up to her, leaning heavily on the hand rail. He stood beside her as she watched. "I'll show you what someone 'not certified on the equipment' can do."

The industrial robot at the head of the broken conveyor belt clamped onto the aluminum casing, and passed it though a series of sensors and cameras, using its machine vision to ensure all dirt and foundry oil had been blasted clean. If the engine block failed inspection, it'd be put on a conveyor belt back into the blast furnace. Otherwise, it'd be put on a different belt-- the broken belt-- and sent down the line for finishing.

All the right lights flashed. The engine had passed.

"How?" she mused. The robot went still, as if in thought, while the pallet robot waited patiently.

"They're using the factory's network to run a program I wrote," the operator happily answered. "Their sensors and machine vision are working out the telemetry data."

"What telemetry data?" she asked, confused.
"The usual. Angle. Velocity. Spin."

Before Amalie could even fathom what those data points meant, the second robot hunched into an abnormal position, and signaled 'ready' back to the inspection bot--

-- which then implemented the data into a trajectory, wound up with a *whirr*, and threw the engine block overhand across the 100' gap.
*whoosh*

The receiver caught it with a *clang*, and calmly put it into the carrier, and waited for the next casing.

Amalie ran for The Big Red Button, slammed it, and shut down the entire factory floor. Silence filled the air-- and her mouth as she struggled to find the right words. She glared at the operator.

"What?" he said with a shrug, "I was able to figure out your system well enough to do that all by myself. It's been working perfectly for weeks. There's no problem."

"Oh, I think OSHA would disagree," she said, "If they found out. Which they won't. Ever."

Before she deleted the custom program from the system, Amalie took a copy of it. The program wouldn't ever be used to chuck engine blocks again-- but it would get a certain operator onto the short list the next time a specialist position opened.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 18:09

Fermunky: May 30, 2003; The monkey is NOT impressed...

Throwing engine blocks a 100 feet, that is pretty awesome and WTF at the same time.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 19:00

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Fermunky posted:

Throwing engine blocks a 100 feet, that is pretty awesome and WTF at the same time.

Makes it appropriate that it was on The Daily WTF, then.

What I don't understand is how you could ~~throw an engine block~~ catch an engine block casing after being thrown 100' without damaging it at all. Especially by a robot that wasn't designed to do that in the first place.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 19:35

nitrogen: May 21, 2004; Oh, what's a 217°C difference between friends?

Hot drat. Over in SH/SC we were talking about taking the initiative to get a promotion. That guy pretty much nailed it.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:21

heat: Sep 4, 2003; The Mad Monk

nmfree posted:

Makes it appropriate that it was on The Daily WTF, then.

What I don't understand is how you could ~~throw an engine block~~ catch an engine block casing after being thrown 100' without damaging it at all. Especially by a robot that wasn't designed to do that in the first place.

Kind of like an egg toss, I imagine. Arm starts moving before catching it.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:28

Z3n: Jul 21, 2007; I think the point is Z3n is a space cowboy on the edge of a frontier unknown to man, he's out there pushing the limits, trail braking into the abyss. Finding out where the edge of the razor is, turning to face the darkness and revving his 690 into it's vast gaze. You gotta live this to learn it bro.

That has to be total bullshit. It reads like Ayn Rand fanfiction.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:31

nitrogen: May 21, 2004; Oh, what's a 217°C difference between friends?

Z3n posted:

That has to be total bullshit. It reads like Ayn Rand fanfiction.

In probably is, but drat.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:37

kastein: Aug 31, 2011; Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

I'd love to believe it also but... my bet is on "pulled right out of the author's rear end and somewhat embellished and thesaurusified* by TDWTF staff". It reads... like something Remy Porter wrote.

* this is a word. Remy Porter created it.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:44

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

nitrogen posted:

In probably is, but drat.

This. I want this to be true more than anything I've ever read, but the loads on the robot catching an engine block thrown 100 feet are far beyond what that catcher would be rated for. It would overload without doubt, possibly even break mechanical fuses.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:50

IOwnCalculus: Apr 2, 2003

Best case scenario - aluminum four-cylinder block? How much would that weigh?

And yeah, accurately doing all of this just theoretically would be almost impossible. I can't imagine the first block landed where it was supposed to.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:56

Nuevo: May 23, 2006; Fun Shoe

Cakefool posted:

This. I want this to be true more than anything I've ever read, but the loads on the robot catching an engine block thrown 100 feet are far beyond what that catcher would be rated for. It would overload without doubt, possibly even break mechanical fuses.

That and specifically mentioning an overhand throw. Overhand is great for speed, but is going to put way more stress on the throwing and catching bot than an underhand lob. Also much more difficult telemetry...

# ? Oct 4, 2011 20:59

Z3n: Jul 21, 2007; I think the point is Z3n is a space cowboy on the edge of a frontier unknown to man, he's out there pushing the limits, trail braking into the abyss. Finding out where the edge of the razor is, turning to face the darkness and revving his 690 into it's vast gaze. You gotta live this to learn it bro.

I have to imagine that the real reason they did the inspection is because the guy had reprogrammed the thing to lob them a few feet to bypass a broken conveyor belt and half of them ended up getting sent back into the furnace, costing the company 10 times the cost of repair in lost revenue.

This story is just so typical of the Randian misguided ideals, how if they'd just give the everyman the chance everything would not only work fine, it'd work better because he was the secret ubermensch. All of that unrealized potential in a forklift driver, because every Randian Libertarian dreams of how they'd reinvent the world if someone would just notice that their burger flipping technique might drop one out of 10 but it's totally 8% more efficient! :downs:

# ? Oct 4, 2011 21:21

cakesmith handyman: Jul 22, 2007; Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Boat posted:

That and specifically mentioning an overhand throw. Overhand is great for speed, but is going to put way more stress on the throwing and catching bot than an underhand lob. Also much more difficult telemetry...

Also, there is no telemetry, it's ballistics. I've trained auto-palletisers & it's a right dick to accurately place something at teach speed, the mathematics required to program any throw or catch movements would be beyond the controllers for sure. Timing the catch to a thrown engine block would be hilarious to watch from behind armour because if the first catch wasn't perfect the robot would be shrapnel.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 22:13

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

I don't think we really need to analyze the physics behind some stupid fake news article, do we? It's just meant to make you laugh, and it even fails at that.

# ? Oct 4, 2011 22:27