Don’t Be A Bolt Dolt

I had a job building industrial control panels. You’ve probably seen pictures of them: lights and dials and switches and buttons on the outside, lots of electrical stuff on the inside. They look like everything on the inside is bolted to the back of the box, but that’s not how it’s done because that would compromise the waterproof integrity of the box. Instead, everything is screwed or bolted onto a steel panel, which is bolted to studs that come welded to the back of the box.

One project had some big DC motor controllers. They were bigger than a case of copier paper, and about as heavy as if they were solid metal inside. They had mounting ears on them to bolt them to wherever they were to be installed.

There was some question as to whether they could be bolted to that back panel securely, so that Friday I bolted one of them to the back panel where it would go, and used one of my shop’s hoists to leave the whole assembly hanging over the weekend.

First thing Monday morning, I invited the sceptical engineers into my shop to see it. Obviously, it had worked: it had been hanging at a crazy angle all weekend, and in real life it would be vertical. But one of the engineers wasn’t satisfied:

Engineer: “Can you drill out those holes and use bigger bolts?”

I didn’t feel like doing it and knew it wasn’t necessary. More important is that with this kind of equipment, installing it in any way other than according to the manufacturer’s instructions voids the warranty. I wasn’t going to take the rap if anything went wrong with his modification.

Me: “Sure! But I’ll need a memo or a drawing for that.”

It was almost like watching gears turn in his head, and I never got that written instruction.