E for engineer

Office exploded into a myriad of fireworks and screaming early this morning. Apparently, someone didnt do something, did something else, and did that something else VERY badly. Something like that.

I had to remind everyone that we had a deadline and they should get the hell out of the office and bury they're heads in they're work for the rest of the day.

When they finally cleared up, i could finally conduct my own surgery.

Yes SURGERY.

Here's what happened. Our mortise locks have taken quite a beating on-site. Fresh out of the box and into the door, they've been hit, swung around, and absolutely manhandled by the american boses who're irritated being behind schedule.

Finally one of them cracked. Couldnt open, couldnt close, absolutely jammed inside. Take a look at the picture, you can tell that once one part of it takes a hike, it'll jam like the causeway on a Saturday holiday lunch rush hour.

What really pissed me off was that the contractor barged in, exclaimed in his freakin dialect something about not enough time, shit hitting the fan, female genitalia, someone's mom and loads and loads of screws and bolts going missing.

That REALLY PISSES ME OFF - IRRITATING WHINEY PEOPLE. U give them the SIMPLEST job on the planet and once they stub their toe, or a piece of the equipment goes missing, they sit on the floor, cry and start complaining.

BABIES. FULL GROWN ADULT BABIES.

So i blew a fuse, snatched the thing from him and told him to get lost, go to site and find something else to do. I placed the mortise lock right in front of me.

... the hell am i doing... ?

Well, i could just OPEN it up, take a peek and see if there's something elementary in there that i can remedy.

You know how god likes to throw you these, you-didnt-think-it-would-be-that-bad-but-hahaha-guess-what-it-is-and-even-worse-than-you-think situations?

Yeah, right here, today. On a rainy friday morning.

Unscrewed it and opened it. Pop! Something goes flying here and levers inside go into a tangled mess.

I need a bloody drink.

I take a good LONG look at it. Dad always said, "Start with the basic stuff."

Started with the trim handle, snapped that into place, moved on to the next lever, and the next, and the next. Inserted the solenoid. Snap the microswitch back into place. Adjust the cylinder switch. Done!

Easy as pie, turns out.

Close the lid and oops... ... doesnt work... Hehehe... turns out the cylinder lever shouldve been adjust before one of the other levers so that it would work into unison...



Close the lid and tada! It bloody works now! I turn to the costing sheet on the board, and guess what, this simple system of levers costs almost a thousand bucks. Seriously. I kid you not.

I was half thinking of keeping it, since it was almost written off as junk, but my director walked in and i had to do it all over again to explain what went wrong... Hehehehe...

Damnit.