Fix Your Screw-up
I left the Navy for 5-1/2 years and them reenlisted, returning at the same rank (Petty Officer 1sr) and rate, Electrician Mate. One of my jobs while out of the Canoe Club was building large industrial laundry machines, some of which ended up aboard ships. My first ship after returning was a WW2 era Destroyer Tender where I ran the Power Shop. We had a washer-extractor burn the extract (think spin cycle) motor and pulled it to be rewound. When we got it back and reinstalled it would not always start. I’d had my people go through the motor controller while waiting for the motor so we rechecked it to make sure nothing was amiss. Our work was good. Now when the motor failed to start I told my chief of the problem. I noticed that it was always in one of two spots when it wouldn’t start and I could get it going by pulling on the drum pulley. Because of these two things I was pretty sure the rewind job was faulty. <PERSON> wasn’t buying it. 107
He was buddy-buddy with the rewind shop <PERSON>, plus he and I frequently butted heads over his lack of leadership. He said, “Fix your problem!” You bet, <PERSON>! Now, these extract motors were rated for 4 starts per hour. More starts and they would over heat. I had made a modification that allowed us to operate only the extract motor while troubleshooting. I had one of my bright sailors push the start button, immediately followed by pushing the stop button. Over and over and over … “Call me when the smoke is let out of the motor. I’ll be in the Rewind Shop.” About 15 minutes later my lad stuck his head in the door and said the motor was burnt. Rewind Chief and my <PERSON> went to look. We pulled the motor, moved it to the Rewind Shop, and they started the tear down. They found that one slot had no windings in it. Whenever that slot or its companion slot was in a particular location the motor wouldn’t develop enough torque to start. Don’t mess with me or my people, especially on a type of machine that I spent over 3 years building literally hundreds of! 406