What is the oddest machine you have worked on or operated

[CalG]

A sunflower seed grader.

An inclined vibrating table. Sorted by weight.

 

[Johndeere3720]

Ever since I went to college (diesel mechanic) I’ve strived to work on different and unique things. This street sweeper was one of my most odd purchases, mainly tinkered with it until I was moving and sold it since I didn’t want to move it. It was incredibly primitive, it had everything it needed and nothing it didn’t.

I like knowing how things work, whether it’s tractors, construction equipment (excavators/skidsteers), light towers, generators, vertical mast lifts/scissor lifts, forklifts, cars/trucks, and small engines/lawn garden equipment. Each thing has its unique challenges and I’ve found certain brands of things tend to have similar problems across models in a series.

 

[jjeff]

I wonder how well that cool primitive sweeper would work Doing lighter snow removal with tire chains?

 

[Helogabals]

I have deep connections with forestry industry, but never ever have seen such tractor as topic starter have posted.

I thought this fancy looking is something:

Track Tractor TDT-55 (Saldus) - redzet.lv

This track tractor is used in forestry, particularly logging of timber, building and packaging timber piles, loading, as well as for groundbreaking and road...

www.redzet.eu

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just something from my album

5 axis CNC for chairs

Nothing special, just big
Once had to hire this. 3 guys 1 day worked on assembley. Actual lift was 30 minutes

While ago have sold sanding machine for CLT panels. 10 FT wide
Take in entire wall and work with 5 m/min

 

[Helogabals]

Drilling machine for Ikea

Can do more than 100 holes in one shot. 6000 panels in a shift

Friend have made this (I supplied spindle)

They do "visual communication", 3d objects, like this:

CNC machine for CLT panels. Wooden housing

You discussed loading platforms. Bologna airport. Arab airlines loading. Someone will have new toy at evening

Paint drying in UV light. Split sec and ... dry

 

[Dennis Mohn]

I'm not sure if this counts, but at one time I worked in a furniture mill.

We had one machine called the "RF Machine" or "Radio Frequency Machine". It was a big microwave for gluing wood together. Whatever they were laminating, they'd run glue along the edges then push anywhere from one table top to a whole pile of legs into the machine at once. It would press the pieces together and hit them with the microwave for about a minute at which point it would shove a sticky mess out to be thrown on pallets with sawdust thrown between to keep them from sticking. Thinking back, a lot of manual labor.

Anyway, the interesting part of the machine was on the back side, outside of the machine, there was an ordinary florescent light tube sitting on a wire rack. No wires going to the tube. The RF power from the machine lit up the tube without wires and the person tailing the machine knew it was turned

I'm not sure if this counts, but at one time I worked in a furniture mill.

We had one machine called the "RF Machine" or "Radio Frequency Machine". It was a big microwave for gluing wood together. Whatever they were laminating, they'd run glue along the edges then push anywhere from one table top to a whole pile of legs into the machine at once. It would press the pieces together and hit them with the microwave for about a minute at which point it would shove a sticky mess out to be thrown on pallets with sawdust thrown between to keep them from sticking. Thinking back, a lot of manual labor.

Anyway, the interesting part of the machine was on the back side, outside of the machine, there was an ordinary florescent light tube sitting on a wire rack. No wires going to the tube. The RF power from the machine lit up the tube without wires and the person tailing the machine knew it was turned on.

A number of years ago I was working on an electric forklift in Cleveland Ohio. It had stopped operating and when I tested it found a couple components burned out. I made the repair and put the unit back in service after testing the operation . A few days later I got a call the machine had broken down again, back out, test, same problem. Repaired and tested back in service. This happened a couple more times and I removed the unit for more complete testing and cleaning before returning. One day later it had broken down again. After asking where it was broken the owners stated it always quit next to the "dryer" turns out it was getting blasted by electrical interference. I added shielding to the unit and never had another problem with it. I serviced equipment at the same company for a few more years until they moved their opperation.

 

[Dennis Mohn]

View attachment 850697
CAT 631 Probably the funnest off road machine, 500+ HP, hauls 30+ yards and goes 35MPH. When you are riding you get to look down into the cabs of dump trucks and tractor trailers.

I worked on the WABCO electrics

 

[jjeff]

Used a cleko brand hydraulic boat trailer a lot moving customers boats on there specific cradles around the yard, pushed with a forkless fork truck won't bore you with the process and unfortunately can't find a good picture of what I've used. But they were specific and odd looking for that job.

 

[Dennis Mohn]

I have deep connections with forestry industry, but never ever have seen such tractor as topic starter have posted.

I thought this fancy looking is something:

Track Tractor TDT-55 (Saldus) - redzet.lv

This track tractor is used in forestry, particularly logging of timber, building and packaging timber piles, loading, as well as for groundbreaking and road...

www.redzet.eu

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just something from my album

5 axis CNC for chairs
View attachment 850866


Nothing special, just big
Once had to hire this. 3 guys 1 day worked on assembley. Actual lift was 30 minutes

View attachment 850867

While ago have sold sanding machine for CLT panels. 10 FT wide
Take in entire wall and work with 5 m/min
View attachment 850868

Nice stuff. I worked on and repaired EIMCO loaders and dozers looke similar to the dozer you posted.

 

[Dennis Mohn]

My brother owned a Bell for many years in his small land clearing business. He said only one of his employees could properly operate it. Odd looking machine.

They could be a challenge. Simple design, not easy to keep in adjustment