Producing parts to the proper dimensions is enough of a challenge but when you add in machine issues the production process just gets harder. See the image below of a recent oil spill we had on one of our CNC Machines.

[caption id="attachment_1260" align="alignnone" width="506"] Oil Spill from CNC machine[/caption]

To make matters worse, this oil spill did not occur during an attended shift. It happened after second shift had left for the evening and set the machines for unattended operation. Like all of our CNC machines, this one is equipped with high pressure oil to assist with breaking chips and coolant thru drills. The high pressure hoses run from the oil pumps to the high pressure pumps and then into the machine. One of these hoses wore a hole and sprung a leak (of course, while no one was around to catch it) and the oil kept pumping out of the machine and on to the floor. The oil kept flooding the floor until the machine's reservoir was empty and it ran out of oil.

When first shift arrived at 5:45am, they walked into a mess. Thankfully we have a great staff that jumped on the issue immediately and got it all cleaned up. They used a shop vac to vacuum it up. After each time the shop vac would fill up they'd dump it in the filtration system and then resume vacuuming. Once all of it was vacuumed they mopped and used the floor scrubber to clean the slick floors. After about 2 hours, the result was a clean floor and a lot of oil to filter. We are fortunate to have a good filtration system so all oil like this gets reclaimed rather than having to be hauled off by an disposal service. Hopefully, this is the last oil spill we experience while no one is in the shop.