Color coordinating

[Oldsmagnet Members Find all posts View Profile Close Oldsmagnet]

Got a brainstorm recently, and just started color coding the house (12 A2s) I'm expecting a complete employee turnaround next season, so I'm trying to make things a little easier on the newbies we (hopefully) get. I haven't gotten that far yet, but so far, I've got all my out of range links painted red, and just started painting the turret 180 interlock links blue. Think I'll paint the clutch/reset linkage yellow... Not sure which parts yet.

There are lots of times when the desk person is the only one on shift, so this will help with phone calls... (Call me, can't fix it... "Push the blue lever forward")

Don't know how many times I've had to tell the bosses that the handle in back is for out of ranges ~only~... For a while, that was their cure for ~every~ stop, it seemed.... What a mess. Figure red=stay away... Oughtta help.

Anyone else implemented anything like this? What colors did ya use, and what systems did you pinpoint?

Also, every machine I have to take down now, for whatever reason, the parts get painted with rustoleum grey, a pretty close match to the Quality parts... Off from the Bruns brown... but that doesn't break my heart one bit [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img] Hopefully by the end of next year, I'll have a matching house... A little more professionalism, if you will (Last week we had 8 light grey machines, and 4 dark grey ones... the 4 were brush painted god knows how long ago... Looks awful, IMHO... 2 of 'em are halfway light grey now, and hopefully get to the rest soon enough...

Thoughts/comments?

[Adam_Davis Members Find all posts View Profile Close Adam_Davis]

Re: Color coordinating

Wow..Great idea!!

I might have to try this.

[Steve Stafford (JBEES) Tech of the Year 2005,2007 Find all posts View Profile Close Steve Stafford (JBEES)]

Re: Color coordinating

No offense to your idea...but we are in the process of removing the carnival paint that some previous mechanic used to paint parts with. In your situation, that might be a very good idea for training new pinchasers. Having different parts painted different colors.

I just don't like the idea of different colors all over the machine. But if it works for you...go for it.

I would stay away from white though...just to hard to keep clean...lol

[Oldsmagnet Members Find all posts View Profile Close Oldsmagnet]

Re: Color coordinating

Found that with the white also [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img] One part, one machine... one too many [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img] And no, I don't plan on getting very carried away with it at all. That would sort of defeat the purpose. I'm only painting the more common trouble areas and systems. I've got OOR's red, 180 links blue, 2nd ball selector green, rake-trip links yellow, with the pivot painted pink on the backside only (so when it becomes inverted, there's a pink flag there staring you in the face... kinda proud of that one [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/img] )

I'm still debating on what to do in the clutch area, I'm thinking I'd like to do any links capable of a constant-cycle malfunction to be orange. But there's a lot of those [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img] And to pull 'em all out to paint 'em, that's a little more work than I'd like for this project, and it ~would~ be way too much color. I don't want the circus look, either, by any means, that would defeat the purpose of the whole project, I'd think. What I might end up doing, is putting a dab of nail polish on the clutch trouble areas, instead, and possibly make some posters of where to look for what trouble symptoms...

Right now, we've got some grey pinwheels, some white ones, and one black one. Still got some dark grey covers on 1~4, but that's much closer now, too. In the end, I'm hoping for something tasteful, mostly light grey, black pinwheels, some natural stuff, and the color-coded trouble zones. I'm hoping for good results, eventually...

Here's an overly-large (sorry!) pic of the first parts... Don't think it's too bad yet... I'll get better pics once it's all done...

[nighthawk Member Find all posts View Profile Close nighthawk]

Re: Color coordinating

I did the same some time ago and i say go for it!! Nothing is better to help those in training or those who don't fully know which "thingy"to touch than some paint on parts.I painted my 180 link,rake crank rod,long link,pin gate(not where pins ride on though),index trip lever,out of range(YES RED),cycle solenoid cover,preferance,cross conveyor levers(not the wheels),rake sweep hook.I found by doing this the training goes faster/easier PLUS those late night phone calls go smoother!I can't remember everything i painted but hope this helps.Sure...the pinsetter looks sort of funny BUT....i don't mind and either do those who train on them,after all how many poeple see a pinsetter?Sure worked great for me!!