An aluminum can manufacturer called Stage 8 after an industrial accident that infuriated the owner, but luckily, didn’t get anyone killed. If you’ve never been inside a large factory, you can’t imagine the size and speed of the machinery involved. In this case, machinery churning out more than 200 cans a minute was being driven faster and faster to meet production quotas. When you increase the average operating RPMs of any piece of machinery, you also increase heat, friction and vibration. In this case, a 3,000 pound, flywheel, five feet in diameter, came off its housing and smashed through the wall. A little thing like a cement and steel wall didn’t slow the flywheel much: it continued its path into the parking area. The owner of the company also owned a beautiful Corvette, the apple of his eye. But the apple got a coring when the flywheel sheared it right in half.

When the tears stopped, the Corvette owner, who had installed my locking header bolts on his prized car, called me up to see if we could create a locking system for that gigantic wheel of death. Of course we did, and now it stays right where it belongs.