B737-800
Maintenance Airframe; Maintenance Powerplant
Workload; Troubleshooting; Training / Qualification; Time Pressure; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
A crew of 4 technicians were sent to ZZZ to support Aircraft X for a window frame crack discovered while performing a bird strike inspection by ZZZ maintenance. We were dispatched from Hangar X in ZZZ and given the window post repair kit (which consisted only of a custom made bucking bar and drill jig). Out of the 4 of us sent on the field trip only 1 technician (who was working on graveyard shift) had done the job before. Neither I nor the other technician working with me had done the job before. Monday morning our turn over from the night shift included that they had tried unsuccessfully to reach management at ZZZ off and on all night in order to get the reverse spotface tool. Myself and my coworker independently tried and were successful in reaching ZZZ Supervisor.	At that point we requested to have the tool sent to us and were told basically that the tool does not exist and to use a standard reverse spotfacer. When we told the company that we could not continue the job without this tool we were told basically that this job had been done many times before without issue and we were the only ones making an issue of it. We then told ZZZ Maintenance supervision about the issue and they agreed with us that using a standard reverse spotfacer was not an option and that they would check with their machine shop and see if they could modify the spotfacer they had.ZZZ Supervisor came back and said their machinists were all gone and would be not be back until Tuesday morning. When this information was given to ZZZ Supervisor we were told basically that they had checked with the Maintenance Supervisor that does these repairs in the other hangar and that he said there was no special reverse spotfacer in the tool kit and if we did not continue with the job we would be sent home.Under threat of financial loss and pressure by the company to just make do I and my coworker made the decision to modify the spotfacer we had.As this is an airworthiness directive driven [report] and discussion with my local union I cannot determine if this presents a compliance or work quality issue but I feel that if it is; it needs to be corrected and am therefore filing this report.Upon completion of the job and return to work at ZZZ today I personally went and saw the tooling kits for this job; none of which contained a spotfacer. I went to the tool crib and asked to see their spotfacers; I went to the machine shop to see their spotfacers; none of which had a proper corner radius. I then asked the machinist if they could recut the corner radius on a 1/32 cutter to make it a .090 radius and he said they would send the spotfacer out to a grind shop but it could be done in about a day. I did not find any evidence that the proper tool was available for this job. Therefore I have ordered through the tool standard corner radius spotfacers and have confirmed with machine shop that they can be properly modified to meet the corner radius requirement. By installing these tools in the kits currently made to work these jobs the proper tool will at least be available to the technicians. What I feel is more of an issue is that the company needs to cease pressuring mechanics to vary from work instructions. This puts mechanics in a very difficult position and I would assume causes a good many to violate repair manuals or required steps so they do not get in trouble or fall out of graces with their superiors. All managerial employees with reports should support technician's proper adherence to maintenance documents and provide them with the proper tools to do the job before assigning the task.
While working in ZZZ; R1 window frame repair it was discovered by grave shift crew the repair kit that was given to us by hangar A personnel at ZZZ was incomplete and missing a special cut reverse spotface tool that is designed for this job that is called out for in the [Company] paperwork with an inspection buyback step; supposedly this tool was used by one of the grave shift personal on previous aircraft.Grave shift personal tried to make contact with ZZZ management that night but no one was answering the phone; to retrieve the missing reverse spotface tool. About mid-morning I got a hold of supervision at ZZZ and requested the special cut reverse spotface tool needed for this job; I was told there is not one; never has been one and to use a regular cut reverse spotface tool; which they have never had a problem using in the past; so they were not sending anything; find a machinist there (ZZZ) to cut one. We looked for a regular machinist at ZZZ to hopefully cut a special reverse spotface tool for us; but all were off; upon telling ZZZ supervision our problem of no proper tooling or support until Tuesday I was told if we could not use what we had the way it is; they would probably cancel the rest of the fieldtrip till tooling was available.Since ZZZ did not have a machinist to provide help; and with the threat of been sent home; by ZZZ supervision (make it happen) we took it upon ourselves; my partner and I; to hand grind and polish a regular reverse spotface tool to the required size called out for in the [paperwork]; and to the quality that would satisfy us and the tool worked out nicely; if not; we were coming home; because I/we were not using anything else that was not approved.
Technician reported that Company did not own the correct tool to make the repair and had never possessed it while accomplishing many of these repairs.