Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Those saws can be dangerous in the wrong hands, probably a wise move.

 

Just watched a Hilux shred the right rear tire down to the rim. Didn't get a pic, I, gave up shotgun to a bigger guy who need more room than the other seats offered. Just realized I haven't been taking pics of cool Toyota trucks. I need to fix that. Saw an awesome Land Rover pick up not too long ago, makes me sad that we can't get them.

 

I know, the shop I worked at there was a supervisor that heard ours running he came around the corner yelling get off that thing. Because the guy who was authorized to use it was gone. But when he seen me he just said OH it's you and walked away. I was the only other guy who had experience with it but never checked out on it, because of my former experience with them. Close to 35 years prior to that job.

 

We had a radial arm saw, planer, jointer, and wood lathe in carpentry class in high school. I took it all 4 years. The lathe is the only thing the teacher wouldn't let us run. His best friend lost his arm in one.


The 4 years I took it, I only got an A once and that was the last semester my senior year. There were 4 kids in my class that year. We hauled all the lumber we had to the teachers house, they were doing away with all vocational programs that year.

 

Can't like that. I was happy to hear my local high school has an auto tech class, even if just the basic basic stuff. Get these kids excited about something that they can use their hands and brain on.

 

My freshman year (1990) we had automotive (they done away with that after my freshman year), masonry (did away with that after 2 years), horticulture, and carpentry. They did away with both of those my senior year.

 

I just spent the morning at a career fair recruiting for my company with another colleague. We were at a university that offers two year and four year, technical and engineering degrees. All I have to say is that there is hope for humanity! Lots of really good young kids that are eager to work in the field.

 

We had auto shop in high school along with wood shop and metal shop. Now that I think of it we had wood shop and metal shop in middle school too. Kind of scary now to think about a bunch of middle schoolers using the metal foundry.

We built 3 1970's era Camaro's for racing at the local dirt speedway, partnered with local businesses for sponsorships, fundraising, body shop work, engine rebuilding, ect and later went on a field trip to a major NHRA event and met several teams/drivers (John Force, Tony Pedregon). Our shop teacher always pushed for the best equipment and we were fully stocked with everything snap-on/bendpak.

It was a real small town where the biggest employers were the school district and the military, so definitely some good opportunities for the local kids. Shortly after I graduated high school the auto shop closed down. Seemed like the school was always raiding the funds for the football team, but they were CIF champs.

If it wasn't for those opportunities I don't think I would have been motived to finish. Although I did go on to complete a Bachelor's in business administration/computer science.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to vent

I had an appointment I’ve been waiting for about 6 months. This detour ate up all my buffer time and I made it with minutes to spare. Back to original programming.

 

Top part:

Bottom part: - - - -

 

I did all 4 years of building trades at my high school. That teacher trusted me with anything in and out of the shop. Shingled most of the roof by myself on the house we built senior year. The district is still doing that class, at least.

 

We had auto shop, too, but I only took 2 years of that because the teacher didn't like my dad and took it out on me. I probably asked for some of it.

 

What kind of scraps bolt bins...

I paid $75-85/each for mine used and that was a great deal, worth every penny.

 

We built a house as well, one of the guys was trying to put a screw in the sheetrock and drove the drill all the way through it. Teacher cussed him out and sent him to the principals office. He probably never made it knowing that guy

 

If makes me sad that the schools are removing shop/trades learning opportunities.

 

Maybe he's a serial motorcycle thief.

 

If you guys remember I have told you about not being too handy according to the family. Well back in the 80's the high school I went to had all kinds of shop classes electronics,brick laying, machine shop, auto mechanics, carpentry, agriculture, and cosmetology for the gal's. I took everything but cosmetology. I only had 1 class that was regular curriculum my senior year. I remember them try to say that these trade skills were not going to be necessary in the future after I got out into the real world. I thought wow!
Now back to I'm not very handy.
Buy the way I got distracted again and went to see the wife at the winery where we vote, and voted. Went to the church and cleared limbs away from the trail camera. And found the coyotes had been digging out the culvert pipe to make a den. Played Frisbee with the Maligator. Where did my day go?

 

Quick, maybe not so quick, eye story:
I worked for a contractor early in college - over the summer we would travel across southern MA and northern RI renovating Sunoco stations to the newest, latest and greatest Ultra Service Stations. 'OSHA Be Damned' was the company motto. I was holding up a bracket while my foreman was drilling out a bolt hole. A small metal shard popped into my eye, just resting on the lid and eyeball. I knew not to blink and told him I got some metal in my eye. He was cool and calm about it. He got out a match, fluffed and dampened the end, touched it to the shard which clung to it. Surprisingly, there was some eye rinse on site and that was that. Never had any issues.

Jump forward about 5-6 years, I needed an MRI on my knee and part of the screening questions was about having any metal in my body. I proceeded to tell the story above, the concern being if I did get an MRI with a tiny piece of metal, it would rip through my eye during it. I explained the timeframe involved and absolutely no symptoms ever related to it. It fell on deaf ears and they mandated I get orbital x-rays before going forward with the MRI.

I was working at a hospital at the time and arranged for the x-ray during a break. Front and side of my skull. I thought all was OK until the tech made a excited utterance and then asked, "Do you have a pen behind your ear?" Yes was the answer, I frequently had a pen behind my ear. My hair was kind of long at the time so neither of us noticed it. The MRI folks accepted the x-ray and my knee got the flappy chunk of meniscus removed. Happy end of story but...

Somewhere in the annals of my medical record is a couple of skull x-rays with what looks to be a small, metallic triangle piece embedded in my head.

Sometimes I think things like this don't happen nowadays..

 

@williams63