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Inside The Secret Underground Laboratory
- Thread starter Bruce Johnson
- Start date
Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Absolutely love this !
Kids these days need to be exposed to stuff like this. And shown that careers in the trades can be a respectable thing... not everyone has the aptitude for IT, computers, or corporate life.
Personally ... I knew at 5 years of age, that I wanted to "build stuff " ...and use my hands. If I would have been exposed to something like this ... maybe I could have had a better sense of where to focus that desire...sooner.
On a related note... shop classes in schools needs to be revived! I was fortunate to have a great industrial arts program at my high school. But that was way back in the class of '83
It's sad how many kids graduate HS and can't even read a tape measure.
Bruce, you're wearing my standard daily uniform in those library pics, although you've cultivated a much more substantial moustache than I think I'm even capable of generating if I tried!
I deliberately don't really clean up for talks like these, for kids or even in front of the City Council. I go there looking like I walked right out of my shop, which I actually did. I want to make it clear that I work in a shop, not in an office, and that it's dignified and respectable to be a grubby Craftsman.
My mustache has been growing there for about 46 years, I guess. I've never shaved it off. Most of my life, I've kept it as a long handlebar. During the '90's I wore a full beard with fairly long hair. These days, I wear a buzz cut and keep the old mustache trimmed up to more of a Marlboro Man style.
Lol, I can relate. Last time the skin above my upper lip saw sunlight was in 1979 or so.
My wife bemoans my complete lack of interest in nice clothes, I’m happiest covered with sawdust or paint. I yam who I yam. I clean up nice for work, lucky I only have to wear a tie to weddings and funerals. Left to my own devices, I’d happily Bruceify. Question: am I the only one who notices he’s cut himself only by seeing the blood on the wood? It’s like a wood shop anesthesia kicks in. Lots of blood spots on my Carharts!
If your tools are sharp enough, that happens. Cut yourself with a dull one (far more common that most people understand - dull tool leads to excess force leads to lack of control, and if you have a body part in the path, they cut easier than wood) and you'll notice it faster.
Agreed with @T_Bone_TL when it's a dull tool, you feel it do the damage and it hurts, but when it's a really sharp tool, it's like "What was that little tug on my arm? Oh, huh, I'm bleeding"
I tell people, blunt tools/knives are more dangerous. Coz you have to push harder, then it slips and you're bleeding. Don't ask me how I know that. 
I can live with a few clean nics like you describe.
I can live with a few clean nics like you describe.
Agreed. My daughter was selected for her high-school's pre-engineering class, and she really struggled with it at first, but she's signed up for next year's class too.
They do have shop classes of various kinds. Metalworking, carpentry, welding, machining, etc.
I had wood and metal shop in Junior High, but it was once a week, alternating between the two shops on a two week basis. They had one Industrial Arts teacher for the whole school, and he also coached soccer. The schools seem to have forgotten that somebody other than the Chinese has to build all this technology. We do have a local Voc/Tech that’s excellent, actually has a waiting list to get in, but the high school has nothing.
That's terribly sad. I loved wood and metal work classes. They were the only places I had access to real tools. My dad is extremely ham-fisted with tools. Sure he can put up a tent and mow the lawn, but that was the end of it. I had to look elsewhere to find help. In end, I'm mostly self taught... and have the scars to prove it. Thankfully both my older kids have access to workshops at school too. It's part of the curriculum here.
Here in Finland kids learn crafts at elementary school. We have crafts 2hrs per week from 1st to 6th grade, on 7th they have 3hrs and for 8th and 9th they can choose 3hrs if they want. Recently there’s been some changes so that everyone learns both soft (sewing etc) and hard (wood/metalwork, electronics etc) materials and techniques thru the 9 years.
Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
My first shop class was in '79 as a HS freshman, ...intro to woodworking taught by a delightful old Polish gentleman by the name of "Doc" Sucharski. That was the start of my formal education in the industrial arts. I wish I could have started sooner! I was able to take subsequent classes in welding, metal work, machining, foundry, plastics, auto repair, and of course adv. woodworking... plus art and even some drafting...(yes with manual tools & paper). By my HS senior year I was basically a teachers aid & my own projects could cross over aspects of several disciplines & materials. Some schools I have heard of around here still embrace such things, but it's no where near like it used to be. And I think it really depends on the district.
Back in the dark ages when I was at school (1960's) we had to choose between woodwork or metalwork which was a real shame because I loved both.
I took one course in wood-shop in HS. Got appendicitis about mid-way through and ended up under the gun to finish my project. Learned a lot of other skills from a Boy Scout project; drafting, welding, fabrication, from my dad and our scoutmaster who were both very practically trained engineers. Picked up more skills in electronics working as a Co-Op (paid Intern) for IBM mostly as a technician, building prototypes, trouble-shooting machines, etc. Good stuff, invaluable skills during different parts of my career.
I never took shop class of any type.
It was first offered in 8th grade. Back then the boys took shop class and the girls took home economics, although this was more tradition than a policy. I signed up for home economics. I reasoned that my dad had already taught me most everything we would learn in shop class, and if I sign up for home economics I'd be one of the few guys in a room full of girls, and frankly I needed to tilt the odds in my favor any way I could. (By the way, my ploy didn't work.)
In 9th grade, I signed up for a 2nd year of home economics. Me and another boy were the first two males to take 2nd year home economics in the state of South Dakota. It freaked out the administrators so much that we were pulled into the guidance counselor's office just to make sure it was what we really wanted to do.
So I didn't take shop. But in my senior year of high school I completely re-upholstered my car in crushed velour using my sewing abilities I'd learned. So I had that going for me.
It was first offered in 8th grade. Back then the boys took shop class and the girls took home economics, although this was more tradition than a policy. I signed up for home economics. I reasoned that my dad had already taught me most everything we would learn in shop class, and if I sign up for home economics I'd be one of the few guys in a room full of girls, and frankly I needed to tilt the odds in my favor any way I could. (By the way, my ploy didn't work.)
In 9th grade, I signed up for a 2nd year of home economics. Me and another boy were the first two males to take 2nd year home economics in the state of South Dakota. It freaked out the administrators so much that we were pulled into the guidance counselor's office just to make sure it was what we really wanted to do.
So I didn't take shop. But in my senior year of high school I completely re-upholstered my car in crushed velour using my sewing abilities I'd learned. So I had that going for me.
My father was, and is still, really handy. He's one of those guys who can fix anything, he always had a lot of tools in the basement. Me and my three brothers pretty much had open access to the tools. By today's standards it probably bordered on reckless, but all of my brothers have the confidence to do just about any project, mechanical or woodworking wise. Over the years I've lost some motivation for car projects, but I have done some pretty serious car work in the past. I think I took woodshop my first year of high school, but found the projects went entirely too slow when I could do it at home using much better and faster tools.
My dad taught us that with the right tools and the necessary knowledge, we could do anything. And it's mostly been true. Usually nothing stops me from fixing something (especially when someone tells me I'm not supposed to be able to open and fix something; then the challenge is on). The interesting thing has been realizing over the years that it makes no sense in some cases to do it myself. I learned early on, for instance, that I save no money replacing my own exhaust system, it takes me longer, and I get dirty. May as well have Monro do it. Or, my minivan needed a front wheel bearing replaced. Being front-wheel drive, there was a special tool required to remove the hub. Was it worth it for me to buy a tool I'd likely never use again, and spend an entire weekend doing something the shop could do in a couple hours? No, not this time. (On the other hand, when I needed to replace all the rear suspension bushings in my '71 Alfa Romeo Spider, it made perfect sense to buy a 20-ton hydraulic press from Harbor Freight. It was on sale, and I had a 20% off coupon. It cost less than I would have spent at the machine shop, and I get to keep the press, which I'll no doubt use again.)
That's about where I'm at. I certainly can change the oil on my car, but it's not worth my time.
Oil is one piece of car maintenance I still do myself. I'll buy the supplies well ahead of time when I'm already at the store for some other reason. The oil change itself takes me about 15-20 minutes at a pretty leisurely pace. I figure it would take me at least twice that amount of time to drive somewhere to have it done.
But other maintenance items like brakes or as @farace mentioned, exhaust which I used to do myself I now let other people deal with the hassle.
I did change the struts myself on my wife's car a couple summers ago. I then took it in to the shop to have it aligned and learned that they had to remove the struts to install some spacers in order to get the wheels in the proper position. At that point the added labor charge meant I didn't save myself much money.
