when you are your own dreaded previous owner

I spy with my little eye, an Apprentice! What is impressive, he is not standing around idle... value right there and then.

Delegation Paul, you have one of the most valued assets in electrical work, a third arm, able to hold the multimeter while you probe around with both hands, and best of all is voice command able, "...here hold this and operate this switch... " indeed a complete ( and very nice pro level ) workshop.

As i cast my spying eye, is that a good luck charm BTZ module, retained on the frame, good luck for you as it is not connected, a wry smile here. See the spring retaining clip has gone missing from the iis box, might have some in the spares box here. Most enjoyable snapshot of a moment in time there. j
p.s. i spotted the electrical problem, the battery fell out on the road from the last ride....
 
iis_iis said:
I spy with my little eye, an Apprentice!
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Those apprentice gadgets can be quite unreliable. Performance can vary widely in terms of production output, quality of work and duty cycle.
The self-initiating ones seem to be the best. Less sophisticated models have a tedious programming schedule and they often have an auto-shut-down sequence requiring frequent re-boot. Many of them have to be returned to their manufacturer for regular servicing and maintenance.
 
As you say Cam, the only line in the sand for me, is not walking under a ladder with an apprentice atop... they have pin point bombing accuracy that would be useful in any bomber command... do have a soft spot for apprentices, on the job and taught at TAFE, used to annoy me no end, last few years they were a great source of amusement, entertainment never stops... a wry smile here.

Friend of mine owns an air con business, apprentice manages to drill into a buried in wall water main, flooded the whole ground floor of a motel, waiting for the water to stop, did not ring the business owner.... true.... j.
 
As a sixteen year old apprentice at a Merc and Porsche dealership my first week saw me being asked to go to another local garage to collect some tappet clearances . Later I was told to go to the stores and get an ' earth' . I returned having been given a plastic cup of oil spill granules with a curly copper wire sticking out. I was immediately sent back to get another as the car we were working on was a twin cam.
I didn't last long......
 
A favorite trick played in Germany at car repair shops is to send the apprentice to the spare parts dept. to get some compression powder.
The apprentice is told not to accept the red powder, only the black powder is the good stuff!
Another classic being the crankshaft illumination bulb. Only the 2.5 watt bulb will work....
 
No end to the apprentice sent off to fetch and carry, for the folly of older tradesman, most can be sort of made a case as funny, then there was the harmful and then the flat out cruel. Sorry Perry you had the damaging instructions. Seen many of them, to the store for a long weight/wait, record is 2.5 hours on the chart attached to the counter. 1 gross of washers without holes, 1 gross of holes. Morning tea, down to the shop for 2 Randy Tarts, no end to the directives.

Suppose it does make you toughen up at 16yo, it also does lower self worth if allowed to permeate. Most notable in lack or foresight by the direction givers, these apprentices may be your boss one day, and i was. Waste of time doing the same thing as they did, better is to load up the "funny" men with busting workloads. Apologies for the sidetrack, do like apprentices, will make a better vocal support when able. j
 
I don't remember minding it too much and in fact I got my revenge on the main perpetrator. His name was 'Pikey' Bloom and I caught him in the Lubrication bay with his back turned. I grabbed a lube gun and covered him from head to foot in Automatic Transmission fluid. He didn't think it was funny , luckily everyone else did....
 
During my apprenticeship as a locksmith, I had a journeyman who often was very impatient. One day a basket came in with hundreds of parts to be deburred. So get them in the vice, a few strokes with the file and so on, boring stuff.

Again and again he came to check the progress, once he stood with his legs apart on the right very close to the vice. I was nervous and frantic and when unclamping the workpiece he got the vice handle between the legs. He's dashed away but didn't say anything...
:cool:
 
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My favourite apprentice story, I was moving a 10 x 2 that's 250 x 50 and 4m long timber beam with it standing vertically and as a swung it around I managed to slightly drop it only a few inches directly square on the Foreman's head. It made a hollow drum-like sound that made me laugh, that didn't last long though.
 
I set up a spinning laser level in an extension to show an IT engineer how out of level the floor was.
I warned him not to let the red laser hit the same part of his ankle each time as it would cause burns- he proceeded to “skip” the laser every revolution as we discussed remedial action. He continued skipping even though I was standing still- perhaps I had laser proof socks on, this went on till my mate walked in and asked what was going on….🤣
 
Years ago I got my wife with the old flat tyre gag. We had friends round and she came up to me and said she had a flat tyre on her car. I asked her if it was flat all the way round or just on the bottom. 'Only on the bottom I think' she replied. Bless her.
 
Apprentice pranks at seafaring:
new ship's boys were sent to
1. the cook to get food waste and go down to feed the "keel pig". When they asked where
they would find it, everybody pretended to have no time and they were told to have a look
themselves.
2. the machine room to get the "compass key" which they had to bring up to the
bearing deck (the highest deck). The blokes down there gave them the heaviest piece of iron
they could find.
On their way up they were not allowed to ask for help, as it was their own important
and responsible task.
 
Absolutely true, wife phones me to say girl at the pub can sell us half a frozen pig for the freezer- so I told her to ask front or back- muffled voices- “they cut it down the middle length ways“ - ask if you can have the right side as pigs are right handed like humans and are more muscly on the right- more muffled voices- “she’s going to ask her husband for us”.
 
Ernesto said:
Apprentice pranks at seafaring:
new ship's boys were sent to
1. the cook to get food waste and go down to feed the "keel pig". When they asked where
they would find it, everybody pretended to have no time and they were told to have a look
themselves.
2. the machine room to get the "compass key" which they had to bring up to the
bearing deck (the highest deck). The blokes down there gave them the heaviest piece of iron
they could find.
On their way up they were not allowed to ask for help, as it was their own important
and responsible task.
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What about the fabled copper rivet?😱
 
After 40 years, I'm still searching the tool stores for a left-handed hammer... I was told they are next to the tins of stripey paint, but I can't find those either.
 
Didn’t even notice grandson in the photo……. Henry is 12, Olive is 10. They have been spending time with me in the garage since they started walking, have their own tools, and are quite enthusiastic about doing projects with me. This past weekend we built a couple of bird feeders, they helped me finish up the RGS, and in the photo Henry was working on modifying a NERF gun he bought cheap used. They both are competent with 12 volt wiring, stripping, connectors, heat shrinking, etc.. It was interesting “helping” Henry with his NERF gun rebuild, he fully stripped it, then accessed a couple of YouTube videos on modifications and reassembly. A much better use of the internet than playing stupid games. They also this past weekend were helping me prune trees, cutting up the branches, using a power saw under supervision, etc.. My gift to each of them this past weekend was a really sharp decent pocket knife each, Olive was quite proud of the vampire killing stake she cut and sharpened, her mother was slightly less enthused with the vampire stake and the knives. I did have to tell Henry not to take his knife to school……..

I have not pranked them, I don’t want to discourage them, truly a gift to have them still interested in hanging out with their grandfather in the garage, working on boat motors, carbs, welding and cutting projects, wiring trailers and motorcycles, building engines, lapping in valves, making things, taking things apart, learning useful tool skills, etc..
 
Paul LeClair said:
Didn’t even notice grandson in the photo……. Henry is 12, Olive is 10. They have been spending time with me in the garage since they started walking, have their own tools, and are quite enthusiastic about doing projects with me. This past weekend we built a couple of bird feeders, they helped me finish up the RGS, and in the photo Henry was working on modifying a NERF gun he bought cheap used. They both are competent with 12 volt wiring, stripping, connectors, heat shrinking, etc.. It was interesting “helping” Henry with his NERF gun rebuild, he fully stripped it, then accessed a couple of YouTube videos on modifications and reassembly. A much better use of the internet than playing stupid games. They also this past weekend were helping me prune trees, cutting up the branches, using a power saw under supervision, etc.. My gift to each of them this past weekend was a really sharp decent pocket knife each, Olive was quite proud of the vampire killing stake she cut and sharpened, her mother was slightly less enthused with the vampire stake and the knives. I did have to tell Henry not to take his knife to school……..

I have not pranked them, I don’t want to discourage them, truly a gift to have them still interested in hanging out with their grandfather in the garage, working on boat motors, carbs, welding and cutting projects, wiring trailers and motorcycles, building engines, lapping in valves, making things, taking things apart, learning useful tool skills, etc..
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Thats how I started- used to press the pedals while Dad bleed the brakes on the Anglia/ Austin 1300 when I was about ten. Sadly this doesn’t happen so much nowadays.
 
Paul LeClair said:
Didn’t even notice grandson in the photo……. Henry is 12, Olive is 10. They have been spending time with me in the garage since they started walking, have their own tools, and are quite enthusiastic about doing projects with me. This past weekend we built a couple of bird feeders, they helped me finish up the RGS, and in the photo Henry was working on modifying a NERF gun he bought cheap used. They both are competent with 12 volt wiring, stripping, connectors, heat shrinking, etc.. It was interesting “helping” Henry with his NERF gun rebuild, he fully stripped it, then accessed a couple of YouTube videos on modifications and reassembly. A much better use of the internet than playing stupid games. They also this past weekend were helping me prune trees, cutting up the branches, using a power saw under supervision, etc.. My gift to each of them this past weekend was a really sharp decent pocket knife each, Olive was quite proud of the vampire killing stake she cut and sharpened, her mother was slightly less enthused with the vampire stake and the knives. I did have to tell Henry not to take his knife to school……..

I have not pranked them, I don’t want to discourage them, truly a gift to have them still interested in hanging out with their grandfather in the garage, working on boat motors, carbs, welding and cutting projects, wiring trailers and motorcycles, building engines, lapping in valves, making things, taking things apart, learning useful tool skills, etc..
Click to expand...
They are lucky kids: my Dad was a Professional Man and would never think of dirtying his hands or doing Manual Labor. You could hear the capitalization when he used those words! You are probably guaranteeing that they will be successful white collar workers with fulfilling hobbies. Sort of like their Grandpa!
 
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