Who is seeing youth entering our world?

[Raildudes dad]

I was given an antique fire extinguisher by my boss and some one else gave an antique fire helmet to put on it because it seems some days all I do is put out fires LOL. We have about 30+ employees in our department and for the most part are hardworking and dependable. The employees know my door is open and if there's a problem, they can depend on me to deal with it. Being 2nd in command, I could push the problems up the chain but that's not what they pay me to do.

 

[thepumpguysc]

GET THIS>> I was helping a younger kid/foremans kid in the test room.. This kid has worked there for about 2 years & his work is "ok".. lets just say it'll "pass".. it aint right but...
SO I'm kinda watching & teaching at the same time.. 1st tool he pulls out is an adjustable wrench.!!!
I say, WHOA DRAGON.. you have a box w/ 5000.00 worth of wrenches, in a room full of 5 million dollar test equipment & all you can come up with is a Cresent Wrench?? I said, DO NOT EVER let me see you using THAT TOOL IN HERE..
SO.. he pulls out the appropriat tool & starts goin to town mounting a pump..
So he keeps using the "open end" of the wrench to tighten down all the clamps..{ to which he was going to use the adjustable.}
I tell him, USE THE BOX END of the wrench to do that.. He holds up the wrench & says.. is this the box end?? & points to the OPEN END.. WTF !!!???
NOBODY taught this kid the difference!!! I was dumbfounded to say the least..
I didn't yell or make him feel "stupid", I mearly said, NO.. think about it.. open end.. closed end.. {BOX}
He understood & we proceeded on..

 

[kshansen]

I tell him, USE THE BOX END of the wrench to do that.. He holds up the wrench & says.. is this the box end?? & points to the OPEN END.. WTF !!!???
NOBODY taught this kid the difference!!! I was dumbfounded to say the least..
I didn't yell or make him feel "stupid", I mearly said, NO.. think about it.. open end.. closed end.. {BOX}
He understood & we proceeded on..

Maybe if you used "proper English" and said to use the "ring spanner" he might have had a better chance at getting it right!

Hard to believe the kid of the foreman of a pump shop who has worked in the shop for two years did not know the difference between an open end and box end of a wrench!

Any chance this kid is a graduate from Midvale?

 

[Welder Dave]

It's Bart Simpson's fault... under achiever and proud of it.

 

[92U 3406]

I'll admit I'm guilty of reaching for the all-sixteeths from time to time. Usually when the machine is dead in the water, at the bottom of a steep, muddy hill and 200+ meters from the closest spot I can get my service truck to it. Really sucks to have to travel all that way back to the truck because you needed a 10mm instead of a 3/8"

 

[Birken Vogt]

I just used my adjustable today on a pot-type oil filter. Very low overhead and my back did not feel like crawling back out to the socket tray and the adjustable was within reach.

(Channellock makes by far the best, much tighter and stronger than the rest of the garbage out there. But don't let it get wet, the tight clearances mean it rusts up easily. But some WD-40 and banging will restore them)

 

[92U 3406]

I've got an 8" Channel Lock adjustable. Bought it specifically because it would open wide enough to thread the fittings off the boom telescope cylinder on Skytrak teles. Real PITA job.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Now don't get me wrong fellas.. an adjustable does have its place.. just not in a room full of VERY expensive delicate test equipment.. when your tool box was wheeled NEXT TO the machine..
It was a matter of "choice"..
& THEN the suprise of not knowing a box end from an open end.. WOW..
I said the other day.. THIS is NOT a business.. its a halfway house for MORONS..

 

[kshansen]

Now don't get me wrong fellas.. an adjustable does have its place.. just not in a room full of VERY expensive delicate test equipment.. when your tool box was wheeled NEXT TO the machine..
It was a matter of "choice"..
& THEN the suprise of not knowing a box end from an open end.. WOW..
I said the other day.. THIS is NOT a business.. its a halfway house for MORONS..

Very true. What might be the wrong tool in one situation might be considered the best tool for the same job in a totally different situation.

Say you were in need of removing a spanner nut that was holding a bearing in place on a machine that "had to be fixed" that night. The right tool would be a spanner socket designed for just that job. But if the closest one was halfway across the country and priced at almost the same value as the gear drive you were working on then the "proper tool" might now become that air hammer with a dull chisel bit in it. Been there done that!

But to have the right tool one drawer down from the wrong tool it is beyond lazy to not use the "best and proper" tool.

We have all had to make do with a less than ideal tool but the difference is knowing it is not the ideal tool and adapting to it limitations not only for the equipment we are working on but our own safety.

 

[DMiller]

Right tool, at the right time and you don't damage more than you fix. Told that by my Grandfather as he worked on a old 20hp Johnson he kept running for forty years.