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Who is seeing youth entering our world?

Buckethead

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Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
1,055
Location
Waterfront
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Operator
I love when younger people break into the trade, because it's been about 10 years since I've been on a job where they called me "the kid".
 

kshansen

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Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,128
Location
Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I certainly think that is a big part of it. The other thing (thinking more mechanic work than operating here) is that because cars and trucks are more complicated, kids don't grow up helping Dad work on the car, or fixing up their own old car when they get old enough to drive. And I don't know about where you live, but around here, there's less places to ride dirt bikes and quads, that's how a lot of guys got their first wrenching experience, overhauling a little 125 2-stroke dirt bike engine.

I know I learned quite a bit from messing with what we called "lot cars". After we turned about 13 years of age my brother and I always had one or two old junkers we would run up and down the hill by the house. One thing I did learn is running too soft of tires in a 1951 Plymouth and trying to do power slides on a side hill is not too smart! After walking close to a 1/4 mile back to the house mom seemed to sense something was wrong and asked what happened. So I told her I had rolled the car over up on the hill. She then asked if I was hurt, "No just a little shook-up." Next day I walked back up with a "good" tire and jack and drove the car back to the house.

If a parent was caught letting a 14-15 year old do something like that these days the kid would be in a new home and parent doing time!

Probably most of what I learned messing with those old junkers is what not to do, but that is a good learning process in itself!
 

kshansen

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Mar 11, 2012
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11,128
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Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
While we are talking of pay scales and such, one thing that always bugged me is the fact that people like singers can record a song then for years after they continue to get royalty checks for every-time the song is played on the radio or used in a movie.

Wouldn't it be nice if that engine you rebuilt last year would send you a check once a month rated on how many miles the truck went or how many tons of stone it pulled out of the pit at the quarry? Heck even $0.01 per mile or ton of stone would sure add up over time and the number of engines you worked on.
 

Junkyard

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Joined
Jun 5, 2016
Messages
3,621
Location
Claremore, OK
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Field Mechanic
While we are talking of pay scales and such, one thing that always bugged me is the fact that people like singers can record a song then for years after they continue to get royalty checks for every-time the song is played on the radio or used in a movie.

Wouldn't it be nice if that engine you rebuilt last year would send you a check once a month rated on how many miles the truck went or how many tons of stone it pulled out of the pit at the quarry? Heck even $0.01 per mile or ton of stone would sure add up over time and the number of engines you worked on.

Well....if we could ever get the general public to realize we have a talent just like a musician does. The difference is without our talents they ain't gonna drive to the concert or have a building to record in. Mainstream public takes all those things for granted. That's always been a pet peeve of mine. Very very few understand what it takes to fix this stuff, how we learn, how each of us has a particular area of expertise whether it be from experience of just a God given gift.

There are times I think my wife considers this forum just a way for me to f-off. I have learned a lot from many great people on here. Being around OIH last week I think helped her understand a bit. This is almost like homework for me. Same reason I sit and read manuals for stuff built 20-30 years ago. Heck, on my kitchen table are all the manuals I got from DMiller awhile back. I told my 13 year old daughter if she read one, passed a test I wrote I'd shave my beard :p

Maybe instead of showing the next generation it's a good vocation we should consider how to ignite their passion for it. It all trips a person's trigger in a different way.....
 

thepumpguysc

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Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Messages
7,445
Location
Sunny South Carolina
Occupation
Master Inj.Pump rebuilder
IF ONLY Hansen.. IF ONLY.. lol
I look in the local Cr. List almost every day under DIESEL JOBS just to see whos hiring & what their paying..
HOLY SMOKES.. you gotta have a friggin Masters degree in ALL THINGS diesel + trailer repair.. for 14-18.00/hr.. with MANDATORY rotating weekends.!!! They can KMA.!! Its no wonder the youth don't get in the business..
 

Junkyard

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Jun 5, 2016
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Location
Claremore, OK
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Field Mechanic
True that pumpguy. I'm damn lucky where I'm at. It helps I can run the lowboy too, lord knows what that saves them. It's a shame things don't pay better, imagine a federal mandated $15 minimum wage for flippin burgers....
 

92U 3406

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Joined
Jan 3, 2017
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3,098
Location
Western Canuckistan
Occupation
Wrench Bender
I don't really care how much flak I catch for this statement but when it comes right down to it, we're as smart or smarter than doctors. The human body is pretty much the same, regardless of race. Put a Bobcat skid steer next to a Cat skid steer and tell me they get repaired the same lol.
 

Junkyard

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Jun 5, 2016
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3,621
Location
Claremore, OK
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Field Mechanic
I don't really care how much flak I catch for this statement but when it comes right down to it, we're as smart or smarter than doctors. The human body is pretty much the same, regardless of race. Put a Bobcat skid steer next to a Cat skid steer and tell me they get repaired the same lol.

I've had similar thoughts myself. We work on stuff that can't talk to us and the human describing the symptoms is most likely talking a line of bs to cover their a$$!
 

thepumpguysc

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Mar 18, 2010
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Sunny South Carolina
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Master Inj.Pump rebuilder
I had an "old hat" tell me one time while we were in the mens room..
You know the difference between an MD, medical dr. & a DM, diesel mechanic..?? cuz basically we do the same thing..
A DM washes his hands BEFORE he takes a pizz.. lol
Hold true to this day.!!!
 

Dozerboy

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Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
2,232
Location
TX
Occupation
Operator
One thing I know for sure if your good at your job you make it look easy to everyone on the outside. I don't care if your a rocket scientist or ditch digger.

FYI I have friends and family in the medical field and I wouldn't do there job. Our mistakes generally don't cost someone there lives or get us sued for $100s of thousands. Also most of us in our field ain't known for our people skills, so I doubt we would make very good doctors.
 

mikebramel

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Joined
Jul 15, 2012
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1,612
Location
milwaukee
IF ONLY Hansen.. IF ONLY.. lol
I look in the local Cr. List almost every day under DIESEL JOBS just to see whos hiring & what their paying..
HOLY SMOKES.. you gotta have a friggin Masters degree in ALL THINGS diesel + trailer repair.. for 14-18.00/hr.. with MANDATORY rotating weekends.!!! They can KMA.!! Its no wonder the youth don't get in the business..
You've summed it up well
 

mitch504

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Feb 27, 2010
Messages
5,776
Location
Andrews SC
"Drs only have to know 2 models, we have to know thousands" was on the wall of a shop my brother worked in in the early '80s
 

Dozerboy

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2,232
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TX
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Operator
They probably come from a culture where hard and even dirty work is considered honorable not soomething to be looked down on.

Nope it's the fact they had nothing growin up and a crap job to us is the cats ass to them. Plenty of my hands grew up eating whatever they could get raccoon, possum, cats, lizards, or whatever. Most of them didn't have their first pair of shoes until they where well into there teens had a job and could buy them themselves.


The fact is our country's greatest asset isnt our skilled work force it's our ingenuity.
 

Dozerboy

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TX
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Operator
"Drs only have to know 2 models, we have to know thousands" was on the wall of a shop my brother worked in in the early '80s

Lol whatever people have to tell themselfs to boost there self-confidence.
 

spitzair

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May 4, 2007
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Squamish BC (Home), Slave Lake, AB (Work)
True that pumpguy. I'm damn lucky where I'm at. It helps I can run the lowboy too, lord knows what that saves them. It's a shame things don't pay better, imagine a federal mandated $15 minimum wage for flippin burgers....

That's what the politicians here in Alberta are trying to do! They say it will improve the quality of life for low income earners. What they don't realize is how many jobs will be lost because of this because there sure aren't many people who can afford to pay someone $15.00 an hour just to pour your coffee or things like that. Not only that, but a lot of kids I see coming out of school these days aren't worth half that! I think there will be a lot more unemployed people when this comes to pass.

The other thing I find, and I have no first hand experience here since my boy isn't old enough for school yet, but I've heard from several people now that schools really seem to be pushing kids to get some form of college or university degree, otherwise you're a second rate citizen. That and the "everybody gets a prize" attitude so nobody gets their feelings hurt... No wonder every one of these kids think they can start up at the top! Anyway, rant over......
 

thepumpguysc

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Mar 18, 2010
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7,445
Location
Sunny South Carolina
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Master Inj.Pump rebuilder
What I'm seeing is their MOUTH.!!! We have 2 "kids" at work.. 1>19 & 1>20..
All they wanna do is play on that GD phone.!! & they wont shut-up!! all the 19yo talks about is high school & the 20yo wants to kickin your ass..
Theres an awful lot of screwdrivers & hammers laying around for someone to be threatening a former Marine.. just sayin..
 

92U 3406

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Jan 3, 2017
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3,098
Location
Western Canuckistan
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Wrench Bender
That's what the politicians here in Alberta are trying to do! They say it will improve the quality of life for low income earners. What they don't realize is how many jobs will be lost because of this because there sure aren't many people who can afford to pay someone $15.00 an hour just to pour your coffee or things like that. Not only that, but a lot of kids I see coming out of school these days aren't worth half that! I think there will be a lot more unemployed people when this comes to pass.

The other thing I find, and I have no first hand experience here since my boy isn't old enough for school yet, but I've heard from several people now that schools really seem to be pushing kids to get some form of college or university degree, otherwise you're a second rate citizen. That and the "everybody gets a prize" attitude so nobody gets their feelings hurt... No wonder every one of these kids think they can start up at the top! Anyway, rant over......

Exactly. I got into an argument with someone who thought a $15/hr minimum wage was a great idea:

Them:
"So what if a double double at Tim's goes up to $4.00, you make a lot of money and can still afford it!"

Me:
"It still costs you the same $4.00 for that coffee."

Checkmate
 

DMiller

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Feb 21, 2010
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16,425
Location
Hermann, Missouri
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Cheap "old" Geezer
Kind of like working a Detroit overhead and governor in one hour then resetting the plungers on a Cat the next, all in knowing the variables to machines. Have to add the old age spider senses too, when you can smell, feel or hear a difference you know is just flat wrong. Then I got lucky with a bid into a power station, learned all new machinery but the senses still shined thru, a difference to the rumble, a new squeal, a smell I had not picked up on all that in one way or another led me to a problem developing not yet fully flowered out.
 

PJ The Kid

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Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
230
Location
KC
Occupation
Mechanic
I certainly think that is a big part of it. The other thing (thinking more mechanic work than operating here) is that because cars and trucks are more complicated, kids don't grow up helping Dad work on the car, or fixing up their own old car when they get old enough to drive. And I don't know about where you live, but around here, there's less places to ride dirt bikes and quads, that's how a lot of guys got their first wrenching experience, overhauling a little 125 2-stroke dirt bike engine.
I completely agree, i live in a rural area and that is exactly how I got started. On both ends. I was but a little guy spending every weekend in the shop with my dad working on his hot rod or cash customers cars and equipment and hot rods. By the time I was 12-13 I was rebuilding mikuni carbs for all the neighbors quads and dirtbikes and overhauled my first honda 300 at about 13. I was also homeschooled until highschool and had alot of oppurtunity to shadow my dad and a few other old timers.


I agree with junkyard too, although for a different reason, my boy wont have the too new and complex or complicated simply because he will have to adapt. The was the biggest thing I learned from my dad, he would not adapt, did solely engine work for years and years. Now he is breaking into doing almost everything on the automotive side, and actually enjoying it at that.
 
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