Badger
Member
"Hey Boy! go get a tin of striped paint from the stores".
Things you learn as an apprentice or new guy
- Thread starter JeffKiper
- Start date
When I was an electrical apprentice they sent the oiler after a bucket of ADD-ON oil. The machine that this was going in was making a lot of noise. The gears must of been to tight so they needed to ADD-ON a little clearance.
The young man when around the shop looking all over the place. He had that look of disappointment on his face. The brand new plant manager had only been there maybe 2 weeks or so noticed the look on this guys face. He offered to help they walked around for 15 or 20 minutes and all of the old timers had the what do we do now look on their face. The plant manager walked right over to the group of old timers and said I need some help the oiler is looking for some ADD-ON oil and can't seem to find it anywhere would any of you know where to get some. They all started stuttering. The plant manager started laughing. "It sucks when people screw with you doesn't it?" He was the coolest manager I ever worked for.
The young man when around the shop looking all over the place. He had that look of disappointment on his face. The brand new plant manager had only been there maybe 2 weeks or so noticed the look on this guys face. He offered to help they walked around for 15 or 20 minutes and all of the old timers had the what do we do now look on their face. The plant manager walked right over to the group of old timers and said I need some help the oiler is looking for some ADD-ON oil and can't seem to find it anywhere would any of you know where to get some. They all started stuttering. The plant manager started laughing. "It sucks when people screw with you doesn't it?" He was the coolest manager I ever worked for.
I heard this second hand so take it for what you paid for it.
A large power plant had a group of painters working. After the new guy had been there 6 months or so he could work on his own out in the plant. The old guys would wear nose clips in the morning. The new guy would ask what they where for and the foreman would explain it was for a "smelling test at 12:00 PM" They all went their own way and throughout the day the young guy would be telling people that the test was at noon. Of course no one else was wearing those stupid nose clips.
A large power plant had a group of painters working. After the new guy had been there 6 months or so he could work on his own out in the plant. The old guys would wear nose clips in the morning. The new guy would ask what they where for and the foreman would explain it was for a "smelling test at 12:00 PM" They all went their own way and throughout the day the young guy would be telling people that the test was at noon. Of course no one else was wearing those stupid nose clips.
Clay B.
Lifetime Supporting Member
I guess my favorite I have done myself was to tell a help to go get my metric adjustment wrench. He of course came back with the 8" wrench in the bottom of my box. I told him know that is the standard one... see where it says 8"... I need the metric one these are metric bolts... After he came back the second time saying couldn't find it I told him to ask around... Needless to say this prank can go on for some time... Did have one guy come back with a "metric" adjustable wrench. It turned out at that plant there were some German Engineers working on the other side and they had an adjustable wrench with mm stamped on it.
I think the best one I ever witnessed was at the Pratt Whitley Testing Facility in North Dakota. They sent some poor fella all the way around the place to get a buck of "prop wash" to clean the turbine blades.
When the guys start the prank they took us and we went up to the roof of the building we were in and watched the poor guy go from building to building looking for prop wash. Apparently this is a prank they pull a lot.
I once had an engineer believe you could reduce the power going thru a conductor by kinking the cable. I told him it would restrict ion flow. He started barking at the installers to make sure the cables where straight so we would not have a reduction in ion flow. I really just wanted his installers to straighten out the cables because they looked like ****. The bewildered looks on the installers was priceless.
Oh easy bet you use on the new guy. You need a torpedo level. One of the ones with the 45 degree bubble.
Tell him you can get the bubbles reading level at the same time.
When he tells you it can not be done just lay the level flat on a table. My uncle got me on that one when I was a kid. I have used it a few times and it usually gets some surprised looks.
I think the best one I ever witnessed was at the Pratt Whitley Testing Facility in North Dakota. They sent some poor fella all the way around the place to get a buck of "prop wash" to clean the turbine blades.
When the guys start the prank they took us and we went up to the roof of the building we were in and watched the poor guy go from building to building looking for prop wash. Apparently this is a prank they pull a lot.
I once had an engineer believe you could reduce the power going thru a conductor by kinking the cable. I told him it would restrict ion flow. He started barking at the installers to make sure the cables where straight so we would not have a reduction in ion flow. I really just wanted his installers to straighten out the cables because they looked like ****. The bewildered looks on the installers was priceless.
Oh easy bet you use on the new guy. You need a torpedo level. One of the ones with the 45 degree bubble.
Tell him you can get the bubbles reading level at the same time.
When he tells you it can not be done just lay the level flat on a table. My uncle got me on that one when I was a kid. I have used it a few times and it usually gets some surprised looks.
I know I have used antiseize, and usually to make it fit we heat up the part or fine sand it, for a min I actually thought such a paste existed haha I knew something was off on that post. 
controlled
Lifetime Supporting Member
Hey Jeff, are you sure you werent the apprentice in this story? Just kidding
Ken Moore
Lifetime Supporting Member
I had a friend, his wife complained that her "blinkers" blinked slower than they should, he sent her to the parts store to buy "blinker fluid", being low on fluid caused the blinkers to blink slower. The auto parts guys caught right on and informed her they were out, but the shop down the road might have some. Needless to say, when she learned what was going on, she was not a nice wife.
Mickey
Lifetime Supporting Member
I had a friend, his wife complained that her "blinkers" blinked slower than they should, he sent her to the parts store to buy "blinker fluid", being low on fluid caused the blinkers to blink slower. The auto parts guys caught right on and informed her they were out, but the shop down the road might have some. Needless to say, when she learned what was going on, she was not a nice wife.
Those things can be found at site below and a whole lot more.
http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9
http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=11
Kev77
Member
How do you fix an exhaust leak on your car? Change the muffler bearing...
I had a guy that worked for me and he was the type who already knew how to do it once you explained it to him. He came to me and asked how to tap left handed threads. I told him to just tap the hole from the back side. He said " oh yeah, now I remember" and tried it. He was not too happy when he had to make the plate again.
I had a guy that worked for me and he was the type who already knew how to do it once you explained it to him. He came to me and asked how to tap left handed threads. I told him to just tap the hole from the back side. He said " oh yeah, now I remember" and tried it. He was not too happy when he had to make the plate again.
Kev77
Member
The other day I was changing a motor and the motor cover was broken and I called my co-worker and asked him to bring me " a pecker head, strippers and dikes" over the radio. It would suck to get a ***ual harassment case because I was trying to get the mill running again.
Thats cool, it automatically blanks out bad words!
Thats cool, it automatically blanks out bad words!
Last edited:
Well....
I took a few friends and relatives on "Snipe" hunts in the the past.
Some were lots of 'FUN' and turned out to be very informative about the "hunters" and "hunted", others were rather mundane and lacked jocularity but all were 'HOAXES' of sort. No "Snipe" were harmed and no "hunters" were permanently damaged by humiliation.
I took a few friends and relatives on "Snipe" hunts in the the past.
Some were lots of 'FUN' and turned out to be very informative about the "hunters" and "hunted", others were rather mundane and lacked jocularity but all were 'HOAXES' of sort. No "Snipe" were harmed and no "hunters" were permanently damaged by humiliation.
Last edited:
I once had to install new bearings on a high pressure wash down pump, to make the job easier I used CO2 fire extinguisher to shrink the Bering so it would fit in the housing easier. Buba was watching me with a stunned face, couple of weeks later I walk in to the maintenance department and see my guys laughing so hard that they cannot speak and bubba looks like someone dumped a 40 pound bag of flour on top of him, yeah bubba used the nitrogen compressed, dry chemical extinguisher. Turns out one of the guys told him that is what I used.
Last edited:
Goody
Member
There is a story that went around about me when I was an apprentice electrician that STILL gets told 35 years later.
As I was the youngest apprentice on the site, it was my job to go to the shop for everyone at lunchtime. I went round everyone with a paper pad and pencil and wrote down what they all needed for lunch.
One man wanted some cigarettes He said 'get me 20 Bensons' I knew the shop had a limited selection so I replied 'what if they don't have Bensons' he said get me 20 woodbines' I again said 'what if they don't have those' he said get me anything then.
Because of the confusion, I didn't write it down and completely forgot about the cigarettes.
I came back from the shops with a big cardboard box full of the stuff I had got from the shop and delivered the goods to each person.
The man who had asked for cigarettes came up to me and looked in the box. All that was in there was a pork pie.
The story spread like wildfire that he had asked for several brands of cigarettes and finished with 'get me anything' so I got him a pork pie.
Honestly, even now I will be asked if I was the man that got somebody a pork pie instead of cigarettes.
As I was the youngest apprentice on the site, it was my job to go to the shop for everyone at lunchtime. I went round everyone with a paper pad and pencil and wrote down what they all needed for lunch.
One man wanted some cigarettes He said 'get me 20 Bensons' I knew the shop had a limited selection so I replied 'what if they don't have Bensons' he said get me 20 woodbines' I again said 'what if they don't have those' he said get me anything then.
Because of the confusion, I didn't write it down and completely forgot about the cigarettes.
I came back from the shops with a big cardboard box full of the stuff I had got from the shop and delivered the goods to each person.
The man who had asked for cigarettes came up to me and looked in the box. All that was in there was a pork pie.
The story spread like wildfire that he had asked for several brands of cigarettes and finished with 'get me anything' so I got him a pork pie.
Honestly, even now I will be asked if I was the man that got somebody a pork pie instead of cigarettes.
Similar Topics
Hi,
Long time not in the forum, and not in the programming. IĀ“m getting back.
I was issued a conversion from RSLogix 500 to RSLogix 5000 (studio...
A recent thread asked how people describe what they do and that is always a difficult thing to explain to people that have little or no...
Congrats to Mickey for reaching 10K, you have become part of a great club and have helped a lot of people over the years,
Thanks to all the...
Headline: "Hackers halt plant operations in 'watershed' cyberattack" ...
I know this is a very sensitive topic, and I do understand why. Most new iterations of forum software have just been a bit much to take in with...
