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Made This In High School back in 1977

Moparfiend

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And I used it again today! I was fortunate enough to go to a school that had a complete metal shop including a foundry where I made the cast sand mold for this saw and used a shaper and lathe for the blade adjuster.

Too bad they don’t teach kids these days any trades. The big companies sold us out long ago. Only technology can bring mfg back like in Japan and Germany.

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I'm thinking your instructor was a cool guy. I had a great shop teacher also. I had 4 years of shop/mechanical drawing in HS and 2 quarters of mechanical drawing in college and some of my lettering looked like printing. Sure can't duplicate it today!
Mike
 
I'm thinking your instructor was a cool guy. I had a great shop teacher also. I had 4 years of shop/mechanical drawing in HS and 2 quarters of mechanical drawing in college and some of my lettering looked like printing. Sure can't duplicate it today!
Mike
He was hard! All the hand tools were on a board with an outline. All tools needed to be in place before we left. He insisted our hands be clean before we left. I learned a lot of things not just how to operate a vertical and horizontal mull, lathes surface grinders brake Oxy Accetelene and arc welding but how to work clean and organize ! Life skills! And it got me a job as a machinist out of school where I worked on one of the first CNC’s in the US!
 
I had a shop class in Jr. High. I still have the tap handle I made, it still gets used. The instructor Mr. Wettlaufer had a VW bug he wanted to use in the class. He tore the body off the chassis. On my suggestion the the fuel and brake systems got painted yellow and red to teach the class how that stuff worked. 7th grade I was already On my way......
 
That is a nice tool you made there Moparfeind. With me, Class of '77. Metal Shop was the coolest class. Rockwell lathes, Milling machines, chips flying, don't have the foundry sand to damp, don't knock over the Welding Bottles and keep them capped when not in use, WEAR YOUR SAFETY GLASSES, TUCK THAT SHIRT IN, NO JEWERY, TIE THAT LONG HAIR BACK (not directed to me, just heard that everyday I think, even when not needed to be heard). Just two of the many things made. The cannon. The Peace Sign on the front of the Charger is cast in Aluminum then coated with the same reflective material used on stop/street signs.
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And I used it again today! I was fortunate enough to go to a school that had a complete metal shop including a foundry where I made the cast sand mold for this saw and used a shaper and lathe for the blade adjuster.

Too bad they don’t teach kids these days any trades. The big companies sold us out long ago. Only technology can bring mfg back like in Japan and Germany.

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That saw is freakin’ amazing! You were very fortunate to grow up in a time and live in a place where they did that sort of thing. We did similar stuff here in the mid seventies, but not the foundry part.
Contrast that with today’s education system. My daughter took shop class three years ago. The entire first semester was just classroom stuff, on SAFETY! Safety is fine, but we got a five minute talk at the start of class and did just fine. Her entire semester was just on safety.
However, all is not lost. Because of where we live our kids go hunting and trapping in high school. They go moose or caribou hunting for five days in the fall, trapping lynx, marten and wolves in the winter, and beaver trapping in the spring. And they actually whack stuff. When forestry shoots a bear in town they’ll take it to one of the schools and the kids will skin it. One school has a big bear hanging in it that I shot, and another school has pictures of my daughter on the wall with the moose she shot and a deer I got. But those days are limited, I fear.
 
We started industrial arts in 7th grade. I remember drafting & home economics & sewing. Can't remember if we had wood shop. When I got tho HS I took IA as we had Woodshop, Metal Shop, Drafting, Printing & Auto shop. I went thru all of those classes but liked printing the most. Stuck with it for all 4 years, and when I didn't have class I was in shop. Senior year I took Automotive 1,2 & 3. Was a lot of fun.

My youngest son goes to a tech HS & is learning what we used to call Tool & Die, which is a great trade. Now they call it Precision Machining.
 
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to take all of them - Power Mechanics I & II, Auto Mechanics I & II, Metal Shop, Wood Shop - these were great experiences with great instructors. And we had great facilities, too. I also still have stuff I made in shop classes over 40 years ago.
Not having the opportunity to learn the skills to work with your hands is a real loss to the current generation. The satisfaction of creating/fixing something yourself is, unfortunately, something this generation as a whole just doesn't get the opportunity to learn anymore.
 
When the Wood Shop Teacher said he was going to use the drill press to drill a square hole in a board. I thought he was full of you know what. That was the first time I saw a square hole drilled in wood.
 
That is a nice tool you made there Moparfeind. With me, Class of '77. Metal Shop was the coolest class. Rockwell lathes, Milling machines, chips flying, don't have the foundry sand to damp, don't knock over the Welding Bottles and keep them capped when not in use, WEAR YOUR SAFETY GLASSES, TUCK THAT SHIRT IN, NO JEWERY, TIE THAT LONG HAIR BACK (not directed to me, just heard that everyday I think, even when not needed to be heard). Just two of the many things made. The cannon. The Peace Sign on the front of the Charger is cast in Aluminum then coated with the same reflective material used on stop/street signs.
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Farm out. Like a cannon.
 
It felt rather good when Maintenance (adults) came in to the kids with something to fix/fabricate.
I think I made a cast Aluminum plate for the front of somebody's car once a week at least. You know the type with the Make, Model and CI.
 
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I made a machinist's clamp (like a woodworker's only metal), a six size thin wrench (I modified the design to have BMX bike hub bearing sizes), and a 14" classic tool box. Still have all of them. 1984
 
They filmed that in my High School actually.

I went to the same high school as Lt. Cmdr. Scott, "Scottie" from Star Trek. Unfortunately it has recently been closed and replaced by a candy *** whimpy school.
 
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to take all of them - Power Mechanics I & II, Auto Mechanics I & II, Metal Shop, Wood Shop - these were great experiences with great instructors. And we had great facilities, too. I also still have stuff I made in shop classes over 40 years ago.
Not having the opportunity to learn the skills to work with your hands is a real loss to the current generation. The satisfaction of creating/fixing something yourself is, unfortunately, something this generation as a whole just doesn't get the opportunity to learn anymore.
When you can pay a 11 year old girl in China one dollar a day to make your product why would anyone want to learn how to do it?
 
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