Ace-Garageguy

I learned to gas-weld first, as the race shop I turned wrenches at hired a guy to come in and to do some repair work on the tube-frame of our little Abarth (SCCA) D-sports-racer (a highly modified 1000 Spider Sport running a 750cc Fiat-based twincam...NOT the later 1000 Sport Prototipo) after the shop owner stuffed it. Gas welding was something I really wanted to learn, as the equipment was much more financially accessible than MIG or TIG...and I'd read that the tube frames in many race cars at the time were still gas-welded...and you could easily see that's how the little Abarth frame was built. The contract guy was very good, turned out we had mutual friends in the normal world, and he showed me the basics and how to set up practice assemblies. I practiced and practiced and practiced, and took over the gas-welding operations at that shop. Interestingly, lots of older European race-car tube-frames were factory brazed, so I had to get that down too, to do resto work correctly. I've made all kinds of stuff using oxy-acetylene, from brackets to headers, and eventually learned to hydrogen-gas-weld soft aluminum body panels on vintage cars (because at another shop, every time they sent one out to be TIGed, it would crack right next to the welds in a few weeks or months of use). When my own shop got hit (my post above) and after seeing the horrible stuff the "certified" welder was doing with a MIG, I figgered I needed to learn that too. A Dan-Mig was the first major purchase I made when I reopened my own place. I bought a how-to book and practiced, practiced, practiced again. Then learned to do pretty spot-welds with it, which led me into doing heavy structural crash repair on late-model unibody stuff. In 1995 after dissolving the disastrous company I'd backed to build fabricated 9" Ford housings (great design, very skilled fabricator partner who unfortunately had personal issues I refused to accommodate after a while), one of the pieces of equipment I'd bought was a top-line (then) Miller TIG setup. Rather than offing it to recover sunk costs, I learned to use it too, and never looked back. I'm not the best guy with a TIG, for sure, but I can get by with aircraft work that's inspected by someone who has a clue. One thing...I found that having learned gas-welding first was a tremendous help learning the other forms. And something that's hard for me to get my head around...I know mechanics and techs (including one old-timer who's the resident "expert" at a resto shop) who don't even know the difference between the various means of sticking two pieces of metal together with heat. But then again...all the soft-tech guys know that everyone who makes a living with his hands is a mouth-breathing knuckle-dragger, and any chimp can do it.

Many years ago, after my own shop got hit and cleaned out by thieves, I worked at a pretty well known independent exotic-car shop for a while. There was a "certified welder" on call to do the structural work on unibody and tubular structures, and though I was a competent gas (oxy-acetylene) welder at the time, I figgered I'd learn a lot from the guy. Anyway, seeing the absolute and total dog's breakfast he made out of front-clipping a Pantera, and later the rear engine cradle on a Miura, I pretty much lost faith in the welding "certification" meaning much...and I've since had the pleasure to encounter more guys who were "certified" and were equally bad. And I've said this before...I know a few guys who have every ASE and I-CAR certification it's possible to get, and I wouldn't let any of them work on a rusty old lawnmower. A flashy piece of paper hanging on the wall means nothing, no matter what profession you're in. Real-world competence is all that counts.

Toyota makes some of the best cars on the planet, or at least they used to.

Now that's some odd weather.

PM'd.

Hair today, gone tomorrow.

...while listening to rap...

Obviously then, Canadian chimps are smarter than American chimps.

See my post immediately above yours.

Sometimes things like this make me wonder if Mr. Bezos justifies paying not-that-great because one of the hiring requisites for warehouse and shipping staff is an IQ not-to-exceed room temperature. Stupid people will work cheaper. EDIT: If Mr. Bezos was to pay each of his 1.5 million employees an extra $3500 per year, he'd still be making more than $4 billion annually. How much is "enough"? Don't get me wrong...I'm all in favor of capitalism and getting stinking rich from your idea, but really, at what point does greed become obscene? (feel free to check my napkin-numbers)

Food, mainly animal protein, is a necessity for me in the morning because I do actual work that requires fuel, and I don't break for lunch until around 2, so there's that.

Last airplane shop I worked at, same thing. I was working three jobs at the time, very early morning as an A&P, afternoons at a hot-rod shop, evenings several days a week at a composites shop...so I'd often carry a toolbox in and out at the airport. "Stop and frisk" didn't bother me much, because I am, after all, the most honest person on the planet. The guy who owned the aircraft shop was ex-Air Force, so he probably had a pretty good idea about how parts grow little legs and scamper off.

I'm not cool enough for an iPhone, quite possibly never will be.

So it's safe to assume you're not a big baseball fan ?

There's a huge Lockheed plant in my town, adjacent to the Naval Air Station and Dobbins Air Force Base. A lot of the those guys were gearheads. It's amazing the pounds of things like drill bits, carbide cutters, AN rivets and fittings, and assorted AN hardware some of those gentlemen would bring by the shops where I worked. Somehow, I don't think they bought them. PS: I once found a brand new cylinder assembly for a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 on the shelf at a resale/salvage shop just down the street from one of the Lockheed/ NAS/ AFB gates.

I enjoyed watching my HS and college games, 'cause there was almost always a pretty girl to snuggle up with in the stands, and usually some kind of merrymaking afterwards, but as a highly-skilled working "adult", it's always kinda chapped my backside seeing what a bunch of guys get paid for chasing a weird shaped ball around.

And if not, poor little fellas, I'm sure they'll enjoy spending the money they made.

Not really relevant to the OP, bit I'll be going to this in March. Only one small camera though. https://www.d2p.com/2024-atlanta-manufacturing-trade-show/

Wow...was that yesterday? Oh man, I'm so depressed I missed it. Not.

Inadvertent double post.

Nice save. I've never understood people who'll throw out perfectly serviceable tools and parts, sometimes even brand new stuff. I once pulled a complete set of the special factory tools for the NSU Ro 80 engine, including the assembly fixture, out of a dumpster. The realtor's clean-up crew took it down from the attic of a shop we rented before we moved in. Not anything that would ever get used by me probably, but a shop that specializes in reworking rotormotors was very happy to get it many years later. Along with the Ro 80 stuff was an entire factory front clip for a circa-1970 NSU Prinz, still crated, and a coupla new Prinz engine shortblock assemblies, which I also rescued. The Prinz stuff went to an NSU owners' club. Almost all my flathead tools are rescues too, and I've saved lots of other obscure stuff from being melted down into beer cans and Hondas. I'm kinda weird about tools and machines.

Yeah, I get obsessive about that. Every time I need something I don't have I'll buy it. I may never use it again, but if I need it, I'll have it.

Build a buttered biscuit for breakfast.

Looking in the mirror is more disheartening every day.

Somebody just paid $8 million for a bunch of old sneakers, so you never know.