Thread: Bloody kids and power tools

Originally Posted by loanrangie

...another use to leave the chuck key in a metal lathe and turn it on .

I did that once with a drill press... Once being the key word. Having the key fly across in front of you and embedd itself in the wall tends to make you remember to remove it from the chuck from that point onwards.

Thankfully no-one was around to see me do that one.

I started my apprenticeship at Chullora Railway workshops in Sydney in 1986.
Safety was a BIG issue, even then.
If anyone was caught horsing around, their apprenticeship was cancelled - simple.

Specific mention was made of the chuck-key-in-the-lathe trick, the air-hose-up-the-khyber stupidity and also stuffing cotton waste (soaked in kero) into someones back pocket and lighting it up.

These three things had apparently been regular pranks, and people had been kicked out for them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, nobody mucked around much in our year.

Originally Posted by scanfor

I started my apprenticeship at Chullora Railway workshops in Sydney in 1986.
Safety was a BIG issue, even then.
If anyone was caught horsing around, their apprenticeship was cancelled - simple.

Specific mention was made of the chuck-key-in-the-lathe trick, the air-hose-up-the-khyber stupidity and also stuffing cotton waste (soaked in kero) into someones back pocket and lighting it up.

These three things had apparently been regular pranks, and people had been kicked out for them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, nobody mucked around much in our year.

I was apprenticed as a fitter-machinist in 1959. Safety then, except in big companies, was left pretty much up to the individual or their leading hands/foremen. Men worked machine tools without goggles, welding was performed without screens, Goggles may have been worn when using angle grinders and similar hand held power tools but far from universally. Flat belt drives from overhead shafts were still common and open. Safety guards on machine drives were commonly taken off and discarded by the maintenance fitters as being too much trouble to remove and replace. Men worked on scaffolding in the shipyards under riveters who were pitching redhot rivets from the cook up over their heads to the holder-up. Felt hats were worn, not safety helmets. Imagine wearing a 12" red hot rivet between the ears. I saw cane farmers mixing chemical sprays with their arms and applying the stuff dressed in a pair of shorts and a battered hat and being drenched in the stuff by a following wind.

In 1976 at White Trucks plant in Brisbane, a new safety officer introduced the rule that all who were in the factory had to wear safety glasses. The work force carried on for weeks about this. Most of them hated the glasses.

Ear muffs were virtually unheard of. Most boilermakers over 40 had hearing loss.

I don't think machine tools and schoolboys are a good mix. I realise they have to start somewhere but every class has clowns, bullies, and the dim-witted. Teacher's eyes can't be everywhere. I saw enough stupidity from apprentices and tradesmen who have more experience and maturity than 14 year olds.

Thank Christ things have improved to where they are now. Some safety practices are a bit over the top and the proposers have lost sight of reality and have made the jobs more difficult to perform and created a lot of worker discomfort.

At least "initiation" of apprentices has ceased. Some of these were barbaric practices. Brutality towards apprentices has pretty well vanished. A cuff in the ear and a boot up the bum were considered quite normal ways of dealing with apprentices.

The best prank we pulled at trade school was getting a couple of rubber bands and a bolt 2 inches long . we Climbed under neath the teachers car and tied the bolt with the rubber bands to the tail shaft .
After school we hung around to watch the teacher leave . as he left the car park and started to get some speed you could hear a knock ,knock,knock getting louder and louder as he sped up . He pulled over 3 or 4 times trying to figure out what the noise was . In the end he cracked it and sped off until the rubber bands broke . Best prank i had seen for ages !

Originally Posted by scanfor

...the air-hose-up-the-khyber stupidity...

Interesting you should mention that... I have a mate who is an old panel beater/spray painter. He managed to avoid such initiations, but years later went to the aid of an apprentice who was being subjected to the above practice.

He was too late.

The force of the compressed air had perforated his bowel and the young lad died a painful death.

Originally Posted by Shonky

Interesting you should mention that... I have a mate who is an old panel beater/spray painter. He managed to avoid such initiations, but years later went to the aid of an apprentice who was being subjected to the above practice.

He was too late.

The force of the compressed air had perforated his bowel and the young lad died a painful death.

The initiation processes were rough back in the day, which put me off doing an apprenticeship when I first left school. There were a lot of *sswipes in important positions locally n I was wary, given I was better fundamentally educated than them. I did a few years working in a good job in a managerial position before making the switch to do my apprenticeship, fearful n expecting of what might happen.

I'll never forget the first prank/joke which was tried on me. Being 21, a country boy who'd just moved to the city, and a lot more observant than most, I twigged immediately by the body language of those around me I'd figured out in 2 seconds who the culprit was. Being a fair bit taller and have more 'presence' than the others, I had him bailed up against a wall and gave him a choice between me taking it to the boss or having a physical resolution. Word got around fast in the workshop n there was never an issue from that moment on thankfully.

The boy is back at school today, of course nothing happened to the prankster. As usual the victim was at fault. One teacher even said he shouldn't have had his hand in there.
This seems to be the story at a lot of schools, the victim is always to blame. Whether you are a victim of a bully or similar.
So much for duty of care etc.

I did wood work in school not that long ago.. and suffered a broken bit and clamp in a drill press which swung around and smashed my fingers. They are still bent and twisted, with big round knuckles. Needless to say it hurt like hell.

It wasn't anyone's fault, it just happened. It tought myself, and everyone around me a lot of respect for the machines we were working on.

Kids don't learn about the dangers of the world if they are kept in cotton wool. Learning to use industrial machines at an age when you are mature and respectful enough (14 is perfect) is an essential life skill. In the real world, you are on your own, you must look after your self. If you are inside shooting zombies on your playstation all day as a kid how on earth will you learn the life skills of keeping out of trouble when you are older, when you have kids of your own etc.

I'm sorry to hear about your boy.. I guess it could have been a lot worse. Hopefully he will learn to respect just how much damage wood and metal can do to us humans in the blink of an eye.. it could be the lesson that saves his life. (not to suggest he didn't know that already, not trying to be condescending here)

(then again, he could be a like me and require a few lessons to get it to sink in )