From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "David Billington"  wrote in message news:104oi4e$t596$1@dont-email.me...   
      
   That brings back memories, I started machining on a South Bend lathe   
   like that in Junior high when I was about 12 in the mid 1970s. Do they   
   still allow kids to do that these days or are they too worried about   
   them injuring themselves, I still have all my thumbs and fingers and   
   none have needed to be reattached.   
      
   ----------------------------   
      
   AFAIK most/all of the school machine shops have been auctioned off and the   
   space repurposed for 'more relevant' training. I went to some of the   
   auctions and my lathe is from a trade school. There are still hands-on   
   courses in auto mechanics, welding and woodworking that I know of or have   
   attended in adult night classes. We learned how to use big sharp knives in   
   cooking class, and I surprised my sister last Thanksgiving by knowing how to   
   mince an onion to her satisfaction.   
      
   The Jr High I attended had only a wood shop where the instructor's   
   preference was to teach us to maintain and use hand tools to power tool   
   precision. A friend's father was building a wooden sailboat and mine was   
   restoring our old house so we had good reason to learn. I use it for on-site   
   timber framing without electricity other than a solar-charged drill. A 400   
   Lb beam won't go to the saw, the saw must come to it, sometimes on a ladder.   
      
   At a different Senior High the auto shop was the dumping ground for   
   delinquents and I avoided it, instead I learned vehicle maintenance in the   
   Army, the motor pool and the crafts shop garage, since I was on call for   
   repairs to critical digital communications equipment and had to be able to   
   drop whatever else I was doing.   
      
   None of my fingers have been sewn back on, but I do have three teeth screwed   
   to the jaw. The jaw bone was originally too thin so the oral surgeon grafted   
   on ground bone from cadavers, hopefully fresh. It merges in the way a break   
   repairs itself. They wouldn't grant my request for a square jaw like   
   Superman. I can now deny responsibility for anything that comes out of my   
   zombie mouth, or that I write here.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)