From: djb@invalid.com   
      
   On 10/07/2025 18:21, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   > "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.   
      
        Now that I'm back in the UK I've seen much the same happen, when I   
   came back I signed up for machining evening classes to use the  machines   
   not to learn how to, that was much the same for all the other   
   attendees.  Over a few years funding was reduced and those classes   
   eventually stopped prompting me to start buying my own machinery. With   
   the demise of local industry like Stothert & Pitt and others the machine   
   shops at the local tech college I attended closed and were auctioned off   
   being converted into a library and media centre. I went to the auction   
   which was a bit sad but have a few mementos of the place in my workshop now.   
      
        The junior high was in Manchester Ct and I attended the high school   
   as well for part of the year but ended up moving due to dads job in   
   aerospace. The high school had quite a few well equipped workshops for   
   metalsmithing, machining, sheet metal and others which could be chosen   
   as elective subject. I did the machining as well as the metalsmithing   
   and the test piece in machining at the end of the year was an impact   
   driver including heat treatment and testing but I moved so didn't   
   complete the year. I presume the facilities were due to the industry in   
   the area past such as Cheney Manufacturing and present like P&W. I don't   
   know what they have now, I looked for metalsmithing about 15-20 years   
   ago and it was still listed but last year I couldn't even find a listing   
   for the 3Rs online at the high school.   
      
   >   
   > 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)