That takes me back to my schooldays, my mother was a driver for a firm that re-lined brakes and clutches for large vehicles, they also made hydraulic hoses. I had a holiday job with them, doing the brakes and hoses, place was horrible, stank of brake linings and dust everywhere, not much H&S back then. A few years back I needed a hose in a hurry, I had a truck down, a crop being harvested and the weather about to change for the worse, I went to the place we used for our hoses and the guy had a sulk on, "come back in a couple of hours, I'm mad busy and it's a difficult job making hoses" he whinged. "plus I doubt if we've even got those ends in stock" . We headed into the workshop and I spotted the fittings straight away, "here we go" I said handing him the fittings, he looked really peed off, "no hose" was his next excuse, I picked up a length of hose, "here's some", he wasn't impressed, clearly he didn't want to do any work. "look mate I'm in a hurry, want me to make it myself" I asked, "yeah right,that would be a laugh" he grunted.
I picked up the kit and went to the machine, swaged one end on, measured it, cut the hose and swaged the other end on, it took me about 5 minutes. The guy looked at me, "where d'you learn that?" he asked, I grinned at him, "about 35 years ago, when I was at school" I laughed, "actually it isn't as difficult as some people make out". He glared at me, "ok off you go, we'll send you the bill". and the cheeky ****** did, parts and labour! I couldn't believe it, I'd made the hose and he charged us for making it up.
