There is always the danger of overstepping the mark. Never been subjected to quite that humiliation but came close. The aluminium factory had som evil people. Its only the fact that I am a fast runner that saved me!
Your funny moments with the new apprentice !
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used to work for a guy during my apprenticeship that had a habit of filling your toolbox with all the carp of the day, off cuts, bits of bag, cement,plaster, you name it, he put it in your box, even done it to the sparks, one day someone got fed up eith him and threw a load of wet bonding in his box,
he went to lift it, dead heavy, opened it and saw the now dried plaster, not to be shown up he took one almighty grip and wrenched it upwards,
leaving everything but the top half he was holding still floorbound,
I forgot to add, they had screwed it to the floor before they put the plaster in.
he stopped filling boxes with rubbish after that,
He never said a thing about it, he dished it out and took it back.
He is still the best boss I have ever had,.!
he went to lift it, dead heavy, opened it and saw the now dried plaster, not to be shown up he took one almighty grip and wrenched it upwards,
leaving everything but the top half he was holding still floorbound,
I forgot to add, they had screwed it to the floor before they put the plaster in.
he stopped filling boxes with rubbish after that,
He never said a thing about it, he dished it out and took it back.
He is still the best boss I have ever had,.!
Spit gun? do you mean hilti? If so yes hilti'd boots to the floor. I used to use a enamel mug and one day couldnt find it. I looked up and it was firmly hilti'd to the roof RSJ about 25' up.
A builder we used to do work for was building a cement step outside the front door of a house. The guy who was labouring for him got shouted at, and called all manner of names throughout the day.
So the labourer is coming across the yard with half a barrow of compo., whilst the builder is kneeling on the floor, bent over this step.
The labourer stopped short, and tipped the contents of the barrow straight down the exposed bum crack.
Oh, how we laughed! All except the builder - apparently the lime made things a bit hot - where it wasn`t cold & sticky.................
And the labourer, who was walking quickly out of reach of the thrown tools, and screamed expletives...................
So the labourer is coming across the yard with half a barrow of compo., whilst the builder is kneeling on the floor, bent over this step.
The labourer stopped short, and tipped the contents of the barrow straight down the exposed bum crack.
Oh, how we laughed! All except the builder - apparently the lime made things a bit hot - where it wasn`t cold & sticky.................
And the labourer, who was walking quickly out of reach of the thrown tools, and screamed expletives...................
Theorysparky
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When i was on a flightline in the RAF the common one was to send the newbie to the med centre for a fallopian tube to drain the gearbox
The beauty of this was they would call the med centre first...
the guy would arrive and be asked to wait....
the med centre would phone back and say where do you want him sent next.....
as there were no mobile phones then they could say 'just got a message can you go to ..........'
and it went on and on and on
lost one guy all day.......
class.....
we used to get the guys from other sections come to us for the glass hammer or the left handed screwdriver........
The beauty of this was they would call the med centre first...
the guy would arrive and be asked to wait....
the med centre would phone back and say where do you want him sent next.....
as there were no mobile phones then they could say 'just got a message can you go to ..........'
and it went on and on and on
lost one guy all day.......
class.....
we used to get the guys from other sections come to us for the glass hammer or the left handed screwdriver........
Litttle Shonet
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Many years ago whilst in the RAF, we got our civvy(very na
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The contractors I did my time with did loads of work at what Brummies call "The Austin" . Depending on your age you may know it as Austin/Morris , Longbridge, BMC , British Lealand , Austin Rover , The Rover or a small unit that assembles a so called MG sports car from parts shipped in from China.
The dept. in those days to be avoided by apprentices was the uphostery dept which was mostly women and if you think guys can be bad , they 'aint a patch on that lot.
As an opposite to the apprentice baiting, an unpopular forman was transfering from there to another site, he arrived at the new site to find someone had .....erm....how can I put it ....... defacated in his toolbox.
The dept. in those days to be avoided by apprentices was the uphostery dept which was mostly women and if you think guys can be bad , they 'aint a patch on that lot.
As an opposite to the apprentice baiting, an unpopular forman was transfering from there to another site, he arrived at the new site to find someone had .....erm....how can I put it ....... defacated in his toolbox.
When I worked in the quarries we had an american (who had said to the boss that he hated being called a yank) so first day he came it was 'alright yank?' Anyway he was a big bloke and thought it funny to give me 'dead arms' by punching me hard on my upper arms. I ended up with lots of bruises. I decided to teach him a lesson and cut some short sections of 2" angle and taped them to my upper arms and put my overalls on. He came up and did his usual only this time I wasnt the one in pain! He didnt do it again.
Another occasion he has under a dump truck stripped to the waist and was removing the sump. One arm supporting his weight and the other pulling on a spanner. I put my hand in a bucket of thick grease and came up behind him and slapped it in his armpit then ran!
Great fun. I know not exactly apprentice stories but I was not long out of my time!
Another occasion he has under a dump truck stripped to the waist and was removing the sump. One arm supporting his weight and the other pulling on a spanner. I put my hand in a bucket of thick grease and came up behind him and slapped it in his armpit then ran!
Great fun. I know not exactly apprentice stories but I was not long out of my time!
Theorysparky
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Another occasion he has under a dump truck stripped to the waist and was removing the sump. One arm supporting his weight and the other pulling on a spanner. I put my hand in a bucket of thick grease and came up behind him and slapped it in his armpit then ran!
that is just so bad !!!!!!
lovin' it though
that is just so bad !!!!!!
lovin' it though
Another apprentice story , me. We were working at some awful foundry in Tipton in the Black Country, the three sparks sent me and another apprenti: to walk to this other awful foundry , where we had been the week before , about a mile away, to fetch the triple extension ladder . :_|
We pick up the ladder ,which is really heavy, so I have this brilliant idea, we'll walk down the towpath of the canal ,which passes behind the other factory, much shorter route.
Then I have another brilliant idea , why don't we drop it in the canal, hang on to this rope and tow it along till we get to the other place . So we drop it in the cut and it promptly sinks to the bottom along with the rope. :_|
We get back to the foundry and tell them it wasn't there :innocent
We pick up the ladder ,which is really heavy, so I have this brilliant idea, we'll walk down the towpath of the canal ,which passes behind the other factory, much shorter route.
Then I have another brilliant idea , why don't we drop it in the canal, hang on to this rope and tow it along till we get to the other place . So we drop it in the cut and it promptly sinks to the bottom along with the rope. :_|
We get back to the foundry and tell them it wasn't there :innocent
At the aluminium smelter, many people came on push bikes (the advantage being you can take them on site) One day the apprentice had left his bike leaning against a lighting column while he was putting his tools away. Someone got the JLG (cherry picker) and put the bike in the basket, then threaded the bike over the end of the column and back to the floor.
The apprentice refused to accept that the bike could not be moved and was pulling it in every direction with a very puzzled look on his face. Just to add insult to injury no one knew where the keys for the JLG were either!
The apprentice refused to accept that the bike could not be moved and was pulling it in every direction with a very puzzled look on his face. Just to add insult to injury no one knew where the keys for the JLG were either!
ROTFWL
I was rewiring one of the vacuum unloaders on the jetty (aluminium works as an apprentice) I installed about a 50M run of 21 core SWA. I started stripping the end and realised it was a 6mm 3C! - I knew I would get a slap off the spark if he saw it so quickly snipped all the ties from the tray, opened the window and dropped the lot into the sea about 80' below me!
Your ladder story reminded me!
Your ladder story reminded me!
Go back and fetch it Your Grace, worth a fortune as scrap .
That was 1983 - 28 years ago. Probably buried under a few feet of alumina by now!
Revved Up Sparky
Senior Member
I was working in the woodwork section of a school about eight years ago, I think I was doing a PIR. My apprentice was'nt paying any attention to my instructions and was just sitting there on the other side of the classroom texting on his mobile phone. After several minutes of this I lost patience and picked up the nearest object to throw at him to wake him up, a 4 x 2 inch noggin !. He ducked and it went through a layer of plasterboard of the stud wall behind him leaving a neat 4 x 2 inch hole !. I spent the next hour or so frantically trying to fill the hole using filler that matched the colour of the wall !. I never heard back from the school but RevJames worked in the same classroom a few years later and could still see my repair job !.
A fine repair it was too Simon. How about the fuse you threw at the same person. TBH from what I heard he was always TXTing and deserved what he got!
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Brings a new meaning to not buying crap tools
hmmm not wanting to lower the tone but I was on a big contract doing MOD houses and was doing the mains under the stairs. The water was off so toilets out of use. The yard was the only place you could 'go' The plumber defectaed in a cardboard box and thrust it under my nose NOT IMPRESSED
Not wanting to lower the tone even further , but on a housing site in Gloucestershire the plumbers used to carp in the lofts .
You can't take 'em anywhere ,can you ?
You can't take 'em anywhere ,can you ?
