Yes, I'm bragging, but for a good cause...

...which is to prove deals are out there for people like me, who could loose money on stuff given to them. This last weeken, I SCORED...some nice tools. I got a Powermatic drill press, and a metal lathe for $50.00 Each!!! I'm in the process of building a shop, so they-along with their cut cords are in a buddy's garage. A local school was killing its auto shop, and through a freind, I got the word on this stuff. The lathe has lots of attatchments, and looks to be in good shape. The drill press is nice, heavy, and as tall as me(no huge statement, but still). My buddy got an engine stand for $15, A slide hammer for $5, a nice metal table for $15, and I also scored a lift level oil drain can for $15. Not to mention a 3'X3'X1/2" plate of aluminum for $5. Truly amazing.

Nice score. Sucks for the kids that want to learn how to fix stuff, but that wasn't your doing. I would have killed to have a shop program at my high school.

Agreed. The powers that be at my high school deemed shop and colledge prep mutually exclusive. So I took Physics, etc. Kids today don't stand a chance.

That's a score and a half! Congrats!

Was it an auction?

nice work son!

edit (E36 M3! your older than me...)

No, the big man told the maitenance man to scrap it all . He said we can do better. Stupid luck, and friends looking out. That's all.

wheelsmithy wrote: ...I'm in the process of building a shop, so they-along with their cut cords are in a buddy's garage.

Excellent score. But, if I understand your statement correctly; in my world you cut the cord off electrical stuff when there's some issue and you don't want someone to burn down the house or electrocute themselves.

This may be different, hell even the hulk with no motor is worth that money.

Dan

Highschool doesn't have shop class anymore? That's a depressing state of affairs.

My HS didn't have shop class. The academics were great, it was a "college prep" school, etc, but it didn't have any sort of "shop" classes.

In reply to 914Driver:

maybe it's a liability thing. the stuff could be fine but they have to render it "un-useable" so that no one could come back at them if there were a problem down the road.

My high school didn't have auto shop either - the most technical course you could take was drafting. It was an academics-oriented school, you went to a school we all called "Tech" if you wanted hands-on. Who here would have been able to make the choice between two very different schools at 13?

Given that I went to the academic school, auto shop isn't required in order for people to learn how to fix cars

Nice score, I think there's a lot of fun to be had with a lathe.

Honestly, I think shop is something you can pick up "on the job" or in internships a lot more readily than physics or mechanical engineering or the like. It's a technical skill, and doesn't need as much schooling as the more white collar stuff. I'm not minimizing it at all, just being pragmatic.

I am of a different generation than most of you. In my time, shop was strictly for the dummys. Everybody else went to the "Smart Kid" classes. End result was that all the trades were hurting to fill good paying jobs, and the college kids learned how to ask "You want fries with that?" Arrgghh. I truly feel that tech classes are very important, that good tradesmen will always be in demand, and Art History majors will not.

scardeal wrote: My HS didn't have shop class. The academics were great, it was a "college prep" school, etc, but it didn't have any sort of "shop" classes.

ours too, one of the best 'college prep' public schools in the state. no shop class at all in the highschool.
we even had the actual SHOP!.... just no teacher or funding or whatever was necessary to make it actually happen.

Shop classes in my high school. I took all I could. Later I went to a technical school and earned a technical degree. I am a trades man. I make more money and have less stress than 75% of the people I know who went to college and earned a professional degree. Most college graduates dont work in the field they have a degree in. I do.

Case in pont; my brother in law has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters degree in Buisiness Manegment. I have a technical degree in Watchmaking. He was unemployed for over a year and is now under employed and strugling to make ends meet. I have been steadily employed since I graduated in 95 and have more work than I care to.

Trades and technical jobs and people that know how to repair a tangible item are going to be the next high demand career field. I hear of more and more people complaining they cannot get an item repaired, installed, and maintained correctly.

Whenever I am asked by someone about schools and carreres I encourage trades. A good tradesman will make as much money as most professionals and be in greater demand, especially during difficult economic times.

Sorry if I rambled on and hijacked the thread but this is a passionate topic for me.

Smithy, you are one lucky dude... thank the tool gods for that one! Most school districts put surplus/ outdated equipment up for public auction.

I should have taken shop when I got the chance, we had minimal shop when I was in school, but at least it was there. Now I struggle in some random bullE36 M3 desk job, and my life would be 1000% happier painting cars.

Allright... This last year, I (tradesman, idiot savant extroidinaire) Made the same money my college graduate Mechanical Engineer brother made. During the "down" time, I had 3 simultaneous job offers. Still kickin' Proof doin' it wrong pays. Just don't ask about health insurance, or retirement- I'm beat hands down. I will, however, be prepared for zombie or world holocaust.

+1 for the trades

we did not have a shop at all in my HS. Strictly college prep.

I got the degree and all.. and I work in a technical field as a stage electrician.. go figure.

Great find! I would love to learn how to use a lathe

Are the drill press and lathe single phase or three phase? Big power tools like that often require three phase power so it's not a trivial manner to hook them up at home. . . . . . My dad was a high school shop teacher from the late 1930s to the late 1970s. Somewhere in the 1940s, he purchased a nice Delta wood lathe for the school; it was used regularly for decades until finally they got newer equipment and it was shuffled into a back room. When Dad finally retired, the superintendent gave him that lathe, and it eventually was handed down to me. I still have it, in my shop down in the basement.

My HS went strictly to college prep halfway through my freshman year. I took a "Power Tech" class my first semester that was supposed to be a primer on internal combustion engines, which I was just starting to get interested in. It was a joke that only the slackers took.

Here's a great article for another take on the same subject. This might've been from an earlier thread.....

"The Case For Working With Your Hands"

Stuart, yes, single phase-I checked.