Tales from the Highschool Shop

I had a couple kids cutting up a car in the shop compound so we can send the metal to the recyclers.

One lovely cherub (recently transferred from a bustling big city to our wee redneck town) came back in the shop, with blood all over his right hand. "It's fine, no problem" he says.

I ask him what happened.

"I was going to remove the glass, but I couldn't find a tire iron."

"So you punched it?" I ask.

"Yeah, but I'm fine, it's just a scratch." Not by my opinion, but it's not my hand....

"Well first off, remove your rings - once that hand starts swelling.... And go get some ice on it!"

He leaves to get some first aid, and I head outside to see what happened.

I see blood all over the windshield, and two cracked divots in the glass.

"Tell me he didn't punch the windshield."

He did.

So we had a nice discussion about regular safety glass and how and why it explodes into a bazillion pieces, and about the laminated safety glass used in the windshield and how it's designed to stop birds, deer and rocks from coming in through the windshield at 60mph. And fists, apparently, quite effectively.

Vice Principal came by, checking on things. "What happened to him?" he asks.

"He tried to punch his fist through laminated safety glass.... Some kids just need to learn that way."

I wish I was surprised. My school needs more dangerous opportunities for funny.

I feel sorry for kids today, not even havin' enough sense not to punch a windshield.

< Foghorn Leghorn > I say I say son, was it that urgent to remove the glass that instant that you couldn't look around a bit more for the tire iron? < /Foghorn Leghorn >

Yup, had those guys in my highschool shop class too.

One of them nearly dropped a van off the hoist.

Shawn

For shop class, your dunce cap should be placed around the neck like in Tommy's Picture for no cones.

That's why we couldn't do anything good in shop class.

I've punched a few windows. SIDE windows.

Yeah, I had the same kind of characters....I was a high school shop teacher for nine years (but that was ages ago).

Crazy but good times.....among other things, we built ~Race Cars~

best to kick out those front windsheilds... he will learn. The curvature of the windsheild makes it surprisingly easy to break from the inside. (but that might be the plan)

I wish we had a shop class in my old HS

Uh, use a window removal tool? Gotta be faster than cleaning up the glass and the channels after you break it.

I took Metals I, II, III, IV in high school - Fresh/soph year. I finally came alive in an area that I thrived upon. We had a foundry, milling machine, lathes, drill, grinders, sheet metal brake, spot welders, arc, and gas welding.

All the burnouts would go behind the arc welding stations and burn one hitters. Now that I think of it most of the class was burnouts.

The lathes at the vocational school I went to were set up in line to allow parts to be chucked and not hit anybody.

I wish we had any sort of shop class in my high school. The closest thing we had was Wood Working in which you assembled a pre-cut clock kit. Oh! but you could stain it anyway you wanted! As long as "the way you want it" was light stain or dark stain.

We had most of the stuff in my shop class. Had a forge and we made really nice knives out of old files. Knives in school ? OMG. Then in auto mech class we built a "tractor" from an old Plymouth. Coupled two transmissions together to get really low gearing. Made our own dual wheel setup. rigged up a snow plow. The school actually used it for clearing the sidewalks for quite awhile.

in my HS, I could not take autoshop because it was at the same time as Drafting. What is funny, is that I learned more general knowledge about my cars than most of those in the shop by just working on my car. I had a friend in that class that could not change his timing belt. In short, he is a mouth breather.

I remember explaining to kids why you can't jack a car up by the oil pan. So they jacked it up by the gas tank.

Carson wrote: I wish we had any sort of shop class in my high school. The closest thing we had was Wood Working in which you assembled a pre-cut clock kit. Oh! but you could stain it anyway you wanted! As long as "the way you want it" was light stain or dark stain.

The closest thing we had was drafting.

I think I own the car that Happy Jack's kids worked on. Looks to me like someone used the gas tank of my MG as a jacking point...

My dad was a shop teacher (wood shop, metal shop) for close to 40 years, until he retired in 1976. He had all kinds of stories about kids doing stupid things in class.

stuart in mn wrote: My dad was a shop teacher (wood shop, metal shop) for close to 40 years, until he retired in 1976. He had all kinds of stories about kids doing stupid things in class.

Seen in my shop class: Bad burn trying to get a suntan in the welding booth. Flying lathe chuck keys. Wood gouge through the hand after going past center in a bowl on the wood lathe.

War stories:

One of my students brought in his Mom's car. Said "Brakes are a bit noisy." Not only were the brake pads gone, but the steel backing plates were gone too. It was stopping on the caliper pistons. I explained what was needed, but student said he just wanted to swap pads "for now." Not on my watch......it got towed back to his house.

Student brings in his friend's dune buggy. VW 1600 air cooled motor. He said it was "missing and smoking a bit." Raised up the sheet metal cooling shroud to reveal a big hole in the block. "Hey look! There's your "missing" problem! That one rod doesn't have a piston anymore! Wonder where it went?!?"

One of my guys drained the oil in his car and proceeded to add the new oil via the dipstick (until I stopped him after the second quart and showed him the valve cover cap). Hey, at least it wasn't the trans dipstick.

One of our other auto shop teachers had a kid rebuilding a VW (air cooled) trans. I reminded him about getting the ring gear in the correct postion (relative to the pinion gear) but I guess he wasn't too carefull. Put it all together with the ring gear on the wrong side and tried to test drive it. Hey look! A car with four Reverses and one Forward gear!

I got a million of 'em......

Our wood shop class was pretty good. One of the things we covered was production work, then built about 200 fire trucks and took them to the area hospitals to give kids for christmas. We also framed out an office for the athletic director in metal studs.

Wally wrote: We also framed out an office for the athletic director in metal studs.

Awesomely liberal dress-code!

At least until the celebratory hugs or head/chest bumps.

A friend of mine warned some idiot with a blow torch that cutting through a shock absorber was a bad idea and after being ignored he offered one final suggestion. He said "at least cut the other side of the shock so that the hole you put in it wont be pointed at you." The idiot thought that was a good idea so he only lit the wall across the room on fire and not himself and the 10 people huddled around him.

Some other guys decided to put a hardened steel chisel in a vertical press. My friend and i were walking by and saw the pressure needle pointing well over 10,000. We both turned and walked behind a cement wall. The thing snapped seconds later removing a piece of the shop floor directly between the two guys feet.

Also saw some dude smack two hammer together for no apparent reason shattering one of them.

The burned out wreck from a car in the corner of the shop that burned to the ground should have been foreshadowing of what was to come.

Opus wrote: in my HS, I could not take autoshop because it was at the same time as Drafting.

That must have been an awesome Drivers'Ed class...

I had a friend in that class that could not change his timing belt. In short, he is a mouth breather.

I think I bought one of my E30s from him...

Metal and woodwork shop were compulsory in my school (Bathurst High School, NSW). Pumping acetylene into a styrofoam cup and setting it off? Check. Doing it over and over? Check. Ninja star darts, nun-chucks, lock picks? Check!

I do think they should make basic auto shop a compulsory class across the country. I'm betting the kid was dared to punch out the window.