Rebuilding & Scraping class schedule for 2018

Just want to let everyone know what our schedule is.
I am also looking for host shops anywhere in the world who would like to host a class. Hosts get the training for free.

March 12 - 16 Bourn & Koch Rockford IL Have room for 2 more
April 4 - 9 Northern CA Full
April 25- 29 Springfield VT Have room for 4 more
May 9 - 13 Oakland CA Have room for 4 more
October 28 - November 2 & November 4 - 9 India Arranged by BIAX Germany
November 19 - 23 & 26 -30 Laakirchen Austria Arranged by BIAX Germany

I would love to do the May class, but my daughter feels pretty strongly that I need to attend her college graduation! If any other time, we would both attend.

Dan from Oakland said:

I would love to do the May class, but my daughter feels pretty strongly that I need to attend her college graduation! If any other time, we would both attend.

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You can attend a partial class ...I could make an exception and you could come for 2 or more days for you.

Thanks Rich, but she in in Arizona and we will be driving mid week. I really appreciate the offer!
Dan

Maybe next time in Oakland ....or I will be teaching one April 4 - 9th up in Vacaville CA....it's full but maybe we could find another spot if you really want to come....

Dammit. I'll do my damnedest to stop down and say hi during the B&K class. Time is a scarce commodity these days.

bring down Cash and Matt. I'll buy dinner :-)

Richard King said:

bring down Cash and Matt. I'll buy dinner :-)

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That sounds like a great offer. I would love to stop in later one afternoon. I hear B&K is pretty much swamped with work as of late. The class should be able to to see a ton of work in progress down there!

I am off to the U.K. today to do some grinding tests on that side of the pond.

cash said:

that sounds like a great offer. I would love to stop in later one afternoon. I hear b&k is pretty much swamped with work as of late. The class should be able to to see a ton of work in progress down there!

I am off to the u.k. Today to do some grinding tests on that side of the pond.

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ROAD TRIP!!!!!!! Shotgun!

Zahnrad Kopf said:

Dammit. I'll do my damnedest to stop down and say hi during the B&K class. Time is a scarce commodity these days.

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I've read all over the forum, how busy you are. You do know working 7 days a week, just gives you a stomach ulcer?

Blow off a half or full day, take you out of the shop, engage in some thing that takes your mind off the shop, if only for a few hours. Guarantee your next 5 days will be as productive as your past 7 days. Take Cash & Richards buying a Steak dinner.

Every morning I get up, I could head in three directions for some machine that's broken down.

My recent stress broker, is some thing called the Elmore Field days. The old man used to drag us along each and every day of the 3 when I was a kid. Past decade I've sworn I'd get there.

Finally had a gut full of every one shouting at me, Took the day off. Went and sat my arse on a big tractor. Took in what all the cousins, that stayed on the land are into. Did you know there are robots than can place a suction cup on a cow's teat now days. If I'd known that, I'd have never left the farm.

You don't even cart small bales of hay any more.

Getting to the point / cutting a long story short.

Say fuck it for the day. Work will still be here when you get back. Meet up with Cash, get your arse to B&K, have dinner with Rich.
Then get back to the grindstone refreshed.

Regards Phil.

Good advice there from Machtool. I had a long spell of working 7 days a week. I woke up thinking about machine tools and went to sleep thinking about machine tools. When I look back I must have been a pretty poor husband and dad. My kids and my wife deserved better. The money was nice but we would have managed on a bit less.

When you get to the " Big Machine Shop In The Sky " and Shop Foreman with the long white beard asks you if you have any regrets about your time on earth nobody ever says " Yep, I wish I would have worked more overtime ".

Regards Tyrone.

There's still a bar feeder burning a hole in my floor. You could kill two birds with one stone. Otherwise, it's getting the hard goodbye...

Classes are filling up. VT has 6, Oakland has 5, Rockford has 6 They are all going to happen but we could use a few more. Now accepting 2 or 3 day students.

Keith Rucker is planning on a class next January 2019

If your over in the UK or Scandinavia ask the everyone in your local forums I am coming to Germany in November. I could do a class before or after Austrian classes.

Also any interest in Brazil? I have one gentleman asking about teaching some classes down there. I figure it will have to be in February or there after of 2019. Rich

Blokes 'cross the pond - I do have to admit that it is slightly embarrassing to realize that it appears I've been complaining. I'm not. To be very honest, it's more shock and disbelief. I keep shaking my head in bewilderment. But you are both correct - I need to throttle back a bit. It's hard to do, for me. When it's one's own baby you give it all you have, and that's combined with an actual love of what we do. I'd do this in my spare time if I'd had any. Plus, it's been a full-on effort to build the shop up and grow. Up until now I've largely been a one man band. So, even when one knocks off, one never really knocks off. My eves are spent less on television or drink and more on CAD/CAM. Or paperwork. Or placing orders for stock and supplies. Or ... ... ...

Hopefully, that is changing. We just hired someone on. I'm not kidding myself about my bad habits, but at least it won't be for pressure of failing a deadline. I'd like to be able to take a day or two here or there. So far, it's been 12-18 hour days for longer than I can recall. The extra capable body will be a huge help.

Ewlsey - got it. Completely my fault. The lack of time has had the 10EE on the back burner and you know the room/space situation, here. That, combined with your willingness to leave it there until I was ready let me get a slight bit casual about it. We are looking for a building right now, but let me see if I can arrange a place to store it before then. Because I don't think I can count on our moving in the next few months. Thanks. Truth of the matter is that I could REALLY have used it SEVERAL times in the last six months. I'll call or write in a bit.

Zahnrad Kopf said:

Blokes 'cross the pond - I do have to admit that it is slightly embarrassing to realize that it appears I've been complaining. I'm not. To be very honest, it's more shock and disbelief. I keep shaking my head in bewilderment. But you are both correct - I need to throttle back a bit. It's hard to do, for me. When it's one's own baby you give it all you have, and that's combined with an actual love of what we do. I'd do this in my spare time if I'd had any.

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I didn't see it as complaining. Trust the blokes over the pond are Tyrone and I. We speak reasonably often. He's in the repair side of the caper, like me, so we get on like a house on fire.

Just trying to tell you what I know about this 7 day a week caper. Wes can cut himself in here. Did that for 3 decades. For decades, I'd go home and stew on a machine problems. On very few occasions, I woke up with a solution. Some times machines speak to me. That's weird.

All I can say is, if your going hell for leather, day after day, week after week. Don't discount just saying fuck it, and blow off a half or full day. Just saying,

You will come back refreshed, and you will get done more than you would if you were dragging your arse. Took me 3 decades to work that out.

Regards Phil.

(More Important than any of that). Rich was offering to buy dinner. You'd have to get onto that.

Yeah I did 7 days a week for a couple of decades also. I never thought to do anything else, the work was there and it needed doing.

The expression " All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy " is very true.

I've been having a lot of building work done on my house and my builder is a really great guy. I can't speak highly enough of him. However he's been working 7 days a week for a good while now. He did tell me his wife was complaining about never seeing him and the family never doing anything together. I think his first marriage failed over similar reasons.

My first wife developed an alcoholic addiction and I partly blame myself for leaving her on her own with two young children when I working all the hours there were.

She's teetotal now but it took the breakdown of our marriage and a divorce for that to happen.

My second wife banned me from Sunday work almost as soon as we met.

Regards Tyrone.

There you have it. Tyrone & I both agree, you can take a half day off. How often do you get permission from both England and Australia?

All that remains is what time your catching up with Cash, and the size of the steak Rich is buying.

Regards Phil.

machtool said:

Just trying to tell you what I know about this 7 day a week caper. Wes can cut himself in here. Did that for 3 decades. For decades, I'd go home and stew on a machine problems. On very few occasions, I woke up with a solution. Some times machines speak to me. That's weird.

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Occasionally I have a burst of inspiration after a good night's sleep.

More often though, it's the opposite. I go to bed feeling good about the day's work and then wake up full of doubt that I forgot some critical step down there at the bottom of that gear box.

Personally, I like doing some kind of work every day of the week. I'm not much for watching football or sleeping late. But, I reserve the "fun" work for the weekends. Since our son came along, momma now gets all upset if I don't spent one day of the weekend at home. I get a lot of wood split...


As they say, don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

machtool said:

There you have it. Tyrone & I both agree, you can take a half day off. How often do you get permission from both England and Australia?

All that remains is what time your catching up with Cash, and the size of the steak Rich is buying.

Regards Phil.

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Can Meet them at the famous restaurant Mac Dons and we can have steak sandwiches :-)
Probably Australian beef too....yummm

ewlsey said:

As they say, don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

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Well said Wes. I found when I went seven days week in the end I did not have anymore money and was a lot grouchier. Now I try to get in 5 or 5 1/2 days week in the summer. And 5 full days in the winter. I coach youth hockey in the winter, talk about a time Vampire! and lounge by the pool and dub around the yard in the summer with my wife & grand kids. And you know what? The work is still there Monday to attack with a better attitude had I worked all stinkin' weekend.