Has anyone else visited the site www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org. My wife showed this to me and it's quite interesting. It's designed to get kids as young as 12 yrs old interested in manufacturing through summer camps. Its narrarated and co-founded by the former Cliff Clavin of the Cheers TV show. Please take a look and let me know what you get out of it.


Thanks Glenn

I've visited this site before, and like the idea. Ratzenberger, if you recall, also made an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of American manufacturing with his cable show Made in America.

I stumbled on another trades-related public awareness site, started by Mike Rowe from the Dirty Jobs show on the Discovery channel. The site is www.mikeroweworks.com, and has some pretty cool stuff on there.

I will definitely have to donate. Thanks for letting us know about this.

Jeff

This is a great idea! It's good that someone of John's "fame" recognizes the importance of our country's manufacturing and it's future and chooses to get his hands "dirty" and not just try and throw money at it to make himself look good.

BTW, here's how I'm encouraging the next generation. She absolutely loves it:

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What the Ratburger is doing with the nuts and bolts Foundation is basically what the Tod Engine Heritage Park is all about. A long time ago I thought long and hard about what I wanted the preservation of the Tod Engine to mean. Sure its spectacular as a machine, but instead of a building filled with cold dead iron I wanted to have a place where people could learn about manufacturing, science and technology. My approach is to preserve, restore and operate historic machinery and use those machines as tools in educational programs. When the Tod Engine Heritage Park is finished, I will conduct hands on programs based on the working of metals.

We will teach about the properties of metals using our Olsen tension and compression tester. The Morgan crane will become an important tool for teaching about magnetism, basic electrical theory and simple mechanical principles. We'll have a working rolling mill, working cupola furnace, and who knows what else will be added to the collection.

I love the idea of a summer manufacturing camp, and is something that I will explore once I have a bit more infrastructure built here. As most of you know I'm doing this on a shoestring budget. I never starred on a sitcom and don't have contacts at large American manufacturers to draw from. What I do have are the people of the PM who have supported the project in many untold ways over the years, and by and large have had a significant role in making all of this possible.

We once talked about a PM group project on the General forum. I think the Tod Engine Heritage Park has been the unofficial PM group project for a few years now. How many of you have contributed in ways both big and small to the effort? I think the number is at least forty or perhaps fifty PM members.

What is this a strol down memory lane of 50 yrs ago?
With US industry rushing to setup shop or outsource their requirments offshore to as close as Mexico and as far as China and the US govment and all the local and state regulations making setting up shop a cost prohibitive foolhardy venture... Whose "kids" are you refering to?

Won't do one bit of good......

Get kids interested in MFG so they can go to school and have their teachers and guidance councilors tell them what a foolish path that would be to take.....
Convince the kid it's the wrong thing to do.
Do you want a dirty low paying job in a greasy old factory? Where will you work? All the factories are CLOSING.

We here know that the 'dirty factory' is not the stereotypical case any more, but do you think the teachers & administrators know that? You could SHOW them a modern shop & they still would view it as a blue collar 'dirty fingernails' occupation. (People there WORK WITH THEIR HANDS and GET DIRTY)

Little Johnny (the lawyers son) and his clique of friends (doctors son, accountant's son, dentists son) would laugh at your kid for wanting to work with his/her hands.

First step is to get the school systems and ALL the people that work there "Interested in Manufacturing"

You know those people.......
The ones that don't get their hands dirty
The ones get a paycheck funded by your tax dollars
The ones that are members of the Teachers Union
The union that drills the importance of 'increased funding' into its members heads...etc, etc,

THOSE people need to get interested in manufacturing
before it's too late.

The ones that tell the kids that their parents need to vote in the upcoming budget with all its increases if the kids want new football uniforms, or computers, or band instruments, etc.

You know those kids, yours.
The ones that won't be able to afford to pay THEIR taxes when they grow up (at the rate things are going).

But it's too late anyway, we've gone green and the green stamp's are mostly gone.

Hi,

Thanks. Great site!

The first thing I did when I saw this was to forward it to my friend the Doctor for his son, my friend the sheet metal artisan for his daughter, and to my wife the teacher for her students.

Apparently, they have all mis-led me over the years? No, I don't think so.

To work well with your hands, you have to use your brain. To work well with your brain, you have to understand how things work (see hands).

Bright, knowledgeable people understand this and want it for their children and students. Capable is capable. Competent is competent. No shortcuts. That's the way it has always been.

Have people been mis-guided over the years? Sure. Some folks, guiders and guidees, always take the easy way out. They're the ones who can't figure out how to change the batteries in their flashlights. Fortunately, not everyone takes the easy way out.

John

There was a great segment on NPR with Dean Kaman, inventor of the insulin pump, & the Segway to name two of his well-known inventions.

He made a great statement -- and I'm paraphrasing until I can find the transcript -- that Americans confuse working with their hands with menial work, and that learning how to work with one's hands early in life dramatically enhances the ability to think creatively later in life.

IMHO, any program like this is a valuable addition to any kid's education.

It is good to see someone trying to involve young people in engineering and manufacturing, but if you really want to see how our nation values trade skills, look to our largest educational systems. I am a 23 year Technology Teacher of the New York City High School System. When I began in 1987, My school had 6 trade teachers in machine tool and welding, carpentry, printing and photography, as well as automotive and electrical. Now I am the only one left, and my high school is being phased out. This is the single largest school system in the country and it has the career and technical staff of a school district one tenth its size. From what I can see, the only people we are training is the next generation of Walmart employees

Jmeenan - typical of New York. Nothing is sacred thre. You even modify laws so folks can be mayor in spite of term limits. Not surprising. Best thing to do is let the teachers keep up the socialist line. Then suddenly it will all be over. Places in the heartland will be gald that you took your stand because we can make things here - in spite of the media slop that says not so. Small comapnies are the real hidden assets of the country. Just keep telling yourself New York that you are dead. looks like it to me.

Interesting thread... thought I'd add my thoughts and experiences.

I was farm raised and my father worked as a machine maintenance man and later a machinist for Westinghouse Lamp Division on nights for 23 years starting when I was 1 year old. I'm now 57. I didn't know it when I was 18... but being raised as such I knew much of the various trade skills such as carpentry, welding, mechanics, and any kind of equipment operation by the time I graduated HS. Wheels, tracks, levers or buttons... didn't matter and still doesn't... I can operate it, design/build it, or repair it (although its generally not believed)

The school system I was part of had a mix of "city/suburbiaville" and "rural" (i.e farm kids). We (meaning us farm kids, or at least me anyway) didn't realize the gifts we had... as it was normal to us. Basically we got on a tractor at about 8 years old (I have the picture too of the first time I drove the tractor, a Farmall 400 pulling a Brillion pulvimulcher, a tillage implement, by myself... I was 8 and remember those rounds yet to this day) and we didn't get off until we left the home place (in my case at age 23). We also were repairing and/or building something from the time we can more or less remember. I did eventually put my way through college working various jobs (including milking cows twice a day). Today I have a MS degree in environmental management and have worked as an Environmental Scientist in remediation for the past 20 years. Many of the white collar "professionals" in my industry don't believe me when I tell of the various design build personal projects I've done over the years... building our own buildings and additions, furniture woodworking, a 30x72 greenhouse, a hot shop, a full mechanical and woodworking shop including antique machine tools and antique precision wood working tools (yes, it took many years of work to acquire these), an antique "hit n miss" engine restoration hobby(pre-tractor agricultural power), antique tractor and farm equipment hobby, semi-hobby+ sized animal operation (goats and cattle) or even a hobby in faceting gemstones for a while. Most recently, it was restoring and repairing an $800 (yes $800) 27 ft sailboat off eBay for which I had to build a triple axle trailer from scratch to get it home (one of three I've built from scratch and are better than the factory builts in their classes... I have very little cost penalty to over build and can build the features I want). I also salvaged a FL storm damaged identical model to acquire spare parts, the live-aboard systems and an inboard propulsion system to restore and to add to it. I’ve also had an interest in aviation all my life and still want to build a Vans Aircraft RV4 or RV8. Just never seem to get the money. That’s not a cheap project… ~80 to 90k+ to do it right and about 3 years (they say five years for the regular kit, I'm pretty sure I'd do it in three, maybe less).

At the minute, I am working about 1500 miles from our home and staying in a cheap apartment. Thinking of getting into RC model airplanes so I have something to be building here that I'm aloud to do, although that WILL just tease the crap out of me as I’d want to be IN it and FLYING it… not on the ground operating a RC transmitter. I truly am a fish out of water here in this apartment. Don't get me wrong I am elated to be working and keeping the mortgage paid at home and a roof over my wife's head… but I do miss my wife, the dogs, and my projects (we sold the goats and cattle being I can't be there) . The cell phone just does doesn’t do it.

Point is… all of these use my hands and my brain.

BUT.... I maybe couldn't have done a lot of what I did in life without that very early training and exposures I had growing up. I started hanging with Dad all day as a toddler of about 3 and learning, later after school and weekends.

Personally I think today's social and educational system personnel are wrong... the children need to be involved in self sufficiency, mother nature's rules, and every hands on skill we can teach them as early as possible...basically from the time they start walking. Exposure to hands on skills is critical regardless of what they end up doing as a career path.

All I my humble opinion of course…

Dave
Hillsboro, Ohio... currently working in Los Alamos, NM.

So we should just throw in the towel then? Welders, mechanics and the like, hope those jobs get outsourced?

Need to fix that so it is easier to start up a shop.

How about getting parents, school counselors, teachers and our politicians (state and federal) get educated first what today’s ”manufacturing” is all about. I am all for motivating/helping kids, but without the adults to lead by better examples…. (?!)

Of course, when a kid shows a genuine interest and talent for building things with his hands and mind, the schools will treat him like a terrorist:


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...-chollas-view/

Hey, at least they are being "nice" enough not to send the parents the bill for the bomb squad response, right? And they say the KID needs "counseling"? How about some counseling for the vice-principal, to deal with his raging paranoia....

I saw one the other day called "Shop Rats". Don't have the web site right now, but should be easy to find with a search. It is associated with NCME (http://www.ncmeresource.org).

Manufacturing jobs are around 15% in the US now and this number will probably keep going down because to many younger generations don’t want to get there hands dirty this could be an excellent program to get youth interested.

I am a shop teacher, and I don't think that kids have a problem getting their hands dirty. The real problem is that many well meaning ignorant parents, teacher, counselors, and principals don't want them getting there hands dirty. I will always believe there will be a way for someone to make a living with skills we teach. I just think the stigma of the shop will never go away.

Just read the article you posted --- it seems that the vice principle could have asked the kid what he was making instead of the serious and severe over reaction. You are right the VP is the one who needs the counseling.

I just can't believe that happened.

That is why Technology is dieing. Fear of the unknown. One of these days model car kits are going to disappear too, because it has too many pieces and steps to complete. To think a mere decade or so ago I was around his age, I brought to school a radio I had put together using a Radio Shack kit. I didn't cause my school to go into lock down nor did my school said anything to me about my crudely built coil, bunch of electronics and batteries in a margarine container.

The joys of having "Technical teachers" in a "Technical school" who are less technical then their own students. Is what I think this boils down to.

Dimitri