Limy Sam:
I agree with your assessment of younger generation mechanics. Many are more "brand conscious" and want the "status" of having a Snapon rollaway chest full of Snapon tools. At the powerplant, it was a kind of "Garden of Eden in that regard. The Power Authority (a state owned/autonomous public authority) supplied the in-house crafts with tools and clothing. The plant had a kind of open account with a Snapon industrial sales representative. We bought heavier tools like slugging wrenches from Snapon. The mechanics browsed the Snapon catalogs, and if they thought they might need some more tools from it, they put in a request with their supervisor and the tools were bought. Soon, ever mechanic had a Snapon rollaway chest, middle chest and top chest filled to capacity. They bolted on side cabinets and filled them. They made racks on the outsides of the chests and hung heavier tools, and some added plate steel tops with swivel base vises. It was a kind of 'keep up with the next guy" thing. If a supervisor were to substitute Craftsman tools, the mechanic would often pitch a hissy fit, acting like a spoiled child. Management indulged them. Starrett or Mitutoyo tools were another hot item, and every mechanic had a few measuring instruments in their chests as well as a Starrett combination square set with 12" and 18" blades. It used to hurt me to see those square getting used for welded fabrication work, getting hit with weld spatter and grinding dust.
Welding shields were a whole other matter. Every mechanic was supposed to pick up a certification for stick (SMAW) welding of plate steel, all positions. Nearly every mechanic had this certification. As such, every mechanic had a welding shield, gloves, welding jacket, and a 'stinger' (lead with electrode holder). When I first started at the powerplant (1989), the mechanics had plain fiberglass welding shields with ordinary filter lenses. When auto darkening shields came along, they soon replaced the older shields. Then, welding shields with wider format lenses and 'graphics' (flames, etc) on the body of the shield came along. We had many mechanics claiming they could not weld properly without one of these newer shields. Soon, there was another pissing contest as to who'd get the wildest looking welding shield. We had state of the art welding equipment, state of the art tools, and we'd have prima donna mechanics who would argue that they could not weld properly without a newer, wildly decorated shield. When I became a Certified Welding Inspector, I was given a nearly new "Speedglass" auto darkening shield one mechanic gave up, trading for some different shield. I used it for years and took it into retirement as mechanics tended to regard using someone else's welding shield as wearing someone else's used underwear. I remember how, in highway department barns and old shops, a shield or two hung on nails in the wall, and that was it. If a person wanted to weld, they grabbed a shield off the wall and used it. No fancy graphics, no auto darkening. When I became a CWI, I used to check the welder qualifications and keep the welders current in their qualifications, as well as testing welders in various procedures and processes. No fancy graphics on my shield. If a welder complained about their shield, or that the 'heat' needed to be tweaked 2 amps one way or the other, I'd often tell them to step aside and watch over my shoulder. I'd start running weld on another set of plates with whatever heat the welding power supply was set at. I'd tell them of my 'coming up' in the days when all we had was motor-generator welders, often with no 'remote box' to tweak the heat, and of using those same machines to run "Scratch start TIG" for pipe welding in the nuclear plants.
I go with quality tools, regardless of who made them. Like Rivett, I get a great deal of pleasure in seeing young people develop an interest in working with tools, and teaching them. One of our son's college chums 'adopted' me as his uncle. He is a very well mannered young man and would call me "Mr. Michaels". I finally told him to call me Uncle Joe, since he looks upon our son as another brother. This young fellow (architecture degree, never used, now a licensed physical therapist) loved to ride and work on his own motorcycles. I got him an old Kennedy hand box and filled it with used and NOS US made tools. Mostly Craftsman, some J.H. Williams, some Klein, some Mayhew, and plenty more. He is over the moon about his toolbox, and says he immediately felt the difference in the tools from the imported stuff he was buying in big box stores and the like. This young fellow wanted a good 'used looking' toolbox, and that is just what he got. His girlfriend says he shows off that toolbox to very nearly anyone who comes to his home. My own son (an attorney) has a similar toolbox, an old hip-roof Craftsman toolbox with a handle I made out of steel and micarta, same sort of contents with a few tools I forged myself. My son uses his toolbox for working on his bicycle (he rides 50-60 miles at a rip on weekends) or for work around his apartment like assembling furniture. My other nephew (my brother in law's son) is working in a machine shop near here, and is kinf of acting foreman. That shop tired hiring a degreed engineer to run the shop floor and he failed miserably. Our nephew came up from shipping and receiving and has been in a kind of loop course/apprenticeship on the shop floor. He's spent time on manual machine tools, working to tenths, and some time on CNC. In his 3d year, he took to the work and the paper trail of documentation on the jobs as well as the scheduling end of it, so he moved up fast. He has a basic set of machinist tools I outfitted him with, some used, some Starrett, some Brown & Sharpe, some Mitutoyo, some made in Germany or Japan or Poland. I started him with a well used small Kennedy metal chest. My wife and I surprised him with a Kennedy rollaway and top chest bought used. Our nephew is like another son to us, and seeing him come along and come up in the shop has been quite special for us. He could care less about the name on a tool so long as it works well, is in calibration (if a measuring instrument), and is ready for use when he needs it. In that shop, the machinists and toolmakers 'on the floor' are required to have their own chests and tools. My nephew was welcomed and told to access one of the boss's chest whenever he needed tools. He felt odd about going into another person's chest, but I told him this was a sign of trust and the fact the boss held him in high regard. I told him that when I was a teenager working amongst German immigrant machinists, being allowed to borrow tools from one of their chests was something of an honor. I also told him a man's tool chest was his personal space, and if you entered it without permission, you'd 'get your hands broken off just below your shoulders'. Now, my nephew has his own chests and will set them up as he likes. I am sure he will have a photo or two of his parents, his dog, and my wife and I on the lid of the top till in keeping with traditions.
Giving tools and bringing young people along is something I find to be of life's greater rewards at this point of my own life. I remember early in my nephew's time at that shop, he had to hand tap a number of holes in stainless steel plate to do a setup on their CNC waterjet table. I asked him how he did the setup. He told me he 'dialed it in' using a dial indicator and mag base I had given him. I asked how many taps he broke in the stainless plate. His answer was 'none'. He then told me how he'd watched how I started taps in my own shop, and how I worked the tap wrench to break the chip as the tap went deeper into the work. I had never said a word to my nephew about the how and why of it, but he remembered and said he could feel the tap loading up and knew to coax it back to break the chip. When a young person learns by watching us and then doing for themselves and figuring the 'how and why' of the work, it is even more special.
