What's new
What's new

Way ot: how civilians view guys who own/work in shops

Trboatworks

Diamond
Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Location
Maryland- USA
So saw this guy today who had come to me asking for a job last year and advice on how to get started in my trade.

I wasn’t hiring but talked to him for about an hour on how to make a start.

So he drops by today as I am unloading some tooling I ordered.
“Wow- you’re really obsessive about this stuff”
He corrects himself and says “passionate”.

What a prick- he has to offer some dime store psychology about how I am going about my business.
How I see it after years of tossing earnings into machines and tools I have a decent shop for the service work I do.
It’s sort of a piss poor shop in the real world but hey- it’s mine.

Is my head so buried in my affairs running a small shop that I don’t see how it looks to others- it is Saturday and I’m working like every other weekend after all.
Skin too thin..?


Or maybe I’m just put off by some guy with a big mouth.
He is a Brit expat and you know how those guys are- still pissed about that little war and look down their noses at us colonials..
How’s it land with folk- people get it or think you’re off your rocker..?
 
Im surprised you found someone who knows what a machineshop is.......99% of people havent got a clue whats under the plastic mouldings in their car .....assuming they know how to lift the hood.....If you say you make stuff....a common reply..."Ya arent allowed to do that anymore ,are ya?"....Lathe ,drill,machining centre..whats that?.....no idea .
 
I don't think you are being oversensitive. At least he was aware enough to realize "obsessive" was an insult.

My favorite type are the ones who suggest people who do things carefully are "being anal". Usually the ones who say that lead lives that are a series of disasters and they think that's normal.

As for working Saturday at your own business, a guy I knew used to say "the best thing about being your own boss is that you get to pick which 80 hours a week you work". Over the years I knew a few guys who became self made millionaires and all of them worked their asses off.
 
Im surprised you found someone who knows what a machineshop is.......99% of people havent got a clue whats under the plastic mouldings in their car .....assuming they know how to lift the hood.....If you say you make stuff....a common reply..."Ya arent allowed to do that anymore ,are ya?"....Lathe ,drill,machining centre..whats that?.....no idea .

You don't need to know how to make things. You just order it from China.
 
TR,
Having watched your advice you have expounded over the years. and your last line "How’s it land with folk- people get it or think you’re off your rocker..?" Hell yes your off on another plane when it comes down to running your business which works quite well for you. People who criticize your business tilts toward the abstract side if it does not ring true smile give him a eye brow cocked grin and offer nothing but move on to something else.
 
My favorite type are the ones who suggest people who do things carefully are "being anal".
Years ago I was taking a class on aircraft fabric repair because I own an antique tube & fabric plane (J3 Cub). One of the guys in the class was building an experimental plane and commented that I was being anal about the test piece I was covering. After all, it was just a test piece. Imagine flying in a plane built by a guy with that attitude.
 
Ok- I can’t always tell if I got a short fuse or is some folks I meet really are pricks.
Funny thing is the gist of the talk I gave him on how to start out was just to build on what one does by nature- fix/build stuff.
It seems that is not something he does so maybe it does look odd when he sees a guy with his head wrapped up in what it takes to get things done.
I found myself trying to explain why the tools I bought were needed for a process and was like- forget it.
Kids these days..

Ok- I have more stuff to screw up before wrapping up for the day.
Rant over.
 
As the perpetuator was an expat Brit I think a mild case of skin thinness.

I'd not see "obsessive" used in that context as insulting. More a comment that you are maybe taking passionate about the job perhaps a bit far.

Correct response is a snarky Brit humour comeback about his lazy good for nothing lifestyle.

For working Brits the better mates you the (superficially) ruder the comments and banter.

Clive
 
You're not wrong to be a bit miffed. But, personally that attitude doesn't bother me anymore. I'm just used to it by now I guess, and chuckle a bit when it happens these days. Depending on my mood, I may 'give it back' a bit. Heck, I get it a bit from relatives whom I avoid because of it. They are in their own little world, just like most machinist types are also in their own world. I like my world, and sure as hell wouldn't trade it for theirs. If I am considered weird and they are normal, I'll take my kind of weirdness any day. I'm cynical not by choice, but generally happy, so anybody doesn't like my lifestyle, too bad.

I think it's important to remember, if you're a technical type, artist, self employed, you are in fact different. Weird maybe, to others who don't get it and are their own type of weird. My one sister was a grade school teacher, husband was a teacher, both kids are teachers, daughters (my niece's) husband and my nephews girlfriend are ALL teachers. We DO NOT share the same view of the whirrled, and have ZERO in common. Usually get together on Christmas, make limited small talk, and part mutually unimpressed.

I bet a high percentage of folks on this forum have the Knack, and might be a bit socially awkward because of it. Along with the Knack software comes other pre-installed behaviors, skills, and other possible disorders. Package deal. No opting out.

The Knack
YouTube
 
“ As the perpetuator was an expat Brit I ...”

You saying I got a thin skin...

Damn Brits lol

To just above- yep, I’ve got pre installed behaviors all right.
Small talk isn’t my thing- want to talk about how things work.
Sort of a odd bird that way- they sit me next to the potted ferns at dinner parties.
 
Years ago I was taking a class on aircraft fabric repair because I own an antique tube & fabric plane (J3 Cub). One of the guys in the class was building an experimental plane and commented that I was being anal about the test piece I was covering. After all, it was just a test piece. Imagine flying in a plane built by a guy with that attitude.

Yup, some of the EAA guys I have met:
1. "Grade 8 bolts are stronger than AN, so you can substitute them just fine."
2. Using a HF 120 volts flux core MIG to make an airframe from 3/4" EMT.
3. Using Home Depot flashing to make new gussets for a CGS Hawk repair.
4. No backup plan at all for any situation.
 
Wait..........how about "That slightly scored crank and cylinders will be just FINE" (Looked at them and wouldn't run shit like that in MY Lawnmower).


Yup, some of the EAA guys I have met:
1. "Grade 8 bolts are stronger than AN, so you can substitute them just fine."
2. Using a HF 120 volts flux core MIG to make an airframe from 3/4" EMT.
3. Using Home Depot flashing to make new gussets for a CGS Hawk repair.
4. No backup plan at all for any situation.


Many doo.....

…. and here I thought you meant this:
YouTube

biggrin.gif
 
Anybody who has put their heart and soul into building up a shop their way, and is still in business, shouldn't give a flying F what a civilian has to say. I have noticed that has time goes on, more people seem to have a small understanding of what we do, and are fascinated by it.
 
As the perpetuator was an expat Brit I think a mild case of skin thinness.

I'd not see "obsessive" used in that context as insulting. More a comment that you are maybe taking passionate about the job perhaps a bit far.

Correct response is a snarky Brit humour comeback about his lazy good for nothing lifestyle.

For working Brits the better mates you the (superficially) ruder the comments and banter.

Clive

I do get your point Clive- could be just good natured jab- a easy setup lobbed over the net and my job was just to send it back.

Damn Brits..
 
S
Or maybe I’m just put off by some guy with a big mouth.
He is a Brit expat and you know how those guys are- still pissed about that little war and look down their noses at us colonials..
How’s it land with folk- people get it or think you’re off your rocker..?

Tr -

Have to laugh. You are not too thin skinned - and Brits (at least the ones I've known fairly well) do have a different sense of humor.

Growing up my Dad worked full time (in the same plant I later retired from) and always had businesses going on the side. By age 10 I was dipping ice cream in the summer 6 nights a week and mowing lawns during the day. High school and college worked long hours in summer / time off. Used to swear that when I got out of college I was only going to have 1 job, none of the insanity I grew up with. Only time I ever had 1 job was when I was active duty Army. Otherwise it was always 2 - and for 10 years or so 3 - jobs. Plus family. Trouble was I don't know as I have the 1st knack in total but am an engineer (can only sort of fix a TV). Definitely not the second as I can't carry a tune in a bucket. Plant I worked at had quite a few guys (including my best fellow manager friend) who started as tool makers and went up the chain - held in good regard. That's why I like this board - someone on here will come up with a solution for most anything. Just like the crew I hung out with for 30 years. So I've done both sides of it, and signed both the front and the back of the check. Maybe that's why I sort of shrug when someone does not 'get it'. There are great people on both sides, you have to do what is right for you. And I'm probably totally schizoid from my experiences!

As to the working on aircraft/spacecraft - too many people don't get it. Job I retired from was manager of a flight facility which included responsibility of the technicians and engineers who built/installed the systems (over 100 boxes) in the A/C. I was one of 3 safety for flight signatures - and thankfully the other 2 were as obsessive/anal/whatever you want to be called as I was. The way it should be. At least I never had a Class A accident in my careers, and everybody came home.

One of my flight test engineers back then - great guy - does a lot of work with RC aircraft. Almost 20 years ago he was at the local grass strip where they flew, as well as a few small a/c and some ultra lights. Nice spring weekend day he's there and a guy starts his takeoff roll with an ultra light. Gets airborne, starts porpoising to stall, repeat, repeat. Finally manages to get it on the ground. Jim (and others)go running over - 'you OK?' to the 'pilot'. 'Yeah, don't know what's wrong.' Upon questioning turns out the guy had 'put a bigger engine' in the ultralight over the winter, first flight. Jim asks him 'well did you recompute your CG when you made the changes?' Reply back was 'What's a CG?. Jim turned and walked away. You can't fix stupid - just try to stay out from under them.

Dale
 
Years ago I was taking a class on aircraft fabric repair because I own an antique tube & fabric plane (J3 Cub). One of the guys in the class was building an experimental plane and commented that I was being anal about the test piece I was covering. After all, it was just a test piece. Imagine flying in a plane built by a guy with that attitude.

'Being anal' is good on safety critical things. The problem I have unfortunately seen a few times is people who are more anal on the test than they are on the real work. I've seen this happen a few times with welders; some are much more careful on the test than they are on production welds.
 
Ha ha- got a chance to watch The Knack- that’s funny.

I remember way back in grade school a teacher was going over some basic mechanics stuff.
A laminated metal bar was held up to a flame curled over.

“Why?”

Difference of thermal expansion between the two laminates popped out of my mouth.
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as thermal expansion but the answer was obvious.
So was everything else the teacher asked.
No one else in the class had a clue and they stopped letting me answer to give the other kids a chance to figure things out.

But I can’t spell cat in the hat on a good day- we all have our areas where we excel land those where we don’t..
 
The worst are people who think you are running a fixit shop. Like the time someone recommended me to repair the monitor on a Meistergram sewing machine, the type that generates logos on hats and jackets. It took three trips to their house, going back for a soldering iron, etc. I told them that I didn't want payment, only a promise to not bother me the next time. That was about as effective as feeding a stray cat. After several requests that I declined, they came around with a fixture for holding baseball caps. Meistergram wanted $300 for one and surely I could make one as a one-off for less. In other words, they wanted me to take the loss instead of them. This time I was extremely rude and finally got rid of them, no doubt at the cost of making a couple of enemies.

I'm like some friends who have a large job shop. When I asked why they didn't have a sign, one of them said "It keeps down people who don't know what they want." I don't have a sign, either.

Bill
 








 
Back
Top