Dirty Fingernails
Well, last week in the auto/machine shop didn't quite advance my hands-on mechanical skills as much as I'd hoped, but I learned some things, enjoyed being away from a desk, and got really dirty!
Kev's uncle does the auto repair stuff, and he works on just about every aspect of any kind of car. So I 'helped' him do a wheel bearing service on a Landcruiser, do rego checks (registration inspection) on a few different cars, replace the steering tie rods on a Mitsubishi, take out the gear box to see that the owner had trashed the clutch on a Ford, do an oil change on an old Landrover... I really liked the rattle gun (hydraulic powered nut-taker-offer) so every time wheels had to be removed I was on the job. I'm also an expert at packing grease into wheel bearings. Got to wear coveralls for the messier jobs, which was fun too. Don't get the idea I have any skills that will be helpful to myself or others in the future, but I'll definitely know how to be more of a pain to the mechanics when I take my next car in for service. (By the way, leading candidate for that next car is an Audi A4. Dark grey, manual transmission, quattro only if I find an extra $10k lying around). I keep wanting to call into Car Talk about this experience, but I don't really know what the point of my call would be...
With Kevin's dad, who does mostly steel fabrication, I worked on a huge stainless structure that will be the entrance to a fancy store in Manly (cool town on northern headland of Sydney Harbour). Actually it's already been installed, so I'll have to go see it sometime and take pictures. Oh, I don't have any pictures from the whole week - my camera battery was flat and I didn't have the spare. Bummer. My job on that project was a lot of polishing. Quite a good workout (and really smooth hands after hours of using scour pads). The other big project was a 6 meter long gate for a tip (dump). He was too busy to teach me to do the welding (though he let me do a tack weld), so I was on hole drilling duty for the hinges (big holes in 1" plate, so it took some time). I'm a big fan of the oxy-acetylene torch he used to cut the 1" plate (like butter!) He let me do some bits on my own too, like some brackets for a cabinet.
Anyway, the whole week was great fun, and it was very interesting to visit a different kind of life for a bit. Boy did I sleep well over the weekend!
Kev's uncle does the auto repair stuff, and he works on just about every aspect of any kind of car. So I 'helped' him do a wheel bearing service on a Landcruiser, do rego checks (registration inspection) on a few different cars, replace the steering tie rods on a Mitsubishi, take out the gear box to see that the owner had trashed the clutch on a Ford, do an oil change on an old Landrover... I really liked the rattle gun (hydraulic powered nut-taker-offer) so every time wheels had to be removed I was on the job. I'm also an expert at packing grease into wheel bearings. Got to wear coveralls for the messier jobs, which was fun too. Don't get the idea I have any skills that will be helpful to myself or others in the future, but I'll definitely know how to be more of a pain to the mechanics when I take my next car in for service. (By the way, leading candidate for that next car is an Audi A4. Dark grey, manual transmission, quattro only if I find an extra $10k lying around). I keep wanting to call into Car Talk about this experience, but I don't really know what the point of my call would be...
With Kevin's dad, who does mostly steel fabrication, I worked on a huge stainless structure that will be the entrance to a fancy store in Manly (cool town on northern headland of Sydney Harbour). Actually it's already been installed, so I'll have to go see it sometime and take pictures. Oh, I don't have any pictures from the whole week - my camera battery was flat and I didn't have the spare. Bummer. My job on that project was a lot of polishing. Quite a good workout (and really smooth hands after hours of using scour pads). The other big project was a 6 meter long gate for a tip (dump). He was too busy to teach me to do the welding (though he let me do a tack weld), so I was on hole drilling duty for the hinges (big holes in 1" plate, so it took some time). I'm a big fan of the oxy-acetylene torch he used to cut the 1" plate (like butter!) He let me do some bits on my own too, like some brackets for a cabinet.
Anyway, the whole week was great fun, and it was very interesting to visit a different kind of life for a bit. Boy did I sleep well over the weekend!
posted by Lori Bassman at 3:15 PM
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