so very curious

[cranky]

So people this is going to be quite off topic for this section and I assume it might get moved but oh well:

So after reading quite excessively on this forum the last couple weeks I'm going to say once again, I am in awe with the amount of knowledge you people process, so my question...what kind of education, jobs, upbringing do you all have that gives you such a level of knowledge? Perhaps I am being over simple with this question, I also have most of the knowledge you have been demonstrating.... but I no where near reach your level of technical data. EX. I also know that acetylene is dangerous.... I had no idea why until frosty and thomas and lattance explained it to me..heck I can't even spell acetylene without spellcheck  

Thor made a comment in another topic that if he lived within 3 hours of frosty he would be grabbing all the information he could from frosty, I'm gonna go one step further and say " I live 3000 miles from frosty and have a huge 'man crush' (in a purely mannish way, as in "hey bud lets go bend some steel later okay buddy? hey bud can I get ya another brewski? want for me to cook up a couple steaks for us bud?) I picture frosty as (to steal a line from one of my favorite movies) " 7 feet tall with fire shooting from his xxxx" Remember the cartoon with the big bulldog I think his name was spike and the little mutt bouncing around all the time and spike swats his butt out of the way? frosty is spike....2 guesses who the little mutt is :-)

Thomas I am quite certain you are some type of Nuclear Physicist Engineering Podiatrist responsible for designing the pyramids, hoover dam and quite possibly Nikola Tesla's tutor

 

[ThorsHammer82]

From my take, many on here are just the continual student, absorbing and learning what they can from any and all experiences in their lives. Some are able to retain the technical detail, some the visual detail, and some the textural details. Some are good with numbers, others with words, and others with action. For me, I'm a learn by doing type, and I have a very good muscle memory. for example, The first time I went white water kayaking was about 12 yrs. ago now. I went the second time about 5 yrs ago and was still able to roll, even though I hadn't even practiced in over 5 years.

I like to learn how to do things. As doing things myself if one of my passions. I like creating things. building, shaping, or even sowing. My other passion is taking metal, an otherwise non-malleable material, and making it do what I want. The first time I struck a rod in my high school welding class I was hooked.  And it's been a hobbyists addiction ever since.

I was the kid that took Auto shop as many times as I could in High school. Engineering and Draft, and welding. I skipped Chemistry and went straight to physics in high school, and helped the other kids in my math classes. But I have a thing with repetition and saw no point in doing homework on something I already understood well enough to explain to others.

Today, I sit behind a desk and sell insurance for a living. But I have also been called (and I do not accept this title) "The king of projects", as I've always got a project I'm either working on or planning.

[ThomasPowers]

I have a BS for either foot, Geology/Geophysics; Computer and Information Science; I took a lot of MatSci classes as electives too.  Almost finished an associates in EET when I was hired by Bell Labs.  About 15 years with them then about 10 years with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory working Software Integration for the ALMA project.  Currently a validation engineer for a major computer company at a factory located just over the border in MX.  Started smithing in 1981, spent a year apprenticed to a swordmaker in 1983/84.  Voracious reader and bibliophile.  Joined the SCA in 1978 and have researched the history of ferrous metals processes over time, (which skews my views---to me 1700 is "recent" in smithing).  Done a lot of oddball hands on experiments in smithing.  I get a lot of folks started in smithing.

[Latticino]

I still see myself as a beginner at blacksmithing, but I have around 30 years as a mechanical engineer in the construction world (BSME and PE certification).  I also have an MFA in Glass from a studio arts program and was a professional glass artist supporting myself from that craft for 10 years.  I have been responsible for building a lot of glass equipment and that transfers well over to forge building.

Also a voracious reader, go figure, but though I was intrigued by the SCA could get my head around all the Thees and Thous...

 

 

 

[Frosty]

You know Dave, if I wasn't getting a pretty good idea of what a joker you really are you'd be creeping me out with the whole man crush thing. Part of my bucket list is to travel around and meet online friends face to face. In a truly manly man way of course.

Some of my earliest memories are sitting in the living room with Mother and Dad cutting blanks with tin snips. Dad was a metal spinner and machinist and we always had a spinning lathe stashed somewhere in the house so he could do side work. They were Depression kids and worked non-stop to get ahead. I also remember sitting on the ways of Dad's spinning lathe playing race car with the free play in take up wheel on the tail stock as he spun in the basement. It's how he baby sat me as. I have very clear memories of why I could only play with the free play in the wheel or bad things happened. I credit this for my almost hard wired feel for working metal. I can feel and hear metal's malleability and only have a work hardening failure if I push it deliberately.

I grew up in Dad's shop, I only got an allowance till I was grown up enough to get around his shop without drawing too much blood, then I earned spending money. I got paid piece work till I was 16 and his operation got large enough OSHA took notice and suddenly it was flat illegal for me to walk past the office hall. There are NO pictures of me working in his shop, insurance companies and such would've. . . I was spinning before I was 10, nothing big, rolling beads, sharpening corners, polishing, etc. type spinning but it freed up a professional spinner for other steps so I earned my 1/4 cent per part. I ran everything in his shop but the square shear, he never let us kids work the square shear, too dangerous. No problem, running the punch press or spinning lathes but not the square shear. Go figure eh? I didn't use the machine lathe much as it was almost always in use for company business making tooling but I had shop classes and had access so that was no problem. I was a full blown metal spinner by time I was 13 up to my physical limits, I just wasn't bit or strong enough for some of the work. Some exotic metals take enormous forces to move, even hot. Most were really expensive and we only got paid for good parts.

I took every shop class offered in school except light metal shop, did that at home for money. Wood shop was okay, really liked how it smelled. Crafts shop was too fluffy bunny for me and I had zero interest in print shop. Boys weren't allowed in  sewing or home making and girls weren't allowed in Auto shop, metal shops, etc. Stupid rules.

I read constantly, have since Mother showed me there were interesting things in books everywhere. I was blessed or cursed with an Eidetic memory for the written word so my reading comprehension is WAY above average. Before the accident I never forgot anything I read, I might have to work on getting things in proper sequence but I never forgot. Heck it's all still there and I still don't forget but my filing system is seriously screwed up. Stupid tree.

School bored me, I was usually finished with the required reading the first few days and the related material in the first week or two. Didn't do homework and just drifted along. A classic underachiever. I only worked hard enough to carry a high C but aced any final or other tests casually. I'm lazy about other people's evaluations, especially when I know their subject better than they do. Yeah, I was pretty arrogant as a kid if quiet about it. Even my hot rod 62 Corvette wasn't much to look at. Faded white, usually unwashed, ushined chrome, but pushing better than 375hp our of a 327cid V8. Loud? Nope, I put the largest glass pack mufflers I could fit under it so it was quiet.  Cops don't look at a plain jane QUIET car. Not in super car S. California they don't, cool cars are LOUD. I drove a sleeper, all the fancy was under the hood and covered in dusty oil but boy could that ride MOVE.

I took several trade school programs and earned 3 welding certs before I realized how short a professional life span welders had in the 60's and 70's it was only smoke ad the Marlboro man was still on TV and "Winstons taste good like a cigarette had aughta" according to Granny Clampet.  So, even with 3 welding certs I've never run a bead as a certified welder. It stood me in good stead as a fabricator though and I saw to my own breathing gear. But that was just something to make more valuable as a driller.

Professionally I ran equipment of all kinds and we did field repairs, especially the drills and carriers. Those things live a HARD life, an operator who doesn't have a deft touch and good ear ends up spending more time repairing it than running it and shortly finds himself doing something else.

That's about it. I won't get into on the job stories, this has gone on way too long already.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[ThorsHammer82]

I'm amazed you got that much in Frosty the forbidden. I Feel you and I would have gotten along quite well if we were in school together.

[Frosty]

I'm amazed you got that much in Frosty the forbidden. I Feel you and I would have gotten along quite well if we were in school together.

I had to submit it in a new thread our quietly industrious mods must have moved it for me.

I'm sure we would've been in the same clique in school. In today's school system we'd definitely be on the WATCH list together.

I think a lot of us would've been friends or cell mates if your luck hadn't held out.

Frosty The Lucky.

[teenylittlemetalguy]

I gotta step in here for a second. I am lucky enough to visit with frosty several  times a year either at the meetings or at each other's workshops. It is always entertaining and educational.

I have always been a maker but frosty has opened my eyes to new things and motivated me more than once. IMHO the world needs more characters like him. Aside from natural personality his life experience came from DOING things and that I think is most important. We will never have much to share with others like these fine examples do unless we get out there and do stuff. Even failures add to our value in the long run.

 

 

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning Cranky,

A person gets ahead in this life, Knot as a follower, but as a pay attention to the little things and then see where they go when when you bend them.

I lost my dad when i was 6, #4 in a family of 6 kids. I had the job of taking care of the wood and coal furnace. My dad had one set of tongs, a piece of rail on a stump and a piece of 12"x12"x 2" thick steel plate on another stump. I was never told "Don't play in the Furnace", so I did. Taking Metal work in Grade 8 was magic, a coal forge, I know how to work that.

I have owned my own business now for 40 years. "Never worked and never will". Life is not measured in Money, In my mind it is measured in the lives we have touched in this thing called "A Journey". Then we are "Journeymen". I am an Automotive Mechanic (not a Technician), a Blacksmith, A Machinist, A Fabricator and a solver of problems. I have a "Masters in Common Sense" I call it "MCs"

Come on world, I'll kick your Back-side!! I dare you to tell me "That can't be done", I just did it!!

Just my $.02

Neil

[cranky]

Well it certainly seems as if I have fallen into a group with you guys, my own story is a bit similar to Frosty's and Thor's, in high school I took every vocational class they would let me... in fact skipped english math and social studies to spend more time in the shop classes, it helped my shop skills tremendously but didn't do a whole lot of good for my scholarly learning.....I finished my 12th grade as a freshmen with a total of 7 credits for 4 years of school (tech classes only counted for .25 credits) although I did manage to finish my two years of science.... I like science.

Grew up on a family farm that was run by a grandfather and uncle that were depression children.... they didn't buy anything if it can't be made then you don't need it..grandfather was a jack of all trades, a fully trained veterinarian, farrier and farmer...he had a complete blacksmith shop as I recall in our original shop on the farm with a couple anvils a forge a old post drill press (I think that is what they were called) and two post vises.....when I was about 10 we built a new bigger shop and my uncle bought a welder and torch set along with grinders, and a drill press.... well I almost lived in that shop

When I was 15 I got my first paying job working in a prototype machine shop for Steiger Manufacturing....all i did was sweep floors and such but the harder I worked the more I got to do, first welding....then drill presses...lathes...mills those three brothers taught me so very much..... two of the brothers and their father died in a plane crash not all that long ago...the world lost a lot of intelligence that day... these dumb xxxxx farm boys built a tractor in the 1950's and did such a good job at it they created a multi million global business out of it 

1996 My uncle retired from farming and I took over, I still tend to think the same old fashioned way I was brought up....fix instead of buy. I still work off the farm

 

 

  

 

[ThomasPowers]

I'm beginning to notice a trend.  Some Folks tend to be doers, tinkerers---with what my father used to call "the engineering mindset":  When confronted with something not working right they tend to want to try to fix it rather than complain about it. (and when something like software they are not allowed to fix has issues it makes them peevish in a big way...)

One summer in the late 70's I worked on the line at a factory on second shift as my summer job.  Well my car broke down and was going to take a bit to fix so I asked an old family friend if I could get a ride with him after shift was over.  "No problem" he said; but he worked clean up after the end of shift and I'd have to wait for him to get done.  After one night of that I asked if I could help, unpaid, just to stay busy. (I realized that finishing earlier would cut into his overtime check and would have understood if he said no...) He said yes and I started doing the scut work and letting him do the stuff that took more experience.  Funny thing; after a couple of weeks of volunteer work; *I* stated having overtime show up on my paycheck and ended up one of the best paid "summer students".  I also spent quite a few early mornings sharing some brown pop and shooting the bull with him after shift.  He was ex Green Beret, had served in Nam and was still part of the reserves. (Saturdays after watching the sun come up on the river after a bit more brown pop he would go run 5 miles to stay in shape while I went home and crawled in bed...)

Folks who go on a campout and spend 3 hours building something just to spend 15 minutes using it...

[Charlotte]

Grew up with parents that were both young adults in '29 and worked through the depression at what ever was needed.  Kind of got in the mind set that spending money if it could possibly be repaired, improved, modified or other wise made useful was a sin.   Not so much the engineering mind set as the be independent  of out side resources when possible.

In working life when company was to cheap to buy equipment, or provide adequate equipment I invented and/or repaired things to keep my operations going. Just kind of impatient with things that got in the way of doing the job.

[ThomasPowers]

When the company I was working for went through the dot com bust, I was scrounging stuff from the factory recycle bins and using my metal skills to adapt things to expand our labs without spending extra money.  I think that helped keep me on the payroll through a LOT of layoffs!

[Mikey98118]

I see plenty of good answers to your question. What we all have in common is, at some point in our lives, we learned to self-teach. Formal education in any endeavor only takes you part way; then mommy bird kicks you out of the nest, and it's fall or fly time. The earlier you make the decision the further you go before "Superman doesn't live here anymore" strikes.