You didn't tell me that - Stories of starting out in the trades ...

I've been installing new shop windows this week. New windows are a bit smaller than the 58 year old Andersens I replaced (really - they were very well used when I installed them in 1987). Anyway due to the reframing needed I had some insulating to do between the old and new and around the RO of the windows. As I was carefully laying in some fiberglass insulation into the gaps I was reminded of an OOPS moment from my younger days. These are stories about inexperience, good intentions, and bad communications. One assumes - and we all know what that gets you. Enjoy and please share your own tales. I've more but some are just too embarrassing to share :o and I've tried very hard to forget :D.

You didn't tell me that # 1 - Boss tells me - "Pack some insulation around these windows. Make sure you fill in even the small gaps" (pre spray foam days). As told I did a wonderful job packing in insulation into all the gaps. Used a putty knife and assorted thicknesses of shingles to push insulation in to the slots. Boss returns to survey my work and sees me finishing up, shoving insulation into the MAX :rolleyes:. "What are you doing?" - Boss cries out - "You aren't supposed to ram it in, just lightly fill in the gaps - keep the insulation fluffy. Ram it in like that you may as well be using mortar for the amount of insulating that's doing AND you're distorting the windows. Look the jambs are bowed :mad:". "Oh" - said I - "You didn't tell me that" :D

You didn't tell me that # 2 - Boss tell me (different boss) - "Sand these doors - get them ready for the 2nd coat of urethane". As told, I sanded the doors (flat slabs). I started out with 100 grit - that seemed to take off the poly OK, and finished up the 2 sides of 2 doors right up to 220. They looked some gorgeous and smooth when I was done. Boss returns to survey my work. Me standing there beaming with a sense of accomplishment. They were gorgeous - don't 'cha know :rolleyes: "What did you do"? - Boss cries out - "You were just supposed to lightly scuff up the 1st coat of urethane so that the 2nd coat would bond to it properly not strip the damn finish right off? :mad:". "Oh" - said I - "you didn't tell me that" :D

In a log home with vaulted ceiling in the living room: Bossman instructs, "Put these bats of insulation in the ceiling." And leaves. Two trim carpenters with 50 years experience between them are on site and putting up T&G on the walls in the living room. I throw some insulation on the scaffolding, climb up and start shoving the insulation all the way up against the roof, not stapling it to the trusses. After about 600SF installed, the boss gets back. "Lud," he cried!

After explaining the proper way to install the bats I looked at the two trim guys. They were smiling. I asked, "Why didn't you say something?" "We thought you knew what you were doing," one quipped with a chuckle. I was never more itchy after that day.

Here is another one - though the spin is a bit different because in this case (unlike with the stories above :rolleyes:) this guy should have known differently ...

Story told to me by the Chef himself.

Chef says to the new guy (a Johnson & Wales graduate) - "Separate these 6 dozen eggs. I'll leave you to it". Chef returns an hour or so later and there is the new guy standing proudly next to his accomplishment - 6 dozen eggs all perfectly laid out on the stainless tale tops by color and size in rows, awaiting inspection.
Chef inspected alright - and fired his new Johnson & Wales graduate post-haste as soon as he realized that this kid was not trying to impress with his sense of humor but truly thought he had done a great job "separating these eggs". :(

If you don't know I'll explain in another post :).

Me at 14 yrs starting as a plumbers helper, second day. Plumber says go to the truck and get me a piece of 3" DWV copper 3" long. Company owner drives up and sees me cutting a 3" piece off of a whole joint of pipe. He started yelling and screaming and calling me all kinds of dumb. I had no idea what he was making all the fuss about. Plumber had to come and rescue me. After the action was over he explained it all to me. I had no idea what it was all about. Lesson learned tho.
Jim

I have pretty much been a boss my whole life, but that does not mean I do not have a "Duh" moment or two.

When I was 20 I bought into a paving company and one of the pieces of equipment we had was an old D9. I can't remember why now, but I had to pull a head off of it. I got it ready to pull the head off, would have no part of it. I got bigger and bigger pry bars, still no dice.

I was going to have to lift it off with the boom truck anyway, so I decided to put some pressure on it, then pry. Pry, Tap, tap, pry, nothing. I kept adding a little more pressure with the boom truck and trying again. After about four tries the front tires of the boom truck were about a foot off the ground, still would not budge.

I stepped back to think about my next move and have a coffee, and BOOM!

The head popped off and went through the roof of the shop, which left a nice big hole, just a bit bigger than the hole made when the head came back down.

I had to move out of Texas to live that one down......

I put myself thru university and grad school working for the university kitchen. One day, one of the cooks told his young student helper to strain the broth that was boiling in a steam kettle. 5 mins. later the student proudly presented him with a soggy pile of vegetables and bones.
He had strained the vegetables and poured all the stock down the drain.
I still laugh when i think about it.

I am running telephone wire in an older builiding with wood floors for a business that had just put in the most gorgeous brand new carpet that was a special static free carpet as they were into micro computers (before the days of the PC). I had to run a wire through the floor so I pulled out my handy dandy drill with an auger bit right next to the baseboard and started drilling. I did not cut a slit in the carpet or pull the carpet out of the way. The auger caught a thread and pulled it all the way out across the room.
That was some expensive carpet.

I was on the 16th floor of the Bank of America headquarters building and again had to run a wire through the floor. No carpet this time. I was in a mechanical room. I pulled out my hammer drill with a 1" bit as I had to run a 75 pair cable. I started drilling, and I noticed a little spark, but didn't think much about it as it happens sometimes if you hit a piece of rebar. I got the hole through and ran my cable. About 10 minutes later the building management company found me. I had hit an energy management cable and had shut down all the lights and other stuff on all the floors above me.

Thinking back, I have broken a lot of stuff before I got a grip on what to do and how to do it...

Repost, but appropriate.

Funny story....... Well,, now its funny.

Someone gave me this magnet that was used in a printing operation to pull metal out of the paper. Its about 3' long, 2 1/2" wide and consists of a 1/8" stainless sheet with a bunch of some kind of magnets bonded to it that are parallelograms spaced about 1/4" apart the whole length. EXTREMELY STRONG!!!! its so strong my buddy and I picked up my DJ20 jointer with it easily. Easy for the magnet, not us. There is a warning on it to stay ten feet away if you have a pacemaker. You have to get real close to read the warning?

I had it screwed to the wall to hold shaper bushings and decided that I was going to make a magnetic fixture out of it, so I took it down and cut it in half. I was putting handles on it, coming from the drill press heading back to the bench when WHAM!

As I walked by the other half sitting on the saw magnet side up the one on the saw jumped up and bit me. No, really, that is what happened! You always hear of trees jumping out and biting cars so I know this stuff can happen.

SO...... Here I am in my shop working alone with my finger caught between two magnets that are capable of lifting a jointer. This hurts a little bit. You know that instant when you hit your finger with a hammer? Well, just keep that going. I don't suggest that you keep hitting yourself with a hammer to get an idea what it felt like, just take my word for it. To give you a clue, I have broken both legs at the same time, and this hurt worse. Or, maybe I an just getting to be a wimp in my old age?

So in screaming pain I am trying to get this off my finger. Can't pull it out, probably a good thing in retrospect and I only have one hand to work with, the other one having a couple of foot and a half magnets clamped on it. Plus my vision was little blurry, probably had something to do with the magnets making my eyes water. I didn't know magnets could do that? Who knew?

I'm hoping I can figure out a way to get it off because I am not sure I can drive the ten miles to town with the magnets making my eyes water. I can't pull two magnets apart with one hand, something I had never thought about before. Its true, you can't do it! I was almost ready to head for town when I spied the rail on my slide saw. I slipped the open end that was fighting its hardest to mate with its sibling over the rail, grabbed the saw wrench that hangs there and jambed it in between, prying enough that I could slip my finger out.

The pain then got worse, and I thought I was going to have to visit the porcelain goddess. My finger was no more than a 1/4" thick. Didn't know exactly how much bone was in my finger, and now I do, about 1/4 inch. It took a half hour for it to regain is somewhat normal shape, and as it did the pain subsided with it.

Its ok to laugh, I do now......

Oh yeah, I screwed the two halves back on the wall and that is where those little buggers are going to stay.....

Larry

On a construction project I was familiar with, an underground construction worker, new on the job, was asked to run out to the the nearby Home Depot to get a gallon of purple primer for priming prior to gluing the large diameter PVC sewer pipe they were installing. You guessed it, he came back with a gallon of Home Depot's finest paint primer, tinted purple.

These are funny and humbling :D. I have read your magnet story Larry and rereading it made me laugh all over again. Not because of your suffering but because of your skill as a story teller - who knew magnets can cause eyes to water???

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Larry Edgerton

Repost, but appropriate. Funny story....... Well,, now its funny. Someone gave me this magnet that was used in a printing operation to pull metal out of the paper. Its about 3' long, 2 1/2" wide and consists of a 1/8" stainless sheet with a bunch of some kind of magnets bonded to it that are parallelograms spaced about 1/4" apart the whole length. EXTREMELY STRONG!!!! its so strong my buddy and I picked up my DJ20 jointer with it easily. Easy for the magnet, not us. There is a warning on it to stay ten feet away if you have a pacemaker. You have to get real close to read the warning? I had it screwed to the wall to hold shaper bushings and decided that I was going to make a magnetic fixture out of it, so I took it down and cut it in half. I was putting handles on it, coming from the drill press heading back to the bench when WHAM! As I walked by the other half sitting on the saw magnet side up the one on the saw jumped up and bit me. No, really, that is what happened! You always hear of trees jumping out and biting cars so I know this stuff can happen. SO...... Here I am in my shop working alone with my finger caught between two magnets that are capable of lifting a jointer. This hurts a little bit. You know that instant when you hit your finger with a hammer? Well, just keep that going. I don't suggest that you keep hitting yourself with a hammer to get an idea what it felt like, just take my word for it. To give you a clue, I have broken both legs at the same time, and this hurt worse. Or, maybe I an just getting to be a wimp in my old age? So in screaming pain I am trying to get this off my finger. Can't pull it out, probably a good thing in retrospect and I only have one hand to work with, the other one having a couple of foot and a half magnets clamped on it. Plus my vision was little blurry, probably had something to do with the magnets making my eyes water. I didn't know magnets could do that? Who knew? I'm hoping I can figure out a way to get it off because I am not sure I can drive the ten miles to town with the magnets making my eyes water. I can't pull two magnets apart with one hand, something I had never thought about before. Its true, you can't do it! I was almost ready to head for town when I spied the rail on my slide saw. I slipped the open end that was fighting its hardest to mate with its sibling over the rail, grabbed the saw wrench that hangs there and jambed it in between, prying enough that I could slip my finger out. The pain then got worse, and I thought I was going to have to visit the porcelain goddess. My finger was no more than a 1/4" thick. Didn't know exactly how much bone was in my finger, and now I do, about 1/4 inch. It took a half hour for it to regain is somewhat normal shape, and as it did the pain subsided with it. Its ok to laugh, I do now...... Oh yeah, I screwed the two halves back on the wall and that is where those little buggers are going to stay..... Larry

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My friend had been contracted to make a carrier for the magnets in an MRI machine. These are colossal rare earth magnets with hundreds of pounds of pull each. He had them out and my wife and I were visiting him, and she said, "what are these?" Before we could say a word, she had picked one up, and the other one, three or more feet away, jumped off the table to marry the other in holy magnetmony. Her finger was pinched and she was screaming for us to help her. We stared blankly at each other, both knowing that even two grown men (that's us) couldn't get them apart. We tried in vain. She ended up ripping the skin where they were pinching her to get free.

I was in my mid 20's and had my own fledgling construction company. My specialty was Permanent Wood Foundations. If properly constructed, a wood foundation is the warmest and driest basement you could ever want, and it will outlast the structure it supports.

Well a new home builder came to town and was advertising for subcontractors. I went to meet them at the hotel where they were set up until they could get a local office set up. They liked my pitch and signed me up. A week later, they called and gave me my first two jobs. I was to build foundations for two homes on this strip of land along a country road just outside of town. Well I had the first one excavated, footings laid, and just had the materials for the walls delivered when a guy pulled into the construction drive and walked up to me.

He asked me if I worked for Unnamed Company. I said "No, but I'm a subcontractor for them. What can I do for you?" So he asks if they had been paying me. Curious as to why he would ask that I said "Well this is my first job with them. Why do you ask?" Then he asks me if I had checked them out. Bear in mind that this was happening in a day when "Windows" only referred to the pieces of glass between indoors and outdoors. Curiosity now edging towards concern, I flat out asked "What do you mean? Who are you? & Why are you wondering these things?", although I have no idea in what order I asked them, or even if I asked them as 3 separate questions. All he said was that he had also done work for them in another city, and that he strongly suggested I thoroughly check them out.

So... I packed my stuff and left the jobsite. I went home to make a call (this was only the era of pagers). I got myself a hot cuppa joe, sat down at my desk, and looked up the number for the BBB. I called the 800 number and started speaking to the gentleman who answered. I asked him about the company and he put me on hold while he started checking. He came back on in a minute or two and told me that I would need to contact their main office to find out anything about them. As someone who was not new to calling the BBB, I thought that seemed a bit strange so I asked why. He paused for several seconds before saying "Uh... It may just be because they have crossed state lines and this is the New York State office. Well I bought what he was selling me and got the number from him for their main national office.

I refilled my cup and dialed the number he had given me. I go through the whole story of why I am calling with the gentleman who answers the phone. He very politely says to give him a couple of minutes and he would be right back, then he places me on hold. Several minutes later he comes back on the line and asks me for my name and my information, which I give him again while wondering why he didn't write it down the first time I gave him all of my information. It didn't actually occur to me until much later that I should have wondered why he needed my biography just to tell me what was what about Unnamed Company. I then ask if he found out anything. He says "So, you are not an employee of Unnamed Company?" Thinking that was a strange thing for the BBB to ask, I say "No, as I told you, I am a contractor who is doing some subcontracting work for them and I was advised that I should check them out. So, I'm on the phone with you checking them out. Now what can you tell me about them?" There is a pause for a moment, then he just said "I can't tell you anything." A said, what do you mean you can't tell me anything? You don't have any records on them? He said "No, I mean I CAN'T tell you anything about them." Naturally I asked why he "couldn't" tell me about them. He said "I can't tell you that either." Way beyond curious at this point, I start pressing him but he cuts me off and says "Look... If you want to know more, you'll need to call this number." I said fine, thanked him ("Thanks for nothing" I thought to myself), and hung up.

My coffee cup was empty again, but this time I just poured in about 3 fingers of bourbon before plopping back down in what I used to think was a pretty comfortable desk chair. I breathed a sigh and dialed the number the not-so-helpful man had given me. One ring. Two rings. Then someone picks up the phone (companies didn't have automated answering and call routing systems the way they all do today. I think it was so much more personal and personable back then). The very professional sounding gentleman who answered the phone simply said:

"Hello FBI"

On the magnet story a friend of mine gave me a bunch of magnets out of old disk drives he disassembled. Every time someone was shown these they wanted a pair for some lame reason or another. Of course after they were given a pair they just had to play with them and see if they could hold them apart. No one could and almost everyone who was given a pair ended up pinching and breaking skin within 5 minutes of getting their hands on them. They had to be hidden since some of my son's friends also wanted a pair. There may be one or two pairs left in my shop. One was taken apart since each piece actually had two magnets. One half was put on my drill press to hold the chuck key. Another smaller disk drive magnet was attached to a stick so ferrous metals that fall into shavings on the floor can be found or tools dropped off the back of a bench can be retrieved.

jtk

I don't know that my story was completely on-topic, but I thought it fit with the theme of the thread at least.

I was renovating a bank in rural New South Wales. It had been flooded so it was a total strip out and refit. We turned up at 430 pm Friday ready to work non stop until Sunday night as the place had to be functional Monday morning(back when the local branch was actually a useful thing). We were the prime contractors but for security reasons the bank employed their own telephone, data and electrical contractors and we just worked in with them. The telephone and data guy was new.

Naturally, first thing is to isolate all electrical and cabling. This was done - sort of. At about 530 pm I was about to run a chainsaw through a partition when I noticed a fat (1.5") data/ phone looking cable bundle going into the partition near the floor. I called the data guy over. He said," don't worry about that, it's obsolete. Here, I'll cut it for you" which he helpfully did. An hour or so later, the security guy goes to make his routine call in. Nothing works. He goes out to a phone box. Head office is going ballistic because security for the region has gone down. It turns out the 'obsolete' cable bundle was kind of critical. The data guy spent the entire rest of the weekend splicing hundreds of those tiny phone wires back together while police stood guard at the rest of the regional branches until the job was done. We did many more jobs where he was the data guy. He was actually a great bloke, an excellent tradie and was let down by bad drawings and records. We never let him forget it though. Cheers