Up until recently I was working for an auto dealership group that just opened a new $32M facility to sell BMWs, Land Rovers and Jaguars in January. How many people do you think are rushing out to make that type of purchase right about now?

Our former shop manager is an extremely talented old-school machinist. He could do some really precision work, using lathes and mills 30 to 50 years old. He could also think through a problem. You could sit down with him and describe in general terms what you wanted to build and he would talk you through it and come up with a way of doing what you wanted that you hadn't even thought of.

Our current shop manager is a CNC guy. We have bought a mill and a lathe in the last 3 years. He does all the programming. Very talented guy and we are lucky to have him. Before we bought the CNC equipment, he could struggle through the old school ways, but it wasn't his bag.

Two totally different approaches. I think it will be increasingly hard to find the old-school machinists going forward.

Reminds of fun times, but utterly wasted times, in HS. Took 3 years of Latin, but that wasn't the wasteful part. Took 3 years of drafting, . . . with a pencil, and a ruler, and a blueprint machine.

Should have just written it off as art classes for the untalented.

I still have one of those bags that makes eraser crumbs in the back of my desk drawer, next to the precision compass.

Yup.. Them boys are all getting pretty old.

I haven't been a real big deal since HS football, yep, miss it.

Are you the guy who stuck an ice pick in his thigh?

I took one quarter of drafting in HS. It was torturous. Fine-motor-hand-eye coordination has never been my thing. Flunked "cutting" in kindergarten and never better than a C in handwriting. Zero drawing talent. Even with T-squares and triangles, I could never get the lines to close cleanly.

In my first job (before academia) we worked with blueprints. I will never forget the smell or the damp feel of a freshly made blueprint.

I took metals class all 4 years.
Some of you will be shocked to know.
I graduated highschool.
True story.

Calm down big boy.
https://media0.giphy.com/media/SMshtoKCWiMyQ/giphy.gif

Please tell me there's "more" of that gif, particularly on the downward side...

pinocchio voice...

I LOOK AROUND THIS BOARD, AND I SEE NOTHING BUT ESSENTIAL.

YOU ARE ESSENTIAL (nose grows)

points to other person

YOU ARE ESSENTIAL (nose grows some more)

OH DEAR...

My Dad convinced me to take Drafting in HS. The teacher was just a total asshole was impossible to get past the border without picking you apart. I started my surveying career in 1977 for the Tuttle Ayer Woodward Co in KC. It was Tuttle and Pike previously the pretty much platted KC proper. The first engineering firm west of the Mississippi. They had old school Draftsmen before CAD. They were true artists incredible actually and the hand lettering wholly shit I miss it to this day. The stuff they taught you in HS didnt resemble draftmen in the trade it was a waste. You knew who drew it just by the north arrow that was their sig. I remember when AutoCAD hit about 40 draftpersons retired of left replaced by 10 AutoCad opperators.

In California marijuana dispensary workers are classified as essential. Not kidding.

Tuttle and Pike and later TAW did all the Atlas Plates for KC proper. I always liked looking at the originals.

https://marcsuniqueantiques.com/wp-c...018/11/218.jpg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/awEAA...VG/s-l1600.jpg
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/13...g?v=1536700760
1925 index page
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/d8gAA...epN/s-l400.jpg

Lol