Lies we tell ourselves in the shop

PHPaul said:
A favorite saying I got from my Father: "Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk and cut it with an axe."

Another, the Universal Torque Spec: "Run 'er down 'til she strips then back it off a quarter turn."
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The universal torque setting!!
I once rang the local Zetor tractor agency to get the cylinder head torque settings for a Zetor 8011, the guy took a deep breath and said "Tight lad, TIGHT"
 
PHPaul said:
Many, MANY years ago, I was learning Model 28 Teletype repair on the job. The guy that was teaching me was good and I was picking it up pretty well. I took a page printer apart for quarterly maintenance and laid all the parts and subassemblies out on the bench like an exploded diagram.

"Good job," Larry sez and handed me some quarters. "Here, go get us a soda and you can put it back together after we take a break."

I ran up to the soda machine and when I came back Larry was standing there with a s**t-eating grin on his face, shaking a burn bag full of teletype parts.

Took me 4 or 5 watches to put that thing back together, but I did it and it worked perfectly. I learned more about teletypes in that 4-5 days then I did the whole 4 or 5 weeks preceding. I bet I could still do it and I haven't touched a TTY in 40 years.
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I used to be a respiratory therapist and my final test was on the ventilator, in this case MA1 (puritan bennet) the kind they always show in movies with the bellows on the pole mounted to the machine. had no idea when my director was going to test me.
late one afternoon, got a stat call to ICU and when I arrived, my director was bagging a patient and the vent was disassembled and spread over a bed.
He smiles at me and says "Better hurry up, patient is dying"
i assembled it without a hitch and set up on the patient. and yes, it was a real live paying patient.
those days are gone, would make national news today with social media.
 
Very interesting on teletype machines! I used to have a model 15 that ended up at the recyclers. Anyone remember the model 15?
 
The biggest lie I tell myself:
"It's late, I'll put away those tools first thing tomorrow."
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Then the following week I wonder where my 1/2" wrench went because it's not in the drawer, and cannot be seen buried under three more projects.....SIGH!

The real question is why do I keep believing it!

-brino
 
This thing is gonna be like brand new..naw...it’ll be BETTER than brand new when I get done with it.
 
This one I tell my self all the time,just because I'm that smart (never done this before but how hard can it be)
 
I'll just finish this then do a proper clean up.
I'm sure I say this every day.
I'm hoping today is the day.
 
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