Any old (or young) Auto Shop Teachers have stories? I taught Auto Shop and related classes for 15 years over a 40 year span. (had a 22 year sabbatical with Snap-on Tools). Whenever I get together with other teachers, we invariably talk about dumb stuff we found or students or other teachers did. Of course, WE never did any of this stuff ourselves. Examle: In the mid-70s I had a student who was extremely arrogant and cocky. He knew everything, but never did anything. When he found out that he was not going to pass my class and therefore not graduate, he pleaded with me to give him some assignment to do so he could just squeak by with a D-. I agreed to pass him if he could put the distributor in our Chevy 6 shop engine and get it running. After about an hour of fooling around and trying every combination of wires he could think of, I hear the engine running, but it sounds like a bad tune-up on a Briggs and Stratton. When I got over to see it running, the #1 spark plug wire was run to the center terminal on the distributor and one of the plug wires went from the coil to a randomly selected plug terminal on the cap. After I got past the, "That can't possibly work" in my head, I realized that he got lucky in his selection of plug terminals on the cap. The engine was in fact running on one cylinder. I have no idea of what was happening to all the 'wasted sparks' inside the distributor cap. I did pass him, but made him come in after school to rewire the plugs and draw me a diagram of the firing order and explain how to determine where # 1 was on the cap. I hope he never worked on anyone's car. My guess is that the warden wouldn't allow him around tools.
The shop teacher was telling all us ninth graders about how dangerous the 8" jointer was in the shop because of the way the cutter head is partly hidden by table and it also turns so fast you really can't see it, as he was pointing that out on the running jointer he looked back at us and lost the three fingertips on one hand......truly a graphic demonstration and after 35 years as a cabinetmaker, one I have NEVER forgotten!
Shop teachers always stress how careful to be around saws, powertools etc but it seems every one that I had during school had a missing finger or damaged hand. I guess they all learned the hard way. Do as I say, not as I do!!!!
My woodshop teacher always harped about loose clothing around power tools. He was demo'ing how to turn a spindle on the wood lathe and his tie got wrapped in the stock. Lucky for him the belt drive was loose, he choked and gagged for a second till we shut it off, but it could have broke his neck.
My shop teacher has one one thumb and four fingers all together, between both hands and nobody knew the story. One day a troublemaker was sitting in the back, tapping his fingers on the desk, when shop teacher told him to stop he said "What's wrong, you jealous?". Hilarity ensued. True story, and I'll never forget it!
we dont have shop at my school (yeah, i know) but i remeber my dad telling me how his shop teacher couldn't un bend a bracket or something on a vice, put his foot on a drill press for leverage and the drill press fell onto some other kids foot and cut clean through his new vans, and some toes. all he remembered was the teacher cussing and yelling for another teacher next door.
I was teaching a second level auto class. Each student was building an engine. One student did not have much money. He had a Buick V6 that was going in his Chevy Monza, Practically everything I was teaching . . he didn't do His excuse was no money ( true ) and no time. So when installing the crank, it was used and worn . . and so were the bearings. It got to the point where I just stopped saying " you can't do that" because he did it anyway. We he got the engine built. He installed it in class and got it running. Sure it had a knock or two LOL . . but it ran. When he left school with it, he made it to the light about a block from school. When it turned green he made a left hand turn, gunned it, and left the engine all across the road LOL Right through the oil pan the internals went . it made for a helluva lesson as for your other teacher stories . . well I did my 30 years with the kids and have all 10 digits attached.
We had a great high school auto shop teacher back in 1969. My buddy and I were walking down the outside hall at highschool when the vice principle yelled from across the school yard for my buddy to stop and wait for him. We knew it was because my buddys sideburns were too long, so we just kept walking and got into the auto shop. We quickly told the teacher what was going on, he had my buddy hide in the trunk of an old Cadillac in the shop and when the vice principle burst thru the door, the teacher just pointed to the back door. The vice principle hurried thru the back door in hot pursuit. My buddy got caught later that day and kicked out till he trimmed his sideburns, but we never forgot how cool the teacher was.
Teacher friend had a kid ride a skate board into the shop, he pushed the kid off, picked up the board walked to the wood shop and sliced it in half in table saw. Hilarious In the 70s you could do that.
My shop teacher did a hell of a job and made it look easy. I was very appreciative even back then! A big thanks for the thankless job you shop teachers out there do!
My buddy Steve taught Auto Shop, too. He was famous for this demonstration on oxy-acetelene torches. He claimed he learned it at Stout State. To show the potential danger of the gases when mixed, you start by filling a small red balloon with straight acetelene. Tape this to the shop floor at a seam in the concrete. Then with a lit torch taped to a long pole, you slide it along the concrete seam until the flame contacts the balloon. Small pop and a lot of soot. Then you fill a green balloon with straight oxygen. Torch it again. Pop! But really not very exciting. Finally, starting with the torch adjusted to a neutral flame, you extinguish the fire and put the mix into a yellow ballon. When you ignite this mixtue filled balloon, it makes a loud enough explosion to get the attention of all the students. They immediately develop a respect for the oxy/fuel process. The secret to all this is to make the yellw balloon about the size of a baseball, maybe a softball if you really want to make an impression. Steve, suffers from BIBS. (Bigger is better Syndrome). So one day he made the balloons about the size of a kids soccer ball. No problem for the green or red ones, but when he touched off the yellow baby, it blew out a half dozen florecent lights. and brought the assistant principal all the way from the front office. No one was hurt, but needless to say it created a 'significant emotional event' for everyone in the room. Several of us continued to use the demonstration (with small balloons) until one of the shop teachers publications reported a story that some students had decided to try this on their own. They filled several balloons with oxy-acetelene mix, but realized that it may be a bit much for the neigborhood. So, they loaded the ballons in a car to take them out of town. Unfortunately, they were involved in an accident and the balloons exploded. As I recall, at least one died. Not funny, but a good lesson!
Had this shop auto shop teacher at Wheaton High School named Mr Styer. he only had one hand, but had this hook that would open and close.Whenever you were doing something you shouldn't [That was most of the time for me] he would come up behind you and squeeze the hook on the back of your arm. for 3 years I always had a fresh bruise on my arms. Of coarse nowdays instead of being the best teacher,mentor and role model a boy could have,he'd be in jail
The autoshop teacher in my high school was not anyone you would have wanted to come to your wedding. He had been a roundy round guy and had a steel plate in his head from being a roundy round racer. They wouldn't let me take auto shop not that I wanted to. But they cited a fiacsco that happened when he was substituting for my Ag Shop teacher where he claimed that I was the problem. There was a fire in the trash can, I am sure that someone started the fire but to this day I don't know who. Me being my civil minded self was trying to put it out when he ran over and snatched the fire extinguisher from me. All at once I heard one of the sosch kids shout duck beaner, so I did and he let fly with the fire hose knocking the teacher on his ass. Pretty damned funny, I could hardly get away from the teacher I was laughing so hard. Somehow all that was my fault. The kid with the fire hose did come to my defense and said that if I hadn't ducked he wouldn't have been able to hose the teacher down with the fire hose. Guess I shouldn't have ducked?
In 1967 we had an auto shop teacher who was european and who wore a grey shop coat every day, with a belt. Of course we all thought that was retarded and being teenagers we felt an obligation to do something about it. So, we grabbed several 1/8" welding rods and hooked them together, and hung them on the back of his shop coat like a tail. A ball of 4/0 steel wool was added as a sort of cottontail. Teacher walked around for about ten minutes with tail until he figured it out, probably because we were all laughing our asses off. I still feel a little guilty about the way we treated that guy. I know I couldn't do his job without becoming a drunk.
I never used it as a demo, but the acetylene trick can be done with small student sized milk cartons from the cafeteria. It accomplishes the same effect. I always just turned on the oxygen and let people sniff then turn on the acetylene without them knowing and watch the facial expressions change
I had a couple of great shop teachers, myself. In the mid-1980's, on the Southside of Indpls, most of the kids in shop classes were there just to pass the day with as little English/Math/Science as possible. I walked in as a college prep kid who was actually interested in learning what they had to teach. I think that might have been a bit of a treat for them. So, I actually want to shout them out for sharing their knowledge with me. John Stroud (metals) and Bob Wagner (Auto mechanics), thanks for everything- Rarely does a day pass when I don't use things you taught me (job and hobbies) And a funny story, which also illustrates the kind of student these guys tended to get: One day, Mr Stroud sends a student to the tool cabinet to get a "metric adjustable wrench." At thyis time, I was a Junior, and the student in question was a freshman, but we were in first grade together, if you get what I mean. The kid came right back with an adjustable wrench. Mr Stroud pointed to where it said "6 inch" on the handle and said he needed a metric one. Kid looked for the rest of the class (about 30 minutes) to find a metric adjustable wrench. These teachers both still had their factory compliment of fingers and thumbs, too.
My auto shop teacher in the '60's didn't know a thing about cars. I don't know how he got the job. When he found out that I knew how to do tune-ups and use a timing light, he had me show all the other kids how to do it. I enjoyed teaching the others, and that is probably why I became a teacher.
My metal shop teacher, who happened to be the best teacher I ever had in school did the oxy-acet balloon thing and blew the windows out of the shop. That was the year before I started high school. He was quoted in the year book saying "one time I tried remodeling the shop by explosion". Other than that one mistake he was an outstanding teacher. We liked to prank the auto shop teacher. He was pretty easy going and enjoyed a good joke or prank. At the end of the last class of the day and usually on Friday we'd get a bunch of guys and turn a car sideways in the shop blocking the rest of the cars in. The first time he thought it was funny. The 2nd, not so much. So the following Friday we didn't turn a car sideways.....several guys lifted a Vega up while others slid the work tables under it. I have no idea how he got it down. We spent the next week doing studying and taking written tests. He made his point. We stopped the pranks. Then several weeks later he had someone working on his car. His wife also taught at the same school. Some asshole left a bra, some empty beer cans and a joint on the floor in back. I don't know who found the stuff but he told the class it wasn't funny and it could have cost him his marriage and job.
Poor kids . . I did send one to another teacher telling him that I wanted the "bucket of steam". So yes, we had fun with the kids too.
Thanks Fred. I taught high school shop for 33 1/2 years and still have all my original body parts. In many states, shop classes are "history".
You might want to know why before you pass judgement. Back in 1968 I had one of my vo-tech teachers that had a very large scar across his hand. A couple fingers were off angle quite a bit. One of the guys asked, figuring there be some stupid story.... Truth was he had been shot by a Japanese soldier during WW2. He was very humble telling the story and saying how lucky he was to have come through the experience alive. I'd hire that guy to teach my kids in a heart beat. A bunch of my tech teachers were WW2 vets. One was a Marine who had been in WW2 and Korea. There was a fight between two seniors. It got pretty bad and the other teachers wanted to break it up, but this guy said "let 'em get it out of their system" and let the guys fight. One kid was starting to overpower the other and it was time to break it up. One teacher (a navy vet) grabbed one kid and my teacher grabbed the other. The one kid was done, he was glad to be out of the fight. The one my teacher grabbed.... well.... He wasn't done and he took a swing at my teacher. The next thing that kid knew, he was up against the locker, feet off the floor. What really impressed me (and everyone else) was my teacher had one arm in a cast! He did that with one good arm!
Not sure the shop teachers will appreciate my story, but most the students did back in the 60's. We had a wood shop teacher who had a habit of laying hands on guys if they did something stupid, or wrong. Might be a slap on the back of the head, or might be an arm twist until you went to the ground. This stuff was more condoned in the 60's, so we didn't think much of it, just hated the guy for doing it. One day one of the bullies in class was working on his project when the teacher hollered to clean things up. Dummy kept right on working and we all jumped to avoid pissing off the teacher. Teacher is scanning the shop to see who's cleaning up, and sure enough spots him still working away. He makes a bee line to the guy and grabs the tool from his hand, then proceeds with his favorite move of grabbing his arm and yelling at him. To the teacher's surprise the kid pulls away and tells him to keep his hands off him. Teacher takes a step to grab him again and it's lights out for teacher! Then the guy puts away his project and escorts himself to the office to tell them he'd just knocked out the shop teacher. We're all there in shock for awhile until the teacher comes to, and heads out to report the incident, only to find the kid already there. Funny part was he only got 3 days suspension, and we never got hands laid on us again! Didn't like the bully, but he sure solved the problem we were afraid to address.
Maybe they didn't use it for 'real' welders. When did you go to Stout? They may have discontinued this demo by then. Steve must've been there in 1970 or so.
Reminded me of a similar incident, I had. Had a loudmouth trouble maker and a really nice kid in the same class. While we were washing up one day, the nice kid starts cleaning his fingernails with a small pocket knife. the loudmouth starts yelling, "The dudes got a knife, the Dudes got a knife." I assess the situation and ask the nice kid for the knife. As he folds it up and hands it to me, the other kid keeps yelling, "The dudes got a knife." With my free hand I push the loudmouth against the wall and tell him to, "Shut up!" He keeps yelling but his voice is getting higher and higher and weaker and weaker. As I put the knife in my pocket, i realize that the loudmouths feet are about 6" off the floor and I have him by the throat. I let him down and he gets real quiet. I never heard anymore from him or the administration, but there was a stream of kids peering in the window of the Autoshop to see the new teacher. Talk was, "Don't mess with that dude, he's BAD!" Amazing what adrenalin will do.
Our metallshopteacher was a hard ass guy with a flattop haircut the first day he called us to his office I tell you one thing your longhaired freaks get a hair cut or next time when you enter the shop door put on a hairnet like the sissys you are or this will hapen to you and he pulled out a plastic bag with a long black hair with a piece of scalp on it from a guy that got stuck in a lathe a couple of years before
The Jalopy Journal
