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Posted By: Luketrician Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 12:14 AM
I know when I was coming up through my apprenticeship, journeymen would try and get me to fetch the craziest things. For example..a flex stretcher, yes I fell for it. I emptied a whole gang box looking for one. Good times and memories though!

So what about the rest of ya'll? Ever been sent after something fictional when you were coming up?

FYI: For my incorrect spelling of the Subject title, "Apprentice's" oops!

[This message has been edited by Luketrician (edited 10-10-2006).]
Posted By: classicsat Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 12:42 AM
"Shake this can of paint until the rattle disappears"

Dwayne to one of the interns on the American Hotrod TV series.
Posted By: GA76JW Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 12:55 AM
I've heard of one who fell for this.

I need a few ID-10-T's. Go see if you can find some. (IDIOT's)

Also the flourescent tube bender trick. They hand an apprentice a bender and tell him to bend them in a U-shape. Never seen it done, maybe urban legend?


Actually heard one today where they sent a fresh outta hs apprentice after powder-ed water.

Can't think of anymore off the top of my head.
Posted By: Zapped Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:01 AM
Left handed hammer
Posted By: Luketrician Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:09 AM
How about a bucket of amps?
Posted By: Almost Fried Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:14 AM
One of the best comes from my days as an avionics tech, working on the flight line. They would send the new kid down to the other hangars to borrow a bucket of prop wash
Posted By: Celtic Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:31 AM
Seal tight couplings
Bucket of Steam
Hen Way (Weigh)
Fastangna ...LMAO, my favorite.
Posted By: ShockinglyWise Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:42 AM
Left-handed metric cresent wrench....
Posted By: blackrd Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:46 AM
From my buddy at the cabinet shop: Send somebody out (big shop, multiple bldgs) to get a grain stretcher, send him around awhile, then ask if it was the metric or standard strechter that he needed, then send him out again.
Posted By: Theelectrikid Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:48 AM
I gotta remember this stuff.

Ian A.
Posted By: ShockMe77 Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 01:50 AM
LOL @ "seal tight couplings" :rollin

When I was in the service I was asked to go get the "2x4 straightener."
Posted By: Dnkldorf Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 02:04 AM
sky hooks?
Posted By: HCE727 Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 02:12 AM
Licking fluorescent tube ends before installing.
Posted By: Luketrician Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 02:18 AM
Yep those 'skyhooks'. For example, about to install a transformer in a ceiling, or some highmast lights in a parkinglot etc? I have heard of apprentices on those jobs being sent to fetch for that infamous tool. :P
Posted By: texassparky Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 03:01 AM
Once when handing my help a light bulb, I told him if you hold the base tight and spin it real fast in your hand that your body had enough electricity in it that it would lite up and I walked away. Came back in a few seconds later and found him spinning the bulb. He has never lived that one down.
Posted By: e57 Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 03:08 AM
While I was in the military it was the ID-10-T form. "Sgt. what was the nomenclature of that form again?" - "Here duffus, let me write it down for ya..." ID10T "Go ask the 1st Sgt. for one of those..."
Posted By: JoeTestingEngr Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 03:39 AM
I know of a car dealership parts lady sent to the parts store across the street for a bucket of welding sparks and a set of muffler bearings.

One day, I was mixing a batch of potting compound for zome Z-80s with a mod. Our receptionist walked in from the office area. I asked her if she saw the Jamaican walking by outside. She asked, "What Jamaican?" I said, "Oh it's just a batch of potting compound."

I once asked a substitute biology teacher if you can inherit sterility. She thought about it and said that she thought so. So I said that if my parents weren't able to have children, chances are I won't be able to either... She realized that she had walked into one.
Joe
Posted By: Luketrician Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 04:43 AM
Another one, the RMC heater. Works realy well if you are already around and using a PVC heater.
Posted By: Rewired Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 05:05 AM
Heard of the "U-Tube bender", "Skyhooks", "Hydraulic wire stretcher"...

Heard of one guy sending the apprentice into the supplier for a " Long weight" ("wait")... Counter guy kept the apprentice waiting for 1/2 hour then sent him out the door.

When I was first year apprentice I broke a compact fluorescent lamp while installing it so I sent our "co-op" kid down to the trailer with just the plastic lamp base and strict instructions to get "new glass inserts to fit the base and a can of argon gas" off the forman.. 34 1/2 minutes later the forman came up to tell me to stop wasting his time but could not stop laughing either!

Oh ya, buddy of mine sent his "help" to the supplier for a list of parts, one of which was a can of "lemon sented WD-40" [Linked Image]
A.D

[This message has been edited by Rewired (edited 10-11-2006).]
Posted By: Alan Belson Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 08:05 AM
UK apprentices were sent on the usual 'fool errands', a long weight [of course[, a bubble for a spirit level, set of 4" ACME taps and wrench, buckets of steam, etc.. One [ no fool he ]cockney lad was sent to the local Engineers' shop for a left-handed 1 gallon metal teapot for our stove. Off he went, on the shop tradesbike, and disappeared for the whole day. Claimed to have visited every hardware store for miles, but had spent the day in a cartoon cinema watching Bugs and Daffy.
Best part- it was the Boss who sent him out so no recriminations on us oiks!

Alan

A little sketch of 'tradesbike'. Handy little machines, I wonder if they still make 'em?


[Linked Image]


[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 10-11-2006).]
Posted By: togol Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 09:00 AM
I've sent more than a few for
wirenut lockwashers
a #12 De-crimper,
a lube gun,
switchgear polish,
and a 1' extension for step ladders
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 10:22 AM
The sky hooks are called "Siemens air hooks" here.
I never actually got them, but when working for the railway company, painting a loco, a mate told the engineer who was supervising our work: "Hey, move that loco a little so he can put up a ladder at the front. Or is he supposed to paint hanging from a Siemens air hook?" We all had a good chuckle.
Posted By: ghost307 Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 12:48 PM
One of the apprentices at the Ford plant where I worked was VERY late in arriving to help a journeyman reverse rotation on a conveyor belt motor. Just as the journeyman finished the task...the kid shows up, so the fun got under way.

The kid was told that "we need to reverse the direction of rotation on this 5 Horsepower Baldor motor (and the kid starts writing down the nameplate info in his book) which is controlled by an ITE Full Voltage Non-Reversing Combination Motor Starter (and the kid keeps writing).

The journeyman proceeds to open the box, pull the fuses, put them back in the clips upside-down, close the box and turn the motor on to show the kid that it worked.

The kid dutifully wrote ALL this down in his book.

The entire shop had a week-long laugh about that one.

(Not to worry, we straightened the kid out before we sent him out on his own)
Posted By: George Corron Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 05:42 PM
The last time I got to send an apprentice off for one of these it was a "Blue handled" Sky hook. He proceeds to check out several of our material trailers, and runs into one of my sub-foreman. He tells him what he has been sent for in these HOT, METAL Con-ex boxes in the middle of August. The guy says "Oh, George is pulling your leg" "I thought so" the kid says. "Yeah, we gave the blue handled to the carpenters, we only have the red ones left" [Linked Image] The young'un proceeds to spend the next 3 hours in these ovens looking for a red handled sky hook.

The one that got ME as an apprentice, and was, of course, passed down....was an underground 4" run (only rigid in those days) for comm, we're getting ready to vac a line in...Hey George, put your ear to this pipe and let me know when you hear the mouse coming, I'll slow down. Yeah, it was awful chilly in those soaking wet clothes in October. Ya just HAD to pass that one along.
Posted By: Kenbo Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 06:05 PM
How about " a yard of paint" storeman dips brush in paint and paints a line 3feet long on the floor. (the other 5 or 6 paint lines should have given it away).

Or sent for "tartin dye" how else do you make kilts?

Ahhh the trades bike. I used to have one of those. I deliverd groceries for the co-op. All my school pals laughed me till Christmas came. Old dears just loved getting there groceries taken home for them [Linked Image]

Paul dont you dare start calling me "Granvil" lol
Posted By: steve ancient apprentice Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 07:42 PM
Too old to fall for any of these mentioned. Many journyman have tried but all have failed. When on a large job once I went to look for what he asked for but went for a extened luch instead. He was upset I was gone for so long. I told him if you want me to look for something that does not exist, I will take my time looking for it. That was 2.5 years ago. No one since have asked me to look for something that does not exist. If they do ill be at lunch at least till 1:30,
Steve ancient apprentice

[This message has been edited by steve ancient apprentice (edited 10-11-2006).]
Posted By: Celtic Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 09:50 PM
Steve,
we can't give ALL our secrets out here in print [Linked Image]

Someday, we will get you - you may even be a jman (if you're not already?) by then....and we will STILL get you - when you least expect it...we will get you - at the most inopportune moment...we will get you - you might be in a job meeting with all the big cheese's...we will get you - you might be in the porta-john...we will get you...
...
...
...
It's what we do [Linked Image]
Posted By: luckyshadow Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 10:46 PM
I used to be famous at the one company I was a foreman for. I sent a guy into the presidents office to ask him where the greenlee tube bender was, sent men to the general contractors trailer to barrow a left handed torque wrenches, I had one apprentice that would fall for anything so I sent him to another jobsite to get the red sky hooks. I told one apprentice to be sure to unplug all extension cords because they are just laying around and the general contractor was concerned about the volts leaking out and piling up in the corners. All though this was humorous to watch I did hear a bit of grief from the other trades when he went around unplugging their cords. I was working close to an airport so I had an apprentice be on the lookout for certain "aircraft" for me namely the
B-1-R-D and the G-U-11 . I convinced one apprentice that fuses were " current directive" and if installed upside down they wouldn't work. Then I left him alone and snuck back to peek on him and sure enough he was checking the fuses in the disconnects and turning some over so the writing was right side up.
I got my dues one day when I sent a guy out to my truck to get some greenfield couplings. After about 15 minutes he came back in and handed me 2 straight connectors and a rigid coupling, then said the jokes on me. I looked out side he dam near emptied my truck on the ground looking for these parts.
Posted By: steve ancient apprentice Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 11:00 PM
Celtic,
Now i cant stop laughing. I needed it today. Not a J-man yet a little less than a year and a half. 5100 and counting. 2900 to go.
[Linked Image]
Posted By: livetoride Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 11:10 PM
Funny stuff!!! When I was a helper on a big job I was sent for a "sky hook" by a worthless J-man. I spent all day flirting with the warehouse women "looking" for it.Told my forman and he fired the J man that did it. Best day I had on that job for 3 yrs. Rod
Posted By: Luketrician Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/11/06 11:25 PM
Yeah, you got that right Celtic! We can't give away the whole list, "if there is one" of made up tools and such. Would almost ruin this old Journeyman/apprentice tradition.
Posted By: Ogreshouse Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 01:52 AM
hey guys howbout a smurftube bender? stretcher? or flex bender? stretcher? i heard my forman ask a greenie to get these perticular items today at work and i nearly died of laughter! [Linked Image]
Posted By: Luketrician Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 02:52 AM
Ok, what about taking someones hacksaw and flipping the blade upside down? What a site that is!
Posted By: PE&Master Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 04:37 PM
go get me the square drill bit...
Posted By: pauluk Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 04:48 PM
The storeman where I worked for BT said he once had apprentices sent to him for a can of tartan paint and an A.C. battery.

Quote
Paul dont you dare start calling me "Granvil"

[Linked Image]
Posted By: iwire Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 05:03 PM
Quote
Ok, what about taking someones hacksaw and flipping the blade upside down? What a site that is!

I took the blade out of someones roto split and put in a paper replica.

It was deserved as he 'borrowed' my spare without asking.
Posted By: earlydean Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 05:07 PM
As an apprentice, I got even with the j-man by parking the PU truck too close to the porta-john door when he was in for his daily. He was released after break.
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 07:27 PM
Last summer I worked for the railway company. the nostalgia department has many volunteers and not all of them are the brightest bulbs.
One of them saw us run a laptop inside a railway car without power. "How does that work?"
"The car's got big batteries!"
"What, a 220V AC battery???"
Guess he never heard of an inverter...
Posted By: napervillesoundtech Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 08:13 PM
Does anyone have a good supply house that sells dehydrated water? I used to keep a can labeled this in my truck just to see who would ask about it. You would be amazed at the comments from it.
Posted By: iwire Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 08:22 PM
Quote
go get me the square drill bit...

My Grandfather was a woodworker, he had square bits for drill press work. Norm Abram has them as well.

[Linked Image from bosstoolsupply.com]
Posted By: tseeba Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 08:24 PM
I sent my apprentice out to the pickup for a rigid T. He comes back and hands it to me, I tell him I need one with the hole out the bottom, knowing that the way they are stacked in the pickup, all the hubs are on top. Twenty minutes later, I go check on him, I walk over grab one, flip it, and say "this one should do it". He called me every name in the book.
Posted By: Alan Belson Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/12/06 10:21 PM
I guess it's OK to trick the green 'new boy', apprentice, or whatever, but please take care of the truly gullible, those who go through their whole lives being tricked, hoodwinked and made fun of.

'Ralph' was such a one, a great happy lump of a man, the butt of endless japes which he took in good heart. Too many to mention, but here's some of them:

Pulled our 5 ton O.H. gantry-crane the full length of the machine shop with his teeth, because someone said he couldn't.

"I bet you couldn't eat two dinners Ralph!", went the banter in the canteen dinner queue. [ Our canteen-lady, Joan, always served up a stonking-great dinner of prize proportions].
Well, he blinking well could! Two massive steak pies, boiled spuds, mushy-peas, gravy and 2 giant bread rolls went down his cake-chute in short order, followed by two puddin's with custard!

In 1964, Lynne Davis was Wales' Olympic long-jump gold medallist. Ralph was tricked into a fake 'sports hour' at lunch break, and duly broke the world record in his boiler suit, flat cap and size 11 hobnail boots. As his huge frame took off, they moved the marker-stick back 10 feet! This joke was repeated the next day, with Ralph duly kitted out as the Golden Athlete. Plimsoles [ light canvas shoes], shorts & singlet, the lot.
He was convinced he had beaten the world record for years.

Finally, one day in the mid-eighties, he confided to his lunchtime-compatriots that he was going to repoint his chimney-stack at the weekend, and had arranged to hire a scaffold tower, roof ladders, boards etc.. to do the job safely.
Some idiot told him to save his money and tie himself to the chimney stack with a bit of rope instead.
And, of course he did. So when the old stack suddenly fell clean off the gable end, he went with it.
Result: He was partially paralysed and had to take medical retirement.

Alan
Posted By: pauluk Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/13/06 09:25 AM
Quote
Does anyone have a good supply house that sells dehydrated water?

[Linked Image]

"To prepare for use, just add, er..... water!"
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/13/06 10:09 AM
That reminds me of a fairly strange dream I once had... I got an old photo camera and in the carrying case there was all kinds of weird stuff. Most interesting: small paper bags of "Instant sparkling wine" [Linked Image]
Even in my dream I laughed my lower backside off seeing that stuff...
Posted By: KBSHORTS Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/13/06 10:21 AM
Oh my! Steve if you ever want to work in VA., give me a call. Everyone around here gets it sooner or later. I am also reluctant to reveal too many J-man secrets but the box of 3/4" concrete holes has worked well and then there was the apprentice brave enough to lock me in that porta-john....
KB
Posted By: ghost307 Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/13/06 01:07 PM
...and then there was the time that I was training a new (book-smart) engineering graduate while one of the plant journeymen was making up a cord connector for our testing truck.

He asked my whether I wanted postive or negative phase rotation.

Since the truck was set up to reverse rotation as part of our testing procedure anyway, I told him that it didn't matter.

The kid was watching him terminate the cable in the cord connector when I pointed out "notice that he's making this up for POSITIVE phase rotation, if we were to need NEGATIVE phase rotation, he'd simply have to twist the wire strands in the other direction."

The kid would have completely bought it except for the small fact that the tradesman actually fell over against the side of the truck from laughing so hard.
Posted By: Rewired Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/14/06 08:37 PM
Luketrician:
On your hacksaw trick of " flipping the blade upside down"... try just turning it around so it cuts on the backstroke... Did that to a co-worker and it was priceless, but he got me back eventually!

A.D
Posted By: Celtic Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/15/06 12:49 AM
There are so many ways to get you Steve....and we will [Linked Image]

I recall a story from years gone by....
A young apprentice and an older JW were pulling cables through cored holes in a hi-rise deck. The old timer was on the upper floor, the "kid" was on a ladder below. The kid would push the cables up and the old timer would grab it and secure it before they both relocated up one floor.
On one particular floor, the old timer put his foot over the hole in the floor. The kid shoved as hard as he could, but could not get the cable through the hole.
...and that's when it happened...
The old timer dropped his pants and squatted over the hole...telling the kid there must be a rock or a bottle or something in there....the kid dutifully reached up into the hole...and grabbed a sack of yams.

LOL

It didn't hurt/help that a crowd had gathered around the 1/2 naked old timer to see if he had actually lost his mind this time...when they saw the hand come up out of the floor...and the old timer drop a few inches to meet it sans undergarments...

You have nothing to fear, Steve...
...just keep telling yourself that....every morning when you wake up...knowing that one day it WILL be you...and it will be .
[Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by Celtic (edited 10-14-2006).]
Posted By: Trumpy Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/15/06 10:52 AM
Ahh yes,
the good old apprentice tricks.
A mate of mine was sent to the supply house by my Boss at the time to get 15 Left-hand Elbows and was told that there had better not be any Right-hand ones in the box or his pay would be docked.
Another one (Same guy) was bi-directional cable.
The young fella was told to tell the supply house not to give the Boss any more of that uni-directional cable.
(Same stuff, like Romex 12-3).
That Uni-directional stuff will burn someones house down one of these days, AC has to go both ways you know!. [Linked Image]
Posted By: deverson Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/15/06 01:16 PM
Along the same lines! A little bit of fun, A clear bead of silicone caulk on a hard hat suspension.
Dave
PS
Peanut butter will get it out of the hair! With no damage done
Posted By: Celtic Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/15/06 01:49 PM
Another hardhat trick...just tighten the suspension up one notch everyday for a week...everyday he will have to adjust it...by Friday, he will just grab it and loosen it one click...on Monday, you LOOSEN it one click...he will then loosen it yet another click....and get all bent out of shape when it STILL doesn't fit.
Posted By: renosteinke Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/15/06 06:18 PM
My last helper didn't need any help when it came to making us laugh.

Several times, he helped dig a ditch, climb out, turn to see a pretty lady- and step right into the ditch he'd just come out of.
Or, he'd reach into a ceiling- and kick the ladder away from himself.

Of course, he THOUGHT we were making fun of him a few times.
Like the time I produced a porta-band. He looked at me accusingly, for all the cut's I'd had him make with a hacksaw.
Or the ground rod I had him pound in by hand - the first 6 ft went pretty easy-, producing the jackhammer only when we hit rock. Of course, he'd never tried hauling a jackhammer up a ladder!
Posted By: Luketrician Re: Fun with apprectices - 10/16/06 12:33 PM
Yeah, I had once done that to myself with the hacksaw, getting the blade on backwards. Although, I was still new. Even after I had topped out, I learned that you don't outgrow on the job pranks.

Last one for me was coming back from lunch and finding one of my fellow J-men had filled my toolbox full of polywater. I'm just glad I have a good sense of humor, 'cause that took a few days to clean up.
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