I agree with both Hot and Tommy above statement's. After my USAF stint, I went to work sweeping the floors at the USS Homestead Works "Big Shop". Our shop did all the major/heavy repairs for all the US Steel's mills in the Mon Valley. When the machinist apprenticeship opened up, I applied and got accepted into the program. Well, 8,500 hours of both OJT(on the job training) and classroom studies and 5 years later, I received my papers certifying me as "journeyman status". I can't even begin to tell you the wide range of work/jobs that I learned during my apprenticeship. (as a machinist you're never done learning). The apprentices were always paired with an experienced machinist(grizzlies we called them). until after a couple of years you could be trusted to get a job done right the first time. Those old timers knew all the little tricks to save us grief-especially when it was better to take a few minutes to think a particular job the whole way through and do things in the correct sequence. I was fortunate in that I was in the last class of apprentices to receive journeyman papers. Back then, all the major companies had various trade apprentice programs that for the most part are now long gone. I stuck with my trade through the years and retired almost 5 years ago from the US Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District. About 15 years ago at the Corps, it took us almost 2 years to find a qualified individual to replace one of our retiring machinists. Some of the candidates couldn't even read a blueprint let alone operate all the various machinery to complete a job from start to finish. I'll get off my soapbox now. Ah, if I were only 20-25 years younger
Nick
