Good Monday morning!

Good Monday morning Patriot Woodworkers! What did you get done over the weekend, and what have you planned for the week ahead! Inquiring minds want to know. Please tell us what's happening in your shops, your life, and any events going on with you. Thank you for being here folks!

 

Welcome new members

To view our newest members and welcome them to our digs, please see our Members Page, you can "Sort" by join date and click on their names and be taken to their profile page where you can leave a message of welcome. Thank you for making our newest folks feel welcome.

 

MWTCA What's It

The What's It has been overlooked by yours truly, I plan on catching up January of this year concurrently with February coming up. Stay tuned as we get back on track with this Patriot Woodworker tradition in cooperation with MWTCA. Thank you for your patience.

https://thepatriotwoodworker.com/forums/forum/54-the-mwtca-whats-it-project/

 

Featured Topic

Follow @4DThinker on a unique CNC desk build.

 

Featured Image

Ingå Local Museum, the homestead museum of Gammelgården.

I found this image at Wikimedia Commons, what an idealistic setting and from my research, an actual home and museum in Scandinavia. The inhabitants were crafty, I see a loom, and spinning wheel, and home made furniture, children's bunks in the corner. 

The Scandinavians were and are known for their crafts and self sufficiency in the area of homesteading and survival.

See more at Museum of Scandia.

Attribution: Sofia Ek, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Featured Video

Mike explains the evolution of Windsor chair seats. He shows examples of the various shapes and describes how they were used in the many chair styles developed ca. 1740 – 1840.

 

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

What did you get done over the weekend, and what have you planned for the week ahead!

 Watched the driveway and yard turn into a mud pit, and hopefully NOT more of the same. 

Mostly normal weekend. At least it was above zero. Saturday youngest granddaughter competed in her final, D3, regular season swim meet for this year. She was a few minutes North of @Fred W. Hargis Jr in Lima. I was 4-1/2 hours away via live stream and Meet Mobile. Her best meet of the year; (2) 1st, (1) 3rd. She became part of school program history as the women's team achived their first ever winning regular season. Conference championship 4day meet will be in the middle of February.

 

Today, left early to watch youngest grandson. He and his mother tested + for Influenza A last week. She returned to work today. He has to remain home today before being allowed to return to school.

 

Rest of week, TBD. Might actually get some outside time later in the week. We'll see.

Spent yesterday kind of hobbled up....rolled over the wrong way in bed Saturday night...and.I just don't bounce like I used to...

 

Monday..leave it at that...Doctor Visit after Lunch, today.

 

31 mostly cloudy degrees outside.  

Might try to get a coat of Varnish on a small box..

We'll see....

Staying warm.  Working on a batch of awls.

Played on the lathe a little.

 

Got another inch of rain Friday night. Sure could have used some of it during the summer.

Working on a batch of cutting boards while trying to get the shop cleaned up enough to move around in.

Bringing new technician up to speed on where everything is in shop.  Nice to have someone that is interested in repairing vehicles.  Last few have been shall we say, amusing and scary all in one.

My neighbor across the street came to ask me about an issue with her vehicle. Just a light on in her dash and it has been at repair place for 2 weeks. They know what is wrong, and gave her an estimate, even have the parts. But they are behind and only have only one technician that can do that type of work. So she was inquiring if I could take it to my shop and get it done faster. Hated to tell her no, because as I left Friday I have 14 cars in my approved to repair box. Honestly have no idea how long any of them have been here, just that parts are here and they are in order to be repaired. Like everyone else we only have couple people at that level to do the work.

 

Why is this? Well technicians are in short supply. Has been this way for 30 years that I have been in this industry. Many reasons exist, flat rate pay system, corporate focus on bottom line labor cost, not quality and depth of ability of technicians. Failure of entire industry to keep technicians trained. Health care typically is more expensive through a dealer/owner/ retail chain than to just buy it yourself. Tools needed are expensive, and with new models you need more special tools. Today's technicians can program your vehicle. Think of all the makes of automobiles you can. Each one of them has its own proprietary software. Each does the same task of providing data, codes, and reprogramming differently. A technician in an independent shop like mine would need to know at least 4 of those to manage most repairs on the vehicles we work on.

In my Indeed.com message box I have more than a dozen “offers” for employment. Looking at the first message, $15hr. Really? I made that as a junior technician in 1991. The shop labor rate for this company is $130. So, the technician gets $15 an hour and the company retains $115. These companies can whine all they want but I make substantially more than that per hour. To get me to quit and work for 67% less would require me to have brain damage. For giggles I responded and spoke with a HR person on the phone. Told them that rate is not enough, they will have to do better. Got a rejection letter in the mail. Oddly job posting is still up. Wonder why?

 

McDonald's down the street offers $15, no training, no certifications, no tools required, and they pay hourly, not per job. Companies are willing to pay, but not in this industry. Expect the wait time for repair to get worse people, those like me that have the experience and tooling are available, but we command a better rate that $15-$25hr. A company can pay better and be profitable, I work for one currently. So if an independent shop can do it, dealerships and corporate chains can as well.

Societies push since the 1990s to go the path of college and focus on anything but the trades has created this supply shortage. Couple that with deliberately keeping pay rates low, and the public perception that mechanics are monkeys with a wrench we now are reaping the seeds we have planted.

@Gunny

Around here the "Stealership" shop rate is $160.00-190.00/hr.

Neighbor down the road has a 2016 Jeep that the "Touch Screen" has malfunctioned and they say they can't locate a replacement.

Quoted her somewhere around $3200.00 for the repair. They're basically playing the "We'll sell you another vehicle game" and offering her peanuts for trade in. 

She paid way too much at that same "Stealership" for it about one year ago.

Had to tell her sorry I can't help, I don't have and can't afford the required equipment to do the programming.

 

11 hours ago, Gunny said:

Societies push since the 1990s to go the path of college and focus on anything but the trades has created this supply shortage.

Exactly!

A small local University has a mechanics training program. It's considered a very good program, running from 12 months to 2 years and offers auto mechanics, performance car mechanics, diesel, and agricultural mechanics. When we first moved here Andy Granatelli (the STP guy who raced open wheel and Nascar) endorsed them and hired quite a few of their graduates. Anyway, they advertise a 100% employment rate for their graduates, and the programs are constantly full. But those graduates must be leaving town for their work, most of the mechanics employed around here are mechanics in name only. There are a handful of private shops that have ASE mechanics, but it's not as widespread as it should be.

6 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

A small local University has a mechanics training program.

Are you referring to University of Northwestern in Lima? Assuming so, a VERY good school. We used to recruit from there a couple of times/ year.

We have one of those, also. Pennsylvania College Of Technology. Awesome programs for further technology education. My local Vo-Tech school hires so many of our grads and provides them with additional training.

7 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

A small local University has a mechanics training program. It's considered a very good program, running from 12 months to 2 years and offers auto mechanics, performance car mechanics, diesel, and agricultural mechanics. When we first moved here Andy Granatelli (the STP guy who raced open wheel and Nascar) endorsed them and hired quite a few of their graduates. Anyway, they advertise a 100% employment rate for their graduates, and the programs are constantly full. But those graduates must be leaving town for their work, most of the mechanics employed around here are mechanics in name only. There are a handful of private shops that have ASE mechanics, but it's not as widespread as it should be.

There used to be a very good program at the local Vocational College here but when they appointed a new head they decided to go with nursing, cosmetology, and dental programs and shut down pretty much everything else. Now they're wondering why enrollment is way down. 

1 hour ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Are you referring to University of Northwestern in Lima? Assuming so, a VERY good school. We used to recruit from there a couple of times/ year.

  That's the one. The school owns a small dirt race track and runs cars in the Nascar Xfinity series (maybe other series as well).