coppercutlass

So i quit doing body work after doing it for 7 years . I started in high school and finally got burnt out between my car , dad's car , side jobs, etc. My friend got me a job at a machine shop i have been working there 2 months and learning fast . i wasnt suppoused to get o.t. for 3 months after 1 they said i could have 10 max hours of o.t. a week. for now. Anyway i leave for work at 2 p.m. and i beat the traffic i get to drive my car to work and enjoy it . the drive back is the best drive ever quite, no traffic, no idiots, just great driving . I drove my car to work all week this week., I think thats the most i have driven it in one week in a long time. I just thought id share . Im starting to enjoy my car again and love it I actually look forward to working on my car again aswell it started to become a chore.

cutlassgal

Cool! Glad you are getting to enjoy the car!

deejai35

Nice always fun to work odd hours and miss traffic. Driving the Cutlass to work is a bonus I plan to enjoy one day.

Rickman48

What type of shop?
I've a tool + die apprenticeship behind me, but hated being 'cooped up'.

Allan R

Good for you copper! Sounds like a shift that doesn't create stress and pays well at the same time. Did you get your lead on the new engine? Lost track of that somewhere. Glad you're enjoying life more now!

machine shop??? Hmmmm, maybe you can build that engine there in your 'spare' time??

coppercutlass

We don't do engines. My department cuts huge ring and pinions gears for heavy duty equiptment. The smallest gear we cut is a 30 in. The biggest is a 105 in. Gear in diameter. I operate old gleason spiral bevel gear developers . They are massive old machines but cnc could not touch the finish quality of these old ones. So cnc roughs em out and we bring em to the right size, depth, and we also test and develop the pinions for the gears. So far from this the skill I can take home is., I think I can do my own rear end now on the olds lol.

Intragration

Very cool, glad to hear things are going well, nothing better than the feeling of quitting time, knowing your car is sitting outside. As a side note, this is one of the things I love about the site, learning about new things. I've never heard of a Gleason machine, I've always wondered though how they actually cut gears, looked up a few pictures. Very interesting stuff. Maybe not so interesting at 50 hours per week ha ha... What town is the shop in?

coppercutlass

Addison il.

MDchanic

I always loved the evening shifts, and worked them or midnights most of my life.

I much prefer getting up at noon, getting to work at 3 or 4, getting out at 11 or 12, just as things are getting "interesting," maybe staying out a bit (there was a time when we used to close the local bar at about 5 four nights a week ), getting to sleep just before light, and getting up ready to go again at noon.

I'm currently stuck having to get up before 6 for an 8AM start, and even though I've been doing it for five years, I still can't get used to it.

Good luck on your new job - sounds like a good one. It's also good to hear of quality parts still being made here in the US.

- Eric

oldcutlass

Good for you Copper! Life is all about learning new things and doing what you like!

Intragration

I know! Why is that? As much as I try to turn myself into a normal person, I can never get used to waking up in the morning. My girlfriend tells me I'm a vampire. Night time really is more interesting! Addison is right down the street from me, there seem to be quite a few shops in the general vicinity. It is cool to know there are businesses like this still here.

coppercutlass

Im a night owl so i love nights. When i was at the body shop i worked 7 to 3:30 and then i would go work on my car or dad's car or a side job ., then go have a few beers and go to sleep by midnight ish. I have a hard time sleeping at night. Btw here is a pic of me and one of our biggest machines .

Intragration

Holy crap! We're all concerned with 8.5" here, can you imagine the torque THAT ring would hold?? With the right sized wheels.... ha ha

coppercutlass

That particular gear is for a rock crusher. For big gears they are quiet which is what we aim for .

rocketraider

Wooh! Big man toys!

I like that quote about CNC not being able to match finish quality of these old machines. An old mechanical feed Sunnen will put the prettiest crosshatch on a cylinder wall you'll ever see.

Look at it like this Copper- you're learning a skill that can never be taken away from you.

I worked either 4-12 or rotating shifts for close to 30 years and loved them, esp overnights. Wasn't quite as much drama and chaos going on at night with no one there but the Operations crews, and the time off made working nights/weekends/holidays worth it. I got moved to a straight M-F dayshift job in Jan 2005, and I still haven't gotten completely used to it. The concept of having to take vacation or holiday time to get a day off during the week to take care of something is still foreign to me.

coppercutlass

As most people usually do follow ups. I guess here is mine. I had to quit this job. Working nights started affecting me pretty bad. I started to not be able to fall asleep and to put it short it really started to snowball from there. I put out my app and got a call from a lexus dealership and im now back to doing body work. I also missed working on cars. Not only do i love working on cars but doing body work is an art so it is an outlet for my creative side i guess. I quit sometime back in october and took a month off in between and it took every bit of that month to get my life back to normal. The nice thing about this shop it's new it's me the painter and an apprentice. We run the shop we fix the cars . I thought i was getting burnt out on doing body work I think at the time i was doing it i was at the wrong shop. I do miss working at the machine shop from time to time but it's monotnous work that my hyperactive personality can not handle very well. I need controlled chaos plus the hustle of a body shop keeps me busy enough so that i can actually come home and sleep.

oldcutlass

OOOOOOOooook, the one thing that is a constant in life is change. Do what makes ya happy is my motto, if it ain't fun I don't do it. Copper, I'm 54 years old and have been successful in many varied job choices, just I've never figured out what I want to be when I grow up, however I have figured out what I don't. Now if I only can grow up...

Intragration

This is good, congratulations on the new job. I also have problems with sleep, not staying asleep, but falling asleep. My job is irregular, so sometimes I have to get up really early, and other times I have to work late. This is the worst for trying to keep a normal sleep schedule. And Oldcutlass, you're absolutely right, you have to enjoy what you're doing, or life is miserable. I'm lucky that I enjoy what I do, and it's always different. I don't see any reason to grow up though.

coppercutlass

Thats pretty much how i am. I can pick anything up pretty fast. But working on cars has been something i wanted to do as long as i was a little kid It has gotten me to where i am for the most part. Im happy where im at now. Im not one to complain i love to work i love being busy and having something to do. My last two months there where really rough but it was not affecting my job but it was affecting me and everything around me. Admiting my job was affecting me was something i did wanted to do. Atleast i now know how much doing something you dont like affects you.

Allan R

True words. Eric, I'm 2 years older than you but for 30 years I can honestly say I looked forward to every day at work. Then things changed; I was seconded into a part of the organization I didn't want to be at. I had more than the skills to do the job, but it wasn't what I wanted. That was the deciding factor after 32 years to retire at 55. All my ducks were in a row, so it worked out fine. I'm one of the lucky ones I guess.

Went through that too with various shifts. Sometimes I worked all day, and sometimes all night - all in the same week. It really put my world upside down at times.

This sounds like an overall win win situation. You're back doing what you love and have learned a valuable life lesson related specifically to you. Congrats on the new job, hope it's a keeper with lots of room for new learning.

oldcutlass

I got 2 more years Allan, gotta get the boy thru college. Then I think I will try and retire and tinker.

coppercutlass

i got a solid 30 plus years to retire i think

Allan R

Sounds like a plan. I'll tell you this - it's nice to be 'there' and have options. Plus - your wife will let you buy tools just to keep busy stay out of her way

LOL, by the time you get 'there' I'll be long dead. Make your career as much fun as you can and always strive for excellence. Just getting by has its drawbacks.

coppercutlass

I pride my self on great work. I dont like to rush stuff and i make sure it's to my standards before the painter gets it. It's nice for a change to work with a painter who also takes pride in his work . My motto is use as little filler as possible i love to straighten metal and i hate using filler. i also have came up with some techniques to fix plastic bumpers that require little to no filler. Even if there is a little ripple the customer wont see it kills me sometimes just because i know it's there.

coppercutlass

I just wanted to share. this was a car someone had previously fixed before. it got hit and we had to fix it well we opened up a can of worms and found some shotty repairs. i re repaired them and the damage from the accident.


this is how it looked when i took the filler off



This is how it looked after i did my magic



And this is how much filler was on it before


i removed all of the filler and used two coats of filler and they where very thin



Black does not hide a thing and the reflection is arrow straight no distortion unless you are by the contours but even then it's straight



I take alot of pride in my work

tru-blue 442

Very nice work Copper.
I am glad to see you are a happy man now.
Things always go smoother when a man is
happy and satisfied in his work, no matter
what he does for a living.

ent72olds

Looks very nice Copper!

oldcutlass

Yes Allan I'm using you for an example, I think our wives are basically the same. I'm hoping to stay out her way a lot.

815Cutlass1972

I didn't know you were a bodyman? Plenty of work for side jobs in Elgin out to the west!