Inside the Mind of a Working Technician – Weblog
That’s a tough one to answer straight out. I’ll have a lot of stuff I’ve previously watched on in the workshop as familiar background noise that doesn’t distract me but keeps me entertained without having to think about it.
its like an old friend keeping you company.
I’m not superstitious myself but I have a very clear memory of a funeral hearse coming into my workshop for some brake line work quite a few years ago and other guys in the shop wouldn’t even look at it never mind work on it.
A friend of mine visited the workshop one evening when it was on the lift and upon realizing that he was standing beneath a hearse he told me he wasn’t going to hang around and quickly left the building.
A strange but true tale I had forgotten until I saw this prompt today.
We’ve a history of using the animal comparison to show how strong, smart or cute we are. Car makers have used this to great effect to sell us something we see as an extension of ourselves.
Im not even going to attempt to name them all but I’ll list a few that spring to mind, you can fill in the gaps yourself. Or better yet share them with me.
Continue ReadingI can only imagine the level of technology that will exist in the automotive world 50 or so years from now. But my hope is I kept on top and at the forefront of whatever came my way.
I endeavor to do so now but with the necessity to up tool and avoid fads it can be an expensive business. And I imagine it will only get more so.
But the day you stop bettering yourself is the day you perish. If you want your 100 year old self to exist you have to keep on learning, stay open minded and don’t fear the unknown.
I’m not one for spree’s but if I were given the opportunity I’d have to say it would be on tools and equipment even though that feels selfish and probably the main reason I’ve never done it.
I believe I get more pleasure watching others close to me enjoying a spree than I do being involved in one.
But if I were given the opportunity and I decided to just let go I know for sure it would be on tools and other equipment. Even though if you saw my collection which has been amassed over the last 30 years or so, you would think this guy has more than enough.
But this is the curse of being a mechanic, you never have enough. Constant introduction of new fasteners, new special tool requirements and advances in technology always keep you in a mode of upgrading and buying.
A wise man once told me nothing is sure in life except death, taxes and your tool truck bill.
So true.
Determination.
Never under estimate how long a simple diagnosis can take. That’s the latest thing I learned.
You’ve been there before, you set yourself up, go through the problem with the same meticulous strategy you always do.
But somewhere along the way it gets away from you, something’s different. Suddenly this simple routine job turns into a nightmare.
The lesson is you need to walk away. Take a break from the problem. It’s not wasted time. You’re just getting your thoughts together.
Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up.
I think as a mechanic it has to be Can you do it any cheaper?
I realize these are tough times for many but cutting corners is more expensive in the long run.
It was somewhere in the early 2000’s I got my hands on a Sun Oscilloscope for the second time in my career but this time I was more grown up and had regrets about selling my first one without giving it a fair chance to become part of my everyday tools.
One of the first tests I learned was the relative compression test, if you don’t know, this a very fast way to identify loss of compression in a cylinder by reading how many amps the starter requires to turn each cylinder over. Used with a sync on a second channel it can pinpoint the exact cylinder or cylinders that are affected.
This, as good and easy as it sounds comes with a word of caution.
Continue ReadingI’ve just listened to a podcast on 99PI about someone calling out a website/blog for using A.I. to write or at least contribute to its posts.
The whole discussion centers around the use of the Em dash. Something I have seen but never paid much attention to.
Very interesting listen: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/658-the-em-dash/
