# Memory Lane {a.k.a. tell that to them nowadays and they won't believe you}



## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Had to start a new thread otherwise me and ChrisB are going to be shot.

This carries on from the Need advise please thread. Apprentices and newly qualified and Part P's are welcome; but remember...none of is as smart as ALL of us:laughing: 

So back onto that hole filling stuff, was it 'Rawl Set'??

Perforated copper earth tapes
2BA brass set scews
Whitworth
Electricians short sweep brace [still got mine]
Hand drill [crown and pinion type]
Duriums
Yankee drivers
'Dogs' still got
Meggering the tin site hut as the site foreman was having a pee against it
Bib 'n' brace
The lost art of sticking a candle to the wall with it's own liquified wax so that you could see what you were doing
First time you ever saw a spit gun put a nail into an RSJ
Any spark worth his salt had a couple of sets of BA taps in his box. And yes, despite having a considerable number of hard earned qualifications I could title myself as an 'Engineer' [KTM's now defunct course was titled Engineer FFS!] but I am a Spark and BLOODY WELL PROUD OF IT:thumbup: .
The majority of 'Engineers' that I cross swords with would cr4p themsleves if they had to use a Insulated spanner on something 'that called for it :whistling2: '
Theory wise they may well be excellent, practical wise.......


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

hehehe Trimy,NICE 1 :thumbsup: 

I rekon i could hear KTM loading his gun cos we hyjacked his thread !

Anyway,were was we ? ahh yes memory lane !

Your not allowed to shout at the apprentices now,i got debagged a few months ago for this very crime,i thought they were going to send me to the electric chair or gas chamber ! god help them if they were to trade places with what we had haha.
The big treat for the old boy was a pole through the arms of the overalls and dangled from the roof trusses of a part built house nice !
My initiation was to be hoisted up on the hook of a crane and run the whole length of this factory we were re tubing,i crapped myself :laughing: 

The usual birthday treat was dunking in the builders 45 gallon drum or being taped to a chair and tied to the van roof to which you could hear the inhabitants wetting themselves with laughing as they got upto 50mph :blink: 

And before the JTL it was the CITB,now they were a sadistic bunch of b*st*rds , whoever invented the " LOGBOOK " ought to have it shoved up their .....
They don't have to do that now do they,i think its all wrong,i had to suffer it so why not carry it on 

Think i'm going to change my name to ' Victor Meldrew ' :laughing: 

Chris


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

funny old thing, i still use 2BA and 4BA set srews for some fixings,i've still got a full set of BA taps too and i've still got the old spit gun with a wagon full of shells,guess i'll have the SWAT team decend on my house now i've said that :blink: 

And going back to the metal site hut how many times have you wished you had never cranked that old wind up megger so bloody hard !!



Chris


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Pole through the overalls; ah! memories:laughing: 

We had a very ar5ey apprentice. Turned him upside down and put a bucket of carlite bonding down each leg of his jeans. Let it set then stood him up by the bus stop.
Blacked one lads 'nads up.Told him the only way to remove it was swarfega and a lump of rockwool!  

One apprentice thought he was being victimised so he came back with a solicitors letter.Cannot print what happened after he was made to eat it; never did it again thoough:whistling2:


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

Funny how the meaning of words can be twisted too trimy,take the word ' Engineer ' this word looks like it belongs to someone who has " been through the mill " "done a wide selection of manufacturing type jobs " a person building something out of his own mind A CONSTRUCTOR !

So why the hell do they call alarm installers ' ENGINEERS ' ???????
Its just ppl fiddling about with bits of cotten isnt it ? you can't seriously call them wires can you ???

And fire alarm 'TECHNICIANS' WTF ? they are usually straight out of primary school and know everything :laughing: 

I once let a whole can of that fill n fix foam off down the top of one apprentices trousers,he was not happy and didnt ever come back :whistling2:


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

Still cant think what that plug stuff was called ? no doubt it will come to me when least expected,wouldnt be the first time i had sat bolt upright in bed and shouted a name much to the confusion of the wife ( bless her lol )

Wholesalers is another pet hate of mine,years ago you could walk into most wholesalers and ask for any item, 99% of the time they would have it on the shelf covered in dust ( there was usually no extra charge for the dust )

Today do the same thing ( well on a week day :laughing: ) and you have to wait while they order it  this usually takes days  

They actually get penalised for having excess stock now !! :blink: 

Crazy world !!!


Chris


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

*Engineers my 4rse*

Think I have posted this elsewhere, briefly
Gas Board Engineer [if you read Viz we call him Terry [email protected]@ckwit]
Prob with unit
Saw me override contactor by the liberal application of a screwdriver on the armature bar. Proved it was his control cct that was at fault. We can't touch Gas, they can touch electric [wish they would]...been on a course for that
Later on, smell of 'electric smoke being lost'
He had had a fiddle with a star delta starter.
Shorted out the star whilst in delta:laughing: 
Reason?...it was not pulled in like the others:whistling2: 


Same bloke wanted to run a control cable through a wall.
Saw a route we had taken
Followed it
Needed hole a touch larger
Put drill IN HOLE alongside our cable
Drill, whoops!
All network down
It was a fibre optic cable he had drilled through
Cost £1k for me to fix it
Great bloke, always buy him a drink


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## cornishsparks (Oct 14, 2007)

Did you ever play chicken with your wind up megger?
We used to use wind up meggers,hold a lead in each hand get your mate to wind it the person who lasts the longest wins,the looser buys chips.
The guy i did most of my time with once spit gunned my tool box to the floor for fun, once pushed me in a diving training pool on a MOD site in nov ember and used to play a game as i get in the van he drove up the road i ran after him got to the van he speeded off again. i could run a few miles in those days. Iloved every minuite of it best days of my life,theese kids today dont know how lucky they are to learn skills passed down to them


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

hehehe nice one cornish !

I still do the driving off trick with hitchhikers,usually pull up on theside of the road two or three hundred yards in front,watch em in the mirror as they come jogging and then floor it when they to the back of the van ,NICE :laughing: 

It still amuses me when ppl overtake and i put my foot down to match theirs,i just cant help myself :whistling2: 

Bet their old bum is gripping tight to the seat especially when a lorry is coming the oposite way :thumbsup: 
Yes,its very juvenile and at my age i should know better BUT !


Chris


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## cornishsparks (Oct 14, 2007)

Do you change the hacksaw blades around on first year apprentices?
Takes them a while to notice.
Have you made them thread you a very long nipple until they are so exhauseted they pass away,


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

hehehe cornish ur a devil !

I had a rather long running thread made for me once,the lad made it nearly 2 foot long,i told him it needed to be 30 inch but he gave up.

i've done the usual of sending them to the local builders merchants for the bubble for a wonky spirit level and a box of blue sparks for the grinder then bo**ocked them when they returned and said the merchants only had red :laughing: 

i've sent them trudging across fields for spades leaning against tractor tires and even to the wholesalers for a long rest,it never ceases to amaze me how gullable some kids are :whistling2: 

hmm will have to use the hacksaw one,i like that hehehe


Chris


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Gullible??

A few months ago on returning from Tesco. Daughter sat in car with me, box of eggs on her knee.
Looked quizically at me and said ' says on here EGGS FROM FREE RANGE HENS...i THOUGHT EGGS CAME FROM CHICKENS??'
I explained that loads of animals lay eggs and asked if she knew the difference beween a chicken and a hen. Blank look.....so, I said.
Hens live in fields and have two legs. Theye keep leaning forward and when the topple over they smash their beaks so they keep them out on grass. Chickens on the other hand have four legs. This means that they can run faster and leap over the fences in the field. These are kept in cages....you've heard of battery chickens hav'nt you??.. That is why you get the little trays in the fridges at Tesco with 4 chicken legs on them because they are from the same chicken. A couple of hours later I heard daughter shout out b4stard and a few other expletives. She had googled Hens and Chickens!:laughing: Kids , eh????

For the record Daughter is 21 next week and just finishing an Honours Degree. Going to be a Teacher. Edukayshun mi arz:whistling2:


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## Greg (Aug 1, 2007)

Trimix, is your daughter a blonde? LOL


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Blonde? That's spooky, how on earth did you guess that 

BOTH daughters are blonde, I'm scared

Both unbelievably independant, and remarkably intelligent [most of the time:whistling2: ]
Without doubt it is hereditary:laughing:


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## supasparx (Mar 11, 2008)

Started my apprenticeship mid '90s, was out the first week with a sparks in his 60s who made be fix around 40 back boxes with a 'rawl plug tool'. He had 2 perfectly good drills on the van, but wanted me to learn the way he had to.

I've never used one since, Thanks for that!:thumbsup:


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Ah, Rawl Plug Tool....the original cordless hammer drill:laughing:


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## BryanMD (Dec 31, 2007)

supasparx said:


> Started my apprenticeship mid '90s, was out the first week with a sparks in his 60s who made be fix around 40 back boxes with a 'rawl plug tool'. He had 2 perfectly good drills on the van, but wanted me to learn the way he had to.
> 
> I've never used one since, Thanks for that!:thumbsup:


I worked for a guy once (not as an apprentice) who made his apprentices learn to properly use a bit and brace for drilling wood and a star drill and mallet on masonry before he would let them use the power drills or rotary hammers. Likewise hacksaws and handsaws before using power reciprocating or circular saws.

Most learned rapidly.
But there is a lot to be said for the gaining the experience too.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Sent one apprentice to the van to find a tube of "circuit grease". 30 min later he says he ain't got a clue as to where it is. Ok, we don't need it, but go find the "wire stretcher". 15 min later, I think you're foolin with me. Seriously, you can't find it? Ok, hand me a 4/8ths wrench out of the tool box...

Never ceases to amaze me how little mechanical knowledge some guys have. I was pulling cable and working on cars when I was 3.

Had a real cocky journeyman borrowed from another company. He thought his a$$ didn't stink. Wanted to come in and start barking orders at the crew. A crew who is a well oiled machine after being together for quite a while... well, he asked what his next job was. I had him dig five 4 ft. deep holes looking for a spare generator pipe. After all that, I said, well, hey, maybe it's over there where that flag is that says "genny" on it:laughing:

InPhase277


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

supasparx said:


> Started my apprenticeship mid '90s, was out the first week with a sparks in his 60s who made be fix around 40 back boxes with a 'rawl plug tool'. He had 2 perfectly good drills on the van, but wanted me to learn the way he had to.
> 
> I've never used one since, Thanks for that!:thumbsup:


 

My first encounter with the rawl plug tool was in a series of hardened concrete aircraft shelters where we put lightning conductors in and wired them in pyro ( MICC ) all the holes where with a No 10 bit and 2" deep,the plugs where all hand made from a length of wood,black japaned screws that were all turned to run the same way as the cable ran.
45 years down the road and the shelters are still used and the wiring is all original,installed to last with PRIDE in the job.


hooray for the rawl plug tool !!!! :laughing: 

Chris


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## philip657 (Dec 15, 2007)

at the risk of sounding realy stupid

what is a rawl plug rool ? :S


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Rawl Plug Tool? the bain of every 40+ Uk Electricians life when they were an apprentice 

Imagine a standard cold chisel. Instead of a cutting edge it was fitted with a removable cutting bit. This fitted by means of a taper, like morse. The cuttting edge was a three edged affair. 
Basically you marked the fixing hole on the surface [concrete, brick, block, staff blue...whatever.]
hit the tool, turn it hit it, turn it, hit it, turn it, hit it turn it! Get the idea? Eventually 30 mins later you had a hole to fit a plug in. If I can find an old one I will post a pic.


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

philip657 said:


> at the risk of sounding realy stupid
> 
> what is a rawl plug rool ? :S


No one here would think you stupid Phillip !

What it is is in the name " Rawl plug tool "

Its a tool ( well a spike really thats really hard ) that was designed long before the SDS drill and hammer drills for making holes in masonry for fixing boxs,switches,saddles etc etc.

It was really usefull although really easy to snap off,it made holes in concrete ceilings with the aid of a hand drill and eventually a masonry drill,hard bl00dy work but got the job done.
When the hole had been made a small piece of wood like a dowel was hammered in and then a screw was twisted into it.

Then along came the plastic " rawl plug "

You can still buy them in some parts of the country.

Another thing that has died out is the piece of wood with a hole in it for bending steel conduit,i still use mine but my lads use the bender for theirs.

Chris


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

Yeah good one trimy ! you explained it a whole lot better :thumbsup: 

"Staff blue " that was nearl 45 mins to plug if you got your skates on :laughing: 

They were a pain trimy but they did help with the reinforced concrete,a little :laughing: 

Chris


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

*off topic but,.....*

Chrisb

I am off to Egypt in 3 weeks teaching a diving course....yeah, I know...crap job but somebody has to do it:laughing: 

Anyway, looking at your sign-off....

we always get T shirts printed and I was wondering if you had any objecton to me plagiarising and having

Dive everyday as though it's your last
and one day.....


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## philip657 (Dec 15, 2007)

thanks guys and yeas that does sounds like a realy horible thing to do i will go back to my drill


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

philip657 said:


> thanks guys and yeas that does sounds like a realy horible thing to do i will go back to my drill


 
Its not so bad Phillip

View attachment 397




Chris


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

Trimix-leccy said:


> Chrisb
> 
> I am off to Egypt in 3 weeks teaching a diving course....yeah, I know...crap job but somebody has to do it:laughing:
> 
> ...


 
hehehe no trimy its a free country ( well so i am told ????? )
Go for it.

My old dad always used to use that term and one day he was right :laughing: 

Chris


P.s bit of a bind having to trail all the way to Egypt to thead a coarse,you must be gutted :laughing: 

I've just come back from two weeks at sharma el shiek,nice !


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Way toooooooooooo fancy for me!
Mine was hexagonal mild steel handled. None of yer fancy Yorkshire silvering and knurling malarky; probably available gold plated as well:laughing: :laughing:


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Sharm el-sheikh,visit there regularly. Just getting a bit commercialised now though. Interesting slant on electrical installation. I posted some pics a while ago on another site about their quality cable jointing. I'll see if I can find it and maybe start another thread on the subject....21 days and counting

Where did you stay??


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

Trimix-leccy said:


> Way toooooooooooo fancy for me!
> Mine was hexagonal mild steel handled. None of yer fancy Yorkshire silvering and knurling malarky; probably available gold plated as well:laughing: :laughing:


 
Ahaaaa like me you had the ordinary version,this is the GT version with retractable sun roof,go faster knurling and twin antennas with eight track stereo ( ooops where did the eight track come from )

( its the only pic i could find on flee bay :laughing: )


Chris


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

This last trip we stayed at the Gardenia resort,was really clean and tidy.
Unlike the one we stayed in two years ago that was [email protected]

Chris


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## chrisb271 (Jul 6, 2007)

Yes,i had numerous bo**ockings for spending too much time checking out the electrical setup :laughing: 

Chris


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