Locking Your Tools
 

As previously mentioned :

Take the rollaway to a Weld Shop and have them make up a base out of angle iron that has a loop in the font bottom edge and a flat 1/4" strip of steel that slips over the loop and is help in place by a padlock .

The sad fact is : if they want your tools bad enough they'll get them one way or t'other, I can tell stories of heavy duty truck shops completely cleaned out and no insurance ever paid....

Sometimes even your creeper will be stolen, my son bought a fancy one and marked it, another Mechanic took it, so he retrieved it, re marked it and locked it to the side of his rollaway, the same thieving a-hole stole it and stripped my son's name off it then locked it to his rollaway, the next day my son went to work early with a sledgehammer and while the thief was still there, my son removed the stolen creeper from the thief's rollaway using the sledgehammer, at the end neither creeper nor thief's rollaway were any good, no one ever stole a tool from my son again .

Not the way it should be, we're just prepping you for life here .

It's nice that you like working on boats, I know a few Journeyman Boat Mechanics, all are currently unemployed as so often happens when you get old and begin to slow down, beware .

Good on your son, No Half measures. People fear real action and consequence rather than any paperwork bull****.

Good luck on the new endeavor. I can't stress enough the need for high quality safety glasses and the wearing of gloves. Keeping a box of nitrile gloves of the correct size is so important. Good ones don't shred too badly. I'm kind of a fanatic on lighting. I own a bunch of different trouble lights. Nowadays the LEDs are great and cheap. Someone earlier mentioned air vs electric impact. I'm an old air impact guy, but the new electrics are pretty fantastic and its great to not have that damned hose trailing...
I was at Northern Tool recently here in Vegas and it used to be a low quality junk shop for the most part. I was actually impressed with the quality of tools. Seems the Chi-coms are making a better grade of tools these days.

Thanx .

That was when he was a fairly new hire over at City San, he's currently at Motor Transport and got promoted Friday .

This is a key point for any job that is physical. Always look towards transitioning to a less physical job as you age.

I got out of the day to day auto repair biz and moved into industrial machinery when I was 35. This was a factory not a steel mill so the work was less physical and more intellectual. After this factory closed, I moved to another facility that was more like a machine shop ( they made their own product from scratch so still technically a factory )

Work at the 2nd shop was more of an engineering position where I might spend 2 weeks in my office researching / designing something or prepping for a major machine move. I was not tied to an office though, there were times I'd be on the shop floor for a couple of weeks.

A year ago ( at 55 ) I took early retirement and am now consulting for an auto repair shop and a machine shop.

Always be looking for the next thing and never live beyond your means. The $ you save when young will pay off later.

The JOB
 

A guy I know is an Industrial Mechanic, he works on commercial packaging machines, mostly shrink wrapping machines, they're much more complicated than I ever imagined, cleaner too, he doesn't evr get all oily/greasy/filthy like I do .

He's also a Motocycle Enthusiast and brings his work habits to his vintage Honda Motos so they all look like new .

Rolled the tool chest into the shop, it's official guiys. I start tomorrow at 8am. Thanks everyone, we can get back to diesel discussion now.

Right on man, good on ya. Feel free to keep posting updates.... we've all become a little invested in your life now :) Good luck with your first day.

Ok dude, I'll keep everyone tabs, I start tomorrow morning.

NOW The Fun Bgins !
 

As you're going to discover that a large part of the job is correcting other's mistakes....

We'll be here with pop corn awaiting your shop tales.....

WORK SAFELY ! .

Job is trash, cooperate bs slows everything down you have to rotate tires, check a MILLION and one things in an attempt to nickle and dime customers.

Well, it's exactly what I expected.

Oh I forgot, dumbest part is someone else has to double check you on OIL CHANGES AND TORQUING OF WHEELS!

Well, this was a mistake. Oh yeah I need hearing protection, bringing some to work tomorrow

welcome to life.

I did nothing but oil changes, feels scary because it feels like a dead end job. I need to get my ASE certs and get the he'll out of there and into an independent shop.


I don't want to do oil changes all my life lol.

i finally got a job at a goodyear retailer and it was a lot of the same stuff, especially at first, but once they trusted me i got some more complex jobs....there were some challenges for sure but it is a decent stepping stone if you want to keep working in the industry.
comb craigslist and you can get all your tools cheap (or even free by selling off the stuff you get but don't need) and get a decent LOCKING box.

Yup, "new guy" always gets the short end of the stick. Welcome to life.

Don't get a chip on your shoulder and expect that you will automatically be treated as a master craftsman. Show them what you are capable of doing and the work will begin increasing in complexity.

Look at it from their point of view. They don't know you from Adam, you have no previous work related experience and they don't know if you are reliable. Learn the golden rule of working with shop mechanics. "Trust no one else's work, Double check your own".

Of course they are going to double-check torque values, etc., It's THEIR asses on the line if you forget to tighten up a lug, drain plug, brake pad etc.

Bear with it, practice good work habits, learn something every day and the respect will come your way.