Strange but great development in my "new shop"

[spope14]

I Just got told six more weeks of no lifting with carpel tunnel, my "new shop" set up was gone for a while, but there is hope. I have a "New" mini mill and mini lathe. Two weeks back I took my daughter, who just loves CAD drawing and often watches and asks me about my CAD/CAM and CNC programming to a shop I work at on weekends and gave her the tour. The machines I have arrived a few days later and have just sat on a pallett.

My daughter, a senior in High School who will be going to Wagner College or NYU this upcoming year - for Psychology- she of all people wants me to get this set up so she can make things like little "engraved key chains" for christmas gifts, and she wants to make a "nested cube" and "Captive nut" like "her friends in my class" make (I teach machining for thise who may not remember me, been a while).

Anyway, to make a long story short, I have set aside Friday evening to be a wonderful time to teach her and our exchange student to set up the machines and get them running and to teach her (them) the safety of it all. Just two years ago she would not enter my shop and thought what I did was "not for her". Now, she really wants to learn a bit. She will not be a machinist, but for a few short months before she leaves, I will get to share a bit of my life with her and watch as she "gets it", what it is like to create something from the mind into a real solid item. More than this, it is the time that is important.

Far as I am concerned, on Friday night, the investment in the machines will already be paid off before the first chip is made.

[jnissen]

Fantastic story. Good luck and enjoy yourself.

[oil mac]

Make life feel good to hear such a nice workshop story, especially just before Christmas time, Especially when it is on bonding with your youngster, sounds a wee lassie who has her priorities in correct order, helping dad, & thinking on others Best wishes to her & the other exchange student also who is keen to learn Really nice to get some positive teen age news

[torker]

s....when my daughter turned 15 she wanted to start getting a vehicle ready for the time when she was old enough to drive (16).
She had always watched me foolin with ol clunkers so she thought maybe Dad would build her something.
Nope...cranky bugger...made her do it.
She bought a 1985 Chevy half ton 4X4.
I helped her take the motor and tranny out...she then took them all apart...learned how they worked...put new gaskets...repaced whatever..
Then she rebuilt the front end...and we later did all the body work.
The only thing I did alone was spray the paint. She did everything else with a little guidance from me.
Did it pay off? Yup...big time! She goes in to any garage now and if the dumass mechanic tries to pull the wool over her eyes...he just picked on the wrong girl.
Fast forward to a couple years ago.. I have a woman working for me at the motel we run. She became interested in welding after watching her son try it.
She worked for me in my shop for over a year til her hands got crippled up with arthuritis.
She was the best employee I've ever had. A multi job shop like mine was a great place for the organizational skills most women seem to have.
She was a wizard at running machines. She never suffered from that bored look i get when doing repetitious work.
I'm glad you are able to give your girl a chance...and i'm glad she is taking the offer!
Russ

[Teenage_Machinist]

Good to hear of another new chip maker


oops I did not introduce myself, I was here before, I think you know me but parents freak about poor pseudonyms.

[outback]

My daughter always watched me work on cars. Divorced from her mother she spent every other weekend with me. She seemed to stick to me like glue. In the process she learned a lot about repairing cars, RV's and home repair.

She would come home from school chuckling because boys would ask her about their car problems.

Years later her husband was plumbing a remodled bathroom. Daughter observed he was not using sealant on the pipe threads. She told him her Dad (me) always put tape or dope on pipe threads. He ignored her suggestion and finished the job without using a sealant on the threads.

Well....he had to do the job all over again, drywall and all.

Outback