I was going through a box, doing some clearing out, and found some tools I made in high school Metal Shop. I forgot long ago where I had them, or even IF I had them. Three are readily identifiable, but one is a hole depth indicator (if I remember correctly). I really liked the several years I had in Metal, much more than Wood Shop. We had a hard a--, funny, character of a teacher who was a gunsmith and he would work on his latest gun while we did our projects. Even though he knew the properties of metal and the give it has to have in tall buildings, he told us the story of him going to the top of the Empire State Building and watching how much the building swayed. Freaked him out so much he went straight back down! The whole class was almost in tears with the colorful language he used and picturing HIM, of all people, being scared so badly by the sway.
Tools from HS metalshop
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The hammer looks familiar- almost identical to the design we used in the late 1970's metal shop. The hole depth gauge could also be used for measuring tire tread depth ?
Yes, I did run a lathe. Fun to work with, but you had to watch those little smoking hot flyers that would go down your shirt! Got a mini crescent scar on a finger from trying to undo a chuck that suddenly decided to give. Think I saw knuckle bone under the flap. Turning aluminum was cool because it was like butter compared to steel. Depth mic - no threads on it, just a clean rod. The shop also had a smelter. One of the projects was making an aluminum anvil. We'd melt down scrap and bad pistons from auto shop next door. I ended up with a decent one because the pour went very well.
I made a hammer close to that, but we ran out of time and I wasn't able to thread the handing and the head.. so I welded it! Fun stuff though, did sand casting and black smithing on top of machining.
I didn't pick up on the metal and welding classes until my junior and senior year sadly as I needed room for math, chem, physics, and Spanish. I wish the gym and art classes could have gotten shaved off the requirements looking back. My senior year I could have gotten certified in welding for next to nothing aside from me having to supply my own safety equipment, but once again, I needed room for other classes. The majority of kids in those classes were punks anyways so actually trying to learn something in that sort of environment wasn't quite as enjoyable as it could have been. I stuck to wood working all 4 years for that reason.
I didn't pick up on the metal and welding classes until my junior and senior year sadly as I needed room for math, chem, physics, and Spanish. I wish the gym and art classes could have gotten shaved off the requirements looking back. My senior year I could have gotten certified in welding for next to nothing aside from me having to supply my own safety equipment, but once again, I needed room for other classes. The majority of kids in those classes were punks anyways so actually trying to learn something in that sort of environment wasn't quite as enjoyable as it could have been. I stuck to wood working all 4 years for that reason.
Never made anything in metal shop. Just learn to stick weld stuff, braze, cut, etc. I made a ukulele in wood shop though.
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