Milwaukee logo

[Crazyraceguy]

The apprentice/trainee is mostly a Milwaukee guy. He had some free time today between projects to do some work on his work area. He added some shelves and reorganized some things, adding a bracket that I had given him to hold his Bessey clamps. He put up an end wall of sorts to support this, covered with a piece of this crazy looking red Corian, which happens to match very well. When he said that a Milwaukee logo would look good right there, my response was, "sure why not? Take it down and bring it over here."
I already had several of the tool company's logos in my Origin, so it was quite easy.
First the engraving alone, then filled with white.
This red turns pink when sanded. The scratches are effectively white, so they lighten it. It takes some pretty thorough sanding to get it back to the original color.
He had to leave before the white filler was cured, so he hasn't seen it finished. I gave it enough attention to mostly get the color back, for the picture. I'm sure he will go all out on it tomorrow.

 

[gunnyr]

He will treasure your time an effort for the rest of his career!

 

[PaulMarcel]

Love the look of that; will be stunning when it gets polished.

He will treasure your time an effort for the rest of his career!

Yeah, in a way, I with CRG used the engraving bit to put a tiny signature in the bottom corner and left it unfilled. An Easter egg of sorts.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

He was so excited to see it the next morning, not knowing that I had stayed the night before.
He just had to get it mounted and will end up finish-sanding later, right there on the wall.
[member=3513]PaulMarcel[/member] I had planed to do just that, but didn't get the time before he hung it up.
The beauty of Origin is that I still can, as it sits. I can make it small enough to let it auto-cut and not even have to move the machine.
I did it on the bottom of the Barbie closet thing from a few weeks ago. I just literally down-loaded an easter egg from the "Find Art" tab in the Studio menu. I forgot to take a picture of it though. Apparently no one has noticed it yet? I haven't heard anything about it.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Always great to see a tidy, well-organised workstation whose owner takes real pride in it. Props to you CRG - that was a cool and kind thing to do.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

He really does seem too Kevin. This kid just turned 24 a couple of weeks ago. He has worked here for just over a year, in the solid surface department. He didn't really have/need much for tools back there, since most of what is required is already there.
When he was given the opportunity to come to the custom area to learn from the "old guys" he definitely stepped up to it. He already had one of those packout boxes and a few DIY type tools, so that was the direction he went with the rest. With recommendations from me and observations of what I am doing, he has invested at least $3,000.
He kind of inherited that spot. The cabinets, worktop, and that tall locker unit were already there. I built that "station" as somewhat of an auxiliary space for whatever was needed, back when we first moved into the building. It was just that though, and a piece of 3/4" ply as a backstop. He's working on "moving in" and making it his, though I imagine he will move to my area, when I leave. I have a lot more floor space.
It's inspiring to see such a young guy be willing to carry on the trade. There are so few of them.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

It's inspiring to see such a young guy be willing to carry on the trade. There are so few of them.

I couldn't agree more. A lot of my heritage work is carried out for two organisations - the National Trust and English Heritage. They own and maintain some of the UK's most stunning buildings. Castles, stately homes, palaces - that kind of stuff, with many of them dating back 300-400 years. The work is of a specialist nature and has to be done in a completely period-accurate way - but no-one's teaching it any more. All of our college training schemes are 100% geared to new-build site work. Young guys leave after a couple of years with the ability to fire a nail gun into MDF, hang a door, fit baseboards/trims and the occasional kitchen, build studwork (framing) and precious little else. Literally all of the guys who I work alongside on heritage work are my age (the 55-70 bracket). This includes such dying trades as leadworkers, lime-and-horsehair plasterers, decorative stonemasons and similar.

So around 15 years ago, I took it upon myself to find a young apprentice who I could spend a few years training up to carry on the craft, with my endgame being to set him up with a little van, and initially send him out to do the small jobs which I don't really have time to do. There's an honest living to be made as a self-employed joiner, especially one who can turn his hand to the kind of work I sometimes post on here. The ability to start out with a pile of timber, and turn it into something beautiful.

I've been through 28 of them so far, and none of them want to get out of bed in the morning. They all seem to think they can become rich & famous by being the next Instagram 'influencer' (whatever that means) and they don't seem to have the slightest trace of a work ethic. The fact that they'd spend half their day standing around looking at the screen of a smartphone drove me crazy. Maybe I was just unlucky. I finally struck gold with the 29th one, however. A 19-year-old kid from Lithuania who was everything I'd spent so long looking for. Keen to learn, committed, interested, passionate, hardworking and proactive. If he saw something which needed doing, he'd do it without being asked. He'd vacuum the floor rather than stand around doing nothing. He'd collect up all of the day's reasonably-sized offcuts to take them home and spend his Sundays practising. I'd show him how to do something once, and he grasped it immediately. Sadly though - I lost him when his parents moved back to Eastern Europe as part of the UK's Brexit insanity, and he went with them. I'm still in touch however, and I've repeatedly told him that he  has a job waiting if he ever decides to come back.

I stopped looking.

 

[Michael Kellough]

WBB.  I was look forward to a happy ending as I read your story. Such a shame. Particularly Brexit.