Williamson
This thread kinda went south but it reminded me of some post in the Tricks of the Trade" forum. Mr.Swamprat's (Old Line Dog) posts aren't there any more but Mr. Williamsons' still are.
Enjoy.
get a bigger hammer...
hey sometime ya got to...
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well **** Swimpy... maybe I should paint a picture...
your right us old cats get it...
seen young bucks framing up a pole with a ground one boy had an 8oz ball peen and the other a 3 pound flat faced maul... the boy with the ball peen worked the **** outa himself and only got half the work done... the other kid? work done and busy getting a shovel to clean the auger...
same kids...
one driving a hard head with the toy hammer takes a min and a half and is sweatin... the other a quick tap to set it... 3 or 4 solid hits and he's off to the next gig...
I reckon the "trick" is to get the tools for the job learn them and what they are good for... but most importantly watch how others use them...
you can work the **** outa your self...
or you can get a bigger hammer...
Edge
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ahhh hell Swimpy it prolly was a fuggin 32 oz... still a toy imo... I use a 4 pound double flat face one side for steel and crete waffled on the other for wood...
I reckon there is a point though...
I once told JB that while he has Koga as his Zen master I had my old man...
heres some zen from my old man...
I was working out a turn around... the wire had been sagged and we were laying up the jumpers for clippin on some bundle 230... the old 60 ton had jammed up (was low on fluid)... so me being the young badass that I thought I was at the time... whipped out my hawkbill cut the fuggin hoses and airmailed that ***** from 80 ft or so.... well my foreman flew hot.... cuz it was the only hypress on the job and it was gonna be a day to get new hoses...
I gave him the its a piece of **** line and he gave me the if ya don't like my job you know where the highway is line...
so I gave him the finger and bailed... (another trick of the trade always quit them in a bind boys! that way they know the NEED ya!)
well I got home wife told me they had called wanted me back .... whatever... the old man had called me need a hand doing some **** at his place....
so instead of calling Meyers back I called the old man he was home so I said I'd be there in an hour or so... turn out he had some fence down... needed to get it back up... so I went out to the garage got some gloves a few grips a comealong and then jumped in the old powerwagon and off I went...
got to my old man's he's jabbering about how I should be at work I'm jabbering about how he should be at work... he comes back with I'm management I work when I want to... yada yada...
finally we get the ****ed fence row back up...
and he looks at me as asks point blank..."so why ain't you at work boy?"
so I tell him the story...
he looks at me and says "Boy your my son... and a hell of a good lineman... but your only as good as your tools..."
I say "ohhh really?"
he looked back at me and said "yeah... hand my those sidecutters..." I tossed him my Kliens.
He unrolled some more barbed wire and cut it of then started twisting it around the gate post.
"take that end to the next post and twist it around and cut off whats left"
so I took it over and started twisting it up then asked him for my kliens to cut off the tail..
he promptly threw my sidecutters as far as he could out into the field...
"Pop WTF man thats the only pair of cutters we got!"
he looked at me and grinned...
"Exactly!"
for what it's worth
Edge
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Work Safely,
L. A. Martin
Journeyman
Div III CVEC
There's no such thing as "The End Of The Line!"
If you think you are worth what you know, you are very wrong. Your knowledge today does not have much value beyond a couple of years. Your value is what you can learn and how easily you can adapt to the changes this profession brings so often. -- Jose M. Aguilar