OT: Looking for PT Help in NJ - 07946

I don't see why not, he wants holes - make 'em here and mail them down to him.

See my private e-mail to your address shown above...

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

I can get them at the local supermarket pre-done... They're called Cheerios... Tapping them is a real PITA though!

Nah..its easy. Just use milk as a tapping fluid and use a form tap.

Gunner

How many holes can you get into a USPS Flat Rate box?

You do know that Cheerios are really donut seeds, right?

Plant that pernicious little meme in a three-year-old's head, preferably a grandchild or niece/nephew, and watch the fun... (Revenge!)

-->--

I do some volunteer work locally... I'm gonna use that during a public talk someday... Maybe with the adults. :)

I missed the Staff meeting, but the Memos shoed that Gunner wrote on Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:09:23

-0800 in rec.crafts.metalworking :

This is why I read this group. as they say "learn something new every day."

So I'm off to the library.

pyotr

-- pyotr filipivich The question was asked: "Is Hindsight overrated?" In retrospect, it appears to be.

Told my step-son that the wrapped up hay bales (white plastic wrap) were marsmallows, before they were shipped off and repackaged.

It was about two years later that he got it figured out... :-)

Cheers Trevor Jones

Joe,

Have you called the High Tech Highs of Middlesex and Morris counties, and asked for kids that are interested in mechanical engineering?

Some of the businesses down here (Monmouth) use the kids from the magnet schools as a farm team. It appears to work out well for both the kids and the companies.

Kevin Gallimore

I'll research that a bit more tomorrow... I've called a few VoTech places in the past - never received a call back from most and seemed like no interest from the others...

Heck... I almost hired my former High School metal shop teacher a year ago. :)

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

Since the role of a vocational school is to prepare its students for skilled jobs, that'd piss me off and I'd be inclined to rattle some cages.

My experience has been very different. When I needed a welder I spoke with the director of the welding program at the local vo-tech. I was looking for someone who took some pride in their work, could think for themself, and not someone who would prefer to lay the same bead every day and collect their pay. He listened and sent 2 students to interview. The guy I hired is still there 25 years later, in a responsible position.

The second student didn't impress me at the interview, but when we needed another hand a few months later Mark (the first guy) convinced me he wasn't as slow and sleepy as he looked. He stayed for several years before getting a better job from a competitor.

I'm a bit too busy to rattle cages right now... But I may just do that.

Sounds like maybe the schools have changed a little bit but I'll have to give it another shot.

Try community colleges-- maybe talk to the program coordinator. The ones I've had contact with take a lot of interest in finding their students jobs. Many (around Toronto anyway) are newcomers with impressive backgroudns- in India or China. A brief written job description that can be e-mailed or faxed is a must.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

A call to your state senator and representative, and perhaps another legislator who focuses on education, would take very little of your time and get more traction than you could on your own.

My daughter was treated badly by the financial aid office at our state university. We got nowhere 'til I did no more than mention it to a friend who was working in the governor's office. The result was an apology and much bowing and scraping.

Good for you! It isn't that bad yet, but if it becomes that bad, it's certainly an option. I have contacts at the NJ governor's office so maybe I'll go that route if it becomes necessary.

I hate to do something like that unless it is bad enough to justify it.

As someone else mentioned, Middlesex and Somerset counties (where I think Joe is located) have pretty good programs in machining and CAD/CAM in their vo-tech schools. That's where I took welding (Middlesex Vo-tech) and it was quite good. I looked over the machine tools and they were OK -- five years ago -- and at least a couple of the instructors had really good reputations.

The two county colleges in those counties seem to have dropped actual metalworking in favor of computer-related manufacturing subjects. They're both good schools (Middlesex County College and Raritan Valley Community College) and Middlesex, at least, used to have a good machining program. But that appears to be all gone.

-- Ed Huntress

Yup. My tech college sent me on my internship for Biomedical Engineering, to a medical equipment manufacturer. (They measured the amount of hydrogen in farts to test for some problem or another. I kid you not.) The science was interesting and all, but, first day there they gave me a stack of circuit boards, a tiny drill (what, .016" or something?) and led me to a drillpress. "When you're done poking those holes, there's another bin of boards over there."

Now, I've got nothing against poking holes with a drillpress but, the point of the internship was to get me ready to be a biomed tech in a hospital. Not much troubleshooting and clinical contact in poking holes in phenolic. I didn't go back and got a different internship (at a hospital which later hired me, as it happens).

An excellent success story. I respect people who started as techs, more than people who graduated as engineers but never touched a tool and lack the practical knowledge needed to know how to design something not just to meet spec, but to be actually repariable.

Yup, got a few of those too. You can wait 6 months to fill a position and be shorthanded, or you can sort-of fill it and still be short-handed.

To be clear, I was very happy with him, despite the fact that he looked like a taller, skinnier, sleepy version of Steve Buscemi. I certainly don't hold it against him that he found a better job for himself.