"Tool kit" for new employee--ideas?

This kit will embody the entire philosophy of your working relationship. If you do this wrong, he will be scarred for life and every job he works on will be colored by your choices.

That said: Allen wrenches, an 8" adjustable wrench and a 10 oz. ball-peen hammer. But the most important tool: A small, shirt-pocket notebook and a pencil. Teach him to make lists!!! Please trust me on this. This is the most important lesson I ever learned...and I learned it here from these guys and gals.

Hi,

Just to make sense, making lists such as for example?

Cheers,

Wizard

"To do" lists, but more importantly "Don't do" lists, like "Don't borrow the boss' pet micrometer and let him see you using it for a C-clamp.

Jeff

Lists of stuff that one would forget or delay because it isn't on the list.

"Tom Gardner" wrote in news:V8p_c.477$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com:

Excellent advice, but please include a dead-blow hammer. Great for seating parts in a vice or fixture.

And if you want him to make lists that he ought to keep, make that a Moleskine (yes, with the "e") notebook. I run several notebooks simultaneously - a reporter's notebook for disposable "shopping lists" and a Moleskine for the permanent stuff.

Oh, and a copy of Zeus' tables too - maybe Machinery's Handbook if you're feeling generous.

Your _own_ safety glasses and ears make some people less squeamish about using the "pool" sets.

How about a cleaning brush, some lubricants, a company shirt or hat or coffee mug, a phone list of contacts and what they do. Give him the name of the gal who really makes thing happen. Are we to assume that this person is being hired to work in a machine shop, or is it some other kind of shop. lg no neat sig line

A cheap digital caliper from HF. They're simply fantastic.

It's OK if the boss doesn't see you?

A small, shirt-pocket notebook and a

I've been doing this myself lately. A lot of ideas pass through my mind during the day and if I don't write them down immediately they're gone forever or at least 'til the next time I need that tap that we just ran out of. Thanks.

Yes, it's a machine shop, check the URL in my sig. It hasn't been updated, though. "The gal who makes things happen?" I think he's married :) Just kidding! Thanks.

Please elaborate.

Actually, this is the young female clerk who looks after the time sheets and makes out the checks. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Well, a good one to start off with: every time you have to borrow a tool, you write it down in you notebook. After the next paycheck, when you go tool shopping, you have a better idea exactly _what_ tools you need to be looking at.

Other stuff to scribble down: Measurements.

Compound calculations

Hours worked

Machine settings

I'm sure there's other things as well.

Speaking of notebooks. I carry a 3 x 5 notebook made by J. Darling Corp., Tacoma, WA, 253-922-5000 called "Rite in the Rain" It has polyethylene covers and special treated paper that is water proof. The covers absolutely do not tear off, and you can write on the paper while it is soaking wet. They hold up extremely well riding around in my hip pocket all the time. I date each one when I start using it. I then date it again when it is full. I don't throw them away. In the front of each pad is my phone number list. Each time I start a new notebook I transfer the list, removing numbers I no longer need and alphabetizing the random numbers that accumulated from the last list. This was very useful recently when I ran over my cell phone with my van while out on the road! I find that the process of updating note books also refreshes my own memory and insures that I get things done that I have promised. I have them going back more than ten years now. My habit is to NEVER write anything down somewhere else until I've written it down in my notebook first. This way I never lose phone numbers or other important data.

I consider a notebook a sign of a good manager. Managers that don't carry and use a notebook are for the most part poor managers.

Gary H. Lucas

I know cell phones can be very annoying but just turn the thing off, you don't have to run over it.

John

Now how the hell are you gonna clamp anything with any kind of precision if you don't have a calibrated C-clamp??? Geez!!!!

I use the cheap Mead or similar. I've been doing that since my first management job. I've only started keeping the filled ones for the last 5 years since I have been in business for myself. I've got the full nerd set up. Left shirt pocket: Scale in the scale pocket, flashlight, screwdriver, sharpie, pen, pencil. In that order. Same pocket behind the clippable stuff is the notebook and a Besley drill/tap chart. Right shirt pocket: Business cards, laser pointer.

Do you have a pen-knife in your pocket?