Do you still use any tools that you made in shop class?

[Rustrp]

Dang, I'm jealous. The only thing I got out of shop class was a stupid 3-legged stool!

You and I both know three leg stools are smart. Always steady, never wobble and always firmly planted.

 

[mikey]

You and I both know three leg stools are smart. Always steady, never wobble and always firmly planted.

It was actually nicely made, varnished and my Mom actually used it for many years. I have to admit that if I had the choice between that stool and a metal working tool I would have gone for the tool, probably to my Mom's disappointment.

 

[Rustrp]

It was actually nicely made, varnished and my Mom actually used it for many years. I have to admit that if I had the choice between that stool and a metal working tool I would have gone for the tool, probably to my Mom's disappointment.

Whatever the deciding factor was, it played well in your favor.

 

[ddickey]

Dang, I'm jealous. The only thing I got out of shop class was a stupid 3-legged stool!

At least it wasn't two legged.
We only had woodworking and we learned to weld. The only project I can remember was a small book case. Lame.

 

[mikey]

At least it wasn't two legged.
We only had woodworking and we learned to weld. The only project I can remember was a small book case. Lame.

Yeah, all we need is another member who made a table and we'll be on our way to outfitting a house. What were our shop teachers thinking?

 

[Ulma Doctor]

i didn't attend formal machinist training in school.
i was trained on the job.
i learned from a wise shop hand who was a Bomb fuse technician in WWII, and from reading anything related to machining that i could ever lay hands on.
i was lucky enough to have a lot of tools donated to me when i was first starting out, most of those tools are still somewhere in my mass of crap.

i have modified hundreds of tools to do specific jobs.

the very first tool i made was a grinding fixture for resharpening meat flaker blades.
my employer at the time sent out hundreds of flaker blades to be resharpened.
we had many means of sharpening different blades, but the flaker blades proved difficult to sharpen by the means available.
i took it upon myself to design and make the grinding fixture to be used in conjunction with a horizontal surface grinder.
the boss was ecstatic to not have to send out the blades anymore & i got major bonus points.
i gained a lot of respect from the veterans that worked for the company, that was no easy task.
the fixture has been in service since 1995

 

[Silverbullet]

In the four years of vocational school we had the opportunity to build , make many of our tools. I have and still use them as needed. I couldn't tell you all of them by list but some were expensive to buy even way back then. Planer gage , hardened and ground , Jack sets like starrett , triangles , hammers all kinds. Angle blocks , Gage blocks, clamps, tap wrenches all types sizes. Some I'm not remembering , but we made good use of the learning and got lifetimes of use from our school , BURLINGTON COUNTY VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL. my almamatta. I put long days in school left the house by 7 am and got home at 5pm. Others went to regular high from 8am to 3 pm. Travel time made us use to long workdays. At one job I worked 72 hours a week straight time.
YUPP I've got lots of tools still in use.

 

[4ssss]

I still use my v-blocks, center punch, straps, and tap aligners. Wish I'd have kept the threading tool bit sharpening block for a surface grinder

 

[pandreasen]

I do remember one "project" in Shop Class, but the instructor threw me out for a month because of it! I have always had a thing for Bowie knives. I had a blade (1095C I think) with a 14" cutting edge and another 8" for the handle. I was using a surface grinder (instructions WERE posted, but what teenage boy READS THEM?) and ran out of patience with the required "only a few thou at a time boys!". I think I dialed in around 100 thou the next pass, and that big magnetic holder never had a prayer! The blade took off across the room (fortunately everyone else was seated or gone) about neck high. It hit the opposite wall and cut the cleanest hole you ever saw! I was told later, by a friend (not being allowed even NEAR the school for a while!) that it had passed through the next room right over everyone's head, and made almost as neat a hole as the first one. Then... ah, yes... thenit entered the LAB! The LAB Teacher was showing how to use a microtome . You know, that HIGHLY precision thingy that slices tissue to wafer thin for slides? the EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE thingy? Well it was made of good stuff. The base was cast iron, and the blade finally stopped when it hit it RIGHT BELOW THE Teachers fingers. That was good steel too. It buried about 1/2" into the cast iron, like it was a hot knife in a butter dish. (the Teacher actually had it left in there, and ground off 'til a little bit stuck out, and and showed it when he lectured EVERYONE who would listen for the next few YEARS about my "accident" (was NOT what he called it!) I am still amazed (as was my Mother, who had never before RUN OUT of thorny rose bush limbs! (I think there are still a few thorns in "there" from 59 years ago!) that I hadn't been the first school serial "stabber ???"
And THEN............ I got to earn the money to pay for the LAB thingy. HAD to take LAB, every day THERE sure was fun after that!

And ya know what? I ain't larned nothin frum it, neither! (ask my wife, who was in the next room)

 

[MrWhoopee]

I had a shop teacher like @benmychree, retired Navy, precision flat-top, a place for everything and it had better be in its place at the end of the period. Each lathe had it's own tool cabinet and we had to stand next to the one we'd been using while he inspected. Only then were we dismissed. I still use my parallel jaw clamp, vee blocks and square collet block (never finished the hex after I broke a tap in it.) Haven't seen my ball-peen hammer in some time, but it's probably around somewhere.