Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:47 pm
So, my first day of work was 1/2 what I expected and 1/2 what I wasn't.
I had previously been through the shop with Paul the owner and he showed me a lot of the things that he wanted done (mostly clean up of all the crap that had been pulled off broken sleds and old wheels/treds etc). Plus some general move it around and fixit stuff. I KNEW that as the new guy I would be cleaning that up.
Other then that I expected that I would be doing all PDI's (assembly of new bikes out of the box - it stands for predelivery inspection) and oil/tire changes. Charging batteries, simple stuff like that.
I was right about the clean up. Spent all morning moving bikes and quads out of the shop (so there would be room to work) and then picking up scrap steel and throwing it in a truck. Haha, welcome back to the good old days... used to do stuff like that at both Alberta Truss and Altasteel.
Then in the afternoon I was asked to completely dissasemble the top end of a 2-stroke (racing modified) snowmobile engine, remove a nitrous system, replace the ECU, reinstall the stock pistons/cylinders/head, and replace the clutch. Basically take this race sled and return it to stock so it could be sold.
WTF? My first job is something that took me 4 months to work up to at school. Now that's funny. Between me and Tyler (guy who has been working there for 3 weeks) we managed to get the whole thing disassembled and the pistons put back in. We'll do the rest tomorrow.
Then I got to move all the bikes back into the shop for the night.
Everything hurts, but I feel pretty good. I think I might really like this job.
Paul the owner out and out told me that I wouldn't be a mechanic for the rest of my life. Something about the fact I've got college schooling and all that. He wants me to start helping out with planning and organization in the shop already. I'm confused, I just wanted to wrench on stuff for a while. But it's nice to know that I might have the opportunity to move up in the world.
He also wants me to get through my apprenticeship as quickly as possible which is really cool, because that's something I want to do as well. I think I'm going to get credited for the hours I spent in school (which is pretty rare). And he seems to be in a rush to get me into my third year. I was also asked if I could afford to go back to school for the next session. It's really neat having someone just as invested in my future as I am.
I had previously been through the shop with Paul the owner and he showed me a lot of the things that he wanted done (mostly clean up of all the crap that had been pulled off broken sleds and old wheels/treds etc). Plus some general move it around and fixit stuff. I KNEW that as the new guy I would be cleaning that up.
Other then that I expected that I would be doing all PDI's (assembly of new bikes out of the box - it stands for predelivery inspection) and oil/tire changes. Charging batteries, simple stuff like that.
I was right about the clean up. Spent all morning moving bikes and quads out of the shop (so there would be room to work) and then picking up scrap steel and throwing it in a truck. Haha, welcome back to the good old days... used to do stuff like that at both Alberta Truss and Altasteel.
Then in the afternoon I was asked to completely dissasemble the top end of a 2-stroke (racing modified) snowmobile engine, remove a nitrous system, replace the ECU, reinstall the stock pistons/cylinders/head, and replace the clutch. Basically take this race sled and return it to stock so it could be sold.
WTF? My first job is something that took me 4 months to work up to at school. Now that's funny. Between me and Tyler (guy who has been working there for 3 weeks) we managed to get the whole thing disassembled and the pistons put back in. We'll do the rest tomorrow.
Then I got to move all the bikes back into the shop for the night.
Everything hurts, but I feel pretty good. I think I might really like this job.
Paul the owner out and out told me that I wouldn't be a mechanic for the rest of my life. Something about the fact I've got college schooling and all that. He wants me to start helping out with planning and organization in the shop already. I'm confused, I just wanted to wrench on stuff for a while. But it's nice to know that I might have the opportunity to move up in the world.
He also wants me to get through my apprenticeship as quickly as possible which is really cool, because that's something I want to do as well. I think I'm going to get credited for the hours I spent in school (which is pretty rare). And he seems to be in a rush to get me into my third year. I was also asked if I could afford to go back to school for the next session. It's really neat having someone just as invested in my future as I am.
GRRRRRR. 