R
Rick4070
Guest
"Mr. K":
You may remember me as one of your students in the mid-'70's.
My name is Rick, and I was friends with a guy named Laine.
I was the one who made knives, and cannons in your class.
I have to say that you were an inspiration to me, and to many others who took your classes, and even 30 some years later, I still use the knowledge and skills that you taught me.
In fact, just last Thursday, a guy asked me to turn a thrust bearing for a VW engine he was rebuilding, I am in the process of moving my shop to McMinnville, Or., and had packed up all my lathe tools.
I had no lathe bits, so the guy came up with a 3/8" easy out, that I tested with a file for hardness, and also spark tested on the grinder,(learned from you,) it seemed hard enough to make a tool from, so I ground it to shape on his grinder, using the skills that you taught us, and it worked out fine.
While doing the grinding, I told the guy the story of how Laine and I, while in machinist school at Clover Park, had ground our test lathe tools separately, and when we turned them in, we were accused of cheating, because the instructor was convinced that one person had ground both bits.
I said: "No, we each ground our own, we both had the same teacher!"
I am still a machinist, in a small shop where we have done prototype work for NASA, and the Skunk Works, among other high tech places, and make calibration assemblies for electron microscopes.
My father-in-law says: "Rick makes things that you can't see."
He's kind of right, we drill holes down to .002" in things like titanium, moly, tantalum, etc.
Not a day goes by that I don't use some tidbit of info that I learned from you, in metal shop class.
Thanks again, I often think back on my highschool days, and really appreciate your dedication to us, and all the knowledge that you passed on.
Rick
(However, I still am amazed at how patient you were with a bunch of goofy teenagers!!)
BTW, I still shoot, and still make knives, too!)
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