we had woodwork all through high school starting at 11 (6th grade?)
but no metalwork. The interesting thing is that we were not allowed
any electron burners until we were 17! mortises were cut completly
with a chisel and mallet we were not even allowed to remove waste with
a drill...

Danny Kaye Multimedia group 0115 848 2231

-----Original Message----- From: oldtools-bounces@r... on behalf of Tony
Zaffuto Sent: Sat 01/11/2008 12:07 To: 'andy baughn'; OldTools@r...
Subject: RE: [OldTools] Shop Class Bad Andy & others,

I too attended wood & drafting shops in 7th grade, wood shop only in 8th
grade (all kinds of other shops such as metal, etc. offered in 8th).
Unlike Bad Andy, we had access to all the shop tools, plus a wide
variety of woods to play with! I remember #5 jacks on the benches, but
not really used or demonstrated to us. The 7th grade teacher's tool of
choice was a honkin' big bandsaw.

Then my parents transferred me to the local Catholic school where we
were strictly academic. This did not work well with me and a couple of
other guys. A very knowing Priest recognized our plight and without the
constraints of most public schools got us a 1951 Pontiac with a
"straight 8" engine in dire need of a rebuild. This was our project for
9th and 10th grade--rebuilding the engine and then the body work. It was
in this period of time that I learned from this Priest and my Father
that you do not buy those damn wrenches (at that time Japanese) that you
buy SK or Craftsmen. Don't remember any Perfect Handle tools around that
time though!

Somehow I got the feeling that our Priest teacher didn't want to be at
that school anymore than I did!

T.Z. Anthony M. Zaffuto, President Metaltech, Inc. 3547 Watson Hwy.
DuBois, PA 15801
(814) 375-9399 (office)

-----Original Message----- From: oldtools-bounces@r... [mailto:oldtools-
bounces@r...] On Behalf Of andy baughn Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008
9:15 PM To: OldTools@r... Subject: [OldTools] Shop Class

I have seen a few bios here lately that mention taking shop class. When
I was in 6th grade I was so excited to take woodshop. Got my schedule
and it had some PC word for Home Ec on there. We made koolaid and
pillows. Joy. Well halfway trhough they told us we were going to switch
to drafting/woodshop. I thought I had hit the jackpot. Our project was a
pencil holder. The teacher ran the walnut through the planer and jointer
then we got to use the standard Normite Tools to shape it. I got to take
woodshop in 7th grade too. Made a clock and clipboard, and a giant
letter P (Purdue for grandpa). So we'd use the bandsaw, disk/drum/belt
sander and drill press for everything. The walls of the room were filled
with tool cabinets stuffed with hand tools. I wondered why we weren't
allowed to use anything more than a screwdriver. I got to High School
and was ready for more woodshop. My friend told me not to take them till
I got older. He said too many Hoods in shop class (I was a wimp back
then). Part way through they changed shop class to be more like a
vocational program. They still had drafting/wood/metals for students but
only if you had not taken any of the vocational type classes. I was able
to take drafting but no woodshop. After reading about everyone else who
took shop classes I feel kinda robbed. Bad Andy

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