Eric
As a student, I worked at Dominion Bridge in Winnipeg over several
summers , and one 17 month stint between 1st & 2nd years - a heavy steel
plant with some 500 or more employees, working 3 shifts most times - now
sadly an occasional movie set, I'm told. My father was Lead Machinist
for many years and then Foreman of the Machine Shop. Each Machinist,
Lathe Operator or Mechanic had his own set of tools in a chest or
chests. But the supply of tools of all kinds for the factory was in the
Stores Dept, where all manner of tools and supplies were stored in ranks
of open wooden bin shelving as high as a man could reach, several aisles
of them. Basically just ranks of tall, painted wooden units with shelves
of varied length, back to back and side by each Everything was to be had
there - including but not limited to boots, gloves, hardhats, tape
measures and ends, wrenches and hammers, brooms, shovels, brushes &
dustpans, welding and painting equipment & supplies, drilling fluids,
paints and compressor equipment, acids for the pickling tank, zinc bars
for galvanizing, hoist chains, pry bars, all sorts of cleaning supplies,
rivets, nuts & bolts, stamp sets, Machine Shop supplies, exotic steels
and other metals for machining, electrical & hydraulic equipment and
parts, belts for some of the big old punches and presses, punches,
drills, teeth inserts for big cold saws, clamps of various sorts, steel
strapping and machines, tips for the burning machines, office supplies
for the Foremen, and likely a supply of girlie calendars! Naturally,
heavy stuff was stored on pallets. Everything out in the open for easy
access. But the only folks who could get in there were the Stores staff,
fork lift operators, Foremen and Managers.
Don
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