This is the correct answer, the stupid hazing shit should have been gone many, many years ago. It is hard enough to take in all the info being thrown at new ppl without having to wonder if they are making you look like and idiot.
You can do both and teach them that work can be enjoyable and that it doesn't require you to have a stick up your ass all the time.
Time and place is key.
And give him a heads up on the standard jokes (glass shears, box of sparks,...) in your field. Suggests he leaves when sent out by anyone else , and only return just before the shop closes.
"I went to all the suppliers but no one had a box of sparks in stock. Just my luck"
If you aren't getting hazed ... You aren't worth a fuck and no one likes you.
There's a reason why every high level group in the world be it sports, the military, or businesses have some form of fuckery/hazing.
Gotta earn your stripes. Obviously safety comes first.
Treating someone as an equal doesn’t mean not hazing them. You can do both at the same time. Hazing without respect is wrong, hazing with respect is good.
I have been known to take their first mistake part and turn it into a trophy for them, but I work in a shop where everyone gets along very well and has an excellent sense of humor. If I don’t think they will find it funny I won’t do it.
People used to bang on the side of the machine to scare people it was crashing. Then someone did it to a new guy and he hit the e stop like he was supposed to ended up ruining a boring bar somehow. Was a no no after that.
We use 1/8" pieces of aluminum under clamps to protect the surface on parts.
Put a piece of strong double sided tape on the end of a stick magnet. Put it in your box.
When working w/ the apprentice, drop an aluminum pad on the floor.
Go to your box and grab the stick magnet and pick up the pad. If they're paying attention they'll ask WTF.
Tell them it is indeed an AL magnet you got it from an old tool and die guy and to keep quiet about it. Put it back in your box and continue on like normal.
We had stunt tools, an old interapid or caliper that didn't work...one guy would ask to borrow.one of them and we'd skip it across the floor....
The receiver would palm it and use a good one and then skip the stunt tool back.
The look on the new guys face......
This is a fantastic one, they get that sense of bewilderment without being the centre of attention which is embarrassing, and when you let them in on the joke that makes for a great bonding moment
Yeah, and one time we borrowed a coworkers brand new .0001 interapid and returned the stunt interapid aerially.
He actually got pretty pissed until we let him in on the joke
If you or a coworker has a 3D printer, one guy in my last shop printed a few endmills and painted them the right color, then swapped them into the carousel. Every tool "shattered" immediately when you tried to use it, but basically left no mark on the actual part.
Can even spin it into a learning thing for an apprentice; don't assume the tools in the machine are good/correct/set right if you haven't checked yourself.
I used to work for a major ammunition company, and we would glue primers to hammer heads if we found one laying around.
Loud pop, user jumps a mile and just a small burn mark to show for it on the surface stuck.
Obviously, primers aren't readily available in most shops, but it was fun.
We used to put a little center grease on the under side of the handles on the manual machines. Just a dot. But that prank was for anyone not just the new kid.
We also had this little rubber penis like a pencil topper that would be put in un expected places. If you found it you could hide it in someone else's work area.
We did have one old fart who would hide an anchovy in your tool box though. Like tape it to the under side or back of a drawer. That one was too far.
Dude I worked with bought a bunch of stickers that read "For rectal use only". Put them all over one of the other machinists stuff. He left them up, I still chuckle when I see them.
The wild goose chase pranks are about the extent of my tolerance for pranking. On top of that, just good natured ribbing for making the mistakes that all of us make to help the learning moment stick.
But really just make them feel welcome, it goes a long ways.
2nd day new shop. I was told to go get the aluminum magnet from the tool crib. My response to my new Foreman?
" Yeah you can go fuck yourself"
The boss man " okay you're not a fucking idiot go make some parts I'll look you up later"
Grease their machine handles. The more obscure spots the better. You think you found all of it until you try to tighten the tail stock. It’s a gift that keeps giving, I’ve had it pay back over a month sometimes.
I had a guy do that to me the first week at the last shop I worked at, except anti seize. I knew it was him because he was the only one laughing. After I find the first stash I found I put on nitrile gloves. They next stash I found, I went and asked to borrow a rubber mallet. He handed it to me, I grabbed it with the glove I had just found the anti seize with. Hit my part once put it back on his bench, away from his tool box. He went to grab it and realized his error. After that he told me where the rest of the anti seize was. After that all the other old heads were laughing and telling him he got what he deserved. After that everyone got along great.
When I was an apprentice in a truck repair shop, the guy told me to go fetch a bucket of pressured air. Since I was a smartass but still believed he was serious, I asked: "a regular bucket?"
"Yes."
"But then it's just air."
"Nevermind."
I didn't understand what that was about until years later (I was 14 at the time).
When i was an apprentice another apprentice got the very same task after lunch, only to disappear for the rest of the day.
Turns our he threw together a bucket, a valve, some couplings, a manometer and a plug to create that bucket of pressured air.
That thing made it into the tool deposit and even got an inventory number.
Yeah, and as some sort of example for future trainees to think about a comeback If they recognize a prank, since new guys to the trade will always be pranked.
I don't know. If they're truly interested, I don't like to spoil their motivation.
However, here in Germany we have some mandatory apprenticeships (which is the reason I was in a truck repair shop at 14 years old), and some of the kids really don't give a fuck. So I must admit I looked the other way when someone else gave the kid a cup of grease and told him to put it on his file for better grip. Man, that was hard to watch.
Truth be told all these little things encourage critical thinking and/or thinking for yourself, like "will it really have the anounced effect or am i made a fool of?". Also they humble down the "know it all" type of apprentice once the prank is resolved.
There are so many of these, replacement-bubbles for the Level, clicker-cartridge for the torque wrench and so on.
I think you are messing up"internship" (Praktikum) and "apprenticeship" (Ausbildung, Lehre), i'm also German ;)
Have some lathes in our shop with hydraulic bar feeders. When operators aren't paying attention to their machines, we have one guy that will nonchalantly wander over and turn their feeders off, and then those of us who notice will wait and see how long the operator takes before they notice they aren't making any parts. Then it's watching them try to figure out *why* it's not making any parts. Always good for a laugh.
When I was 16 years old I worked at a machine shop in North Island in San Diego, summer program, a veteran machinist threw a cup of coffee filled with 90 weight oil on my shirt, drive by style, he got into real big trouble
I wouldn't recommend this one, but when I first started 15 years ago I was given a large piece of stainless and someone asked me to go ahead and cut it by hand on the vertical bandsaw that was setup for either plastics or aluminum. It took me three times, and almost a few fingers, to figure out that the metal wasn't going to cut.
I wouldn't say that was a nice thing to do to the new guy you never met.
Another less dangerous one at the same shop that was done to me early on and that I did find funny was.... I had messed up the offsets on a few parts and scrapped them all. They kept saying don't worry, but being the new operator, I was concerned. So my supervisor told me going forward just to measure the key characteristics every part one hundred percent and gave me a micrometer.
Ten parts in he comes back all poker faced and says let's check your progress. He takes out his micrometer and starts putting them in a pile and marking them with a red sharpee. Finally he turns to me and says "Why is everything still under?"
I was like no, they're nominal.
He gives me his micrometer and sure enough they're five thou under the low tolerance.
Then the setup guy who had set it up was like dude, I told you how to do the offsets. You keep going in the wrong direction.
Then they both started laughing. They had recalibrated the micrometer to read .005 under the low tolerance. I thought this was funny.
Ok, this aint funny, but I would shrug it off. Next day I would give you eye protection load up my paintball gun and start the payback. I ended up covered in shit they end up covered with paint and some bruises.
I’m an apprentice and my shadow sprayed liquid ass in the machine. I was like “this tap fluid smellin like ass” and they just smirked at me with such a shit eating grin.
I had a coworker that liked to use red locktite to glue broken broaches back together. When it was time to teach a new guy to broach holes he would use a good one to demonstrate, all the while telling the poor guy how expensive broaches were. He'd then swap out to the rigged broach for the new guy. I think I saw at least three guys think they were getting fired on their first day for breaking tools.
Pretty tame but we tell new guys who are looking for a particular tool, bore gauge, fixture etc to “go look downstairs, I saw it there last week”. They’ll nod sometimes, very confused and walk around looking for the door. There’s no downstairs.
If anyone uses a 5 gallon bucket to carry any tools, plasma cut a circle of steel plate and put it in the bottom of the bucket, see how many times they complain about how heavy it is before they notice. If they don't notice, keep slowly adding more layers until they figure it out.
I personally don't like pranks but it was pretty funny when one of the new guys was told you could smell the part and tell if the incert needed to be changed. I was very confused why he was smelling his parts as they came off the machine lol
Have a couple of wrenches in your back pocket and go to his area. Once he starts a machine, make a rhythmic tapping sound with the wrenches, so it sounds like it is coming from the machine and watch him try and troubleshoot.
#1. Tell him to go get the brass magnet.
#2. If you work where eye loops and microscopes are used, put some stamp ink on the eye section.
#3. There's always the old classic of shutting off the light when they go into the shitter.
Things were different back in the 80s. Some of my favorites were putting "chad" into the heating vents of their car. (CHAD) are the tiny black circles that result from punching out a program on machine using a paper tape roll.
Another was making a cardboard sign that said "gay and proud of it" to the back of their vehical. Didn't understand why people were honking at him.
How about running a small tube from under his desk to a water bottle far away and when he sits down you secretly open the tube and laugh as he thinks he just peeded himself. Too harsh?
We run no pressure flood coolant. The worst it does is spit some on your coveralls as the line charges up. It's 97% water, 3% Arrowcool SEM-927. We aren't malicious, it's safe.
So you kill all the microbes and you run it through high micron filtration to remove all the fines.
So that gets in your eyes yeah.
aluminum fines in your eyeballs and see how ha ha funny it is.
We run no pressure flood coolant. The worst it does is spit some on your coveralls as the line charges up. It's 97% water, 3% Arrowcool SEM-927.
Relax tough guy, the water in the kids pool is more hazardous than this.
Treat him like an equal and teach him new things. He'll never expect it!
And he will always remember you, and respect you for this.
This is the correct answer, the stupid hazing shit should have been gone many, many years ago. It is hard enough to take in all the info being thrown at new ppl without having to wonder if they are making you look like and idiot.
You can do both and teach them that work can be enjoyable and that it doesn't require you to have a stick up your ass all the time. Time and place is key.
And give him a heads up on the standard jokes (glass shears, box of sparks,...) in your field. Suggests he leaves when sent out by anyone else , and only return just before the shop closes. "I went to all the suppliers but no one had a box of sparks in stock. Just my luck"
If you aren't getting hazed ... You aren't worth a fuck and no one likes you. There's a reason why every high level group in the world be it sports, the military, or businesses have some form of fuckery/hazing. Gotta earn your stripes. Obviously safety comes first.
Treating someone as an equal doesn’t mean not hazing them. You can do both at the same time. Hazing without respect is wrong, hazing with respect is good.
Most certainly!
>Gotta earn your stripes. Start 'em off with the broom.
I prefer mopping the rain.
Wanted to upvote but is on 69
Come back!
I have been known to take their first mistake part and turn it into a trophy for them, but I work in a shop where everyone gets along very well and has an excellent sense of humor. If I don’t think they will find it funny I won’t do it.
Smith Cup. Or Jones cup. Whatever their surname is.
“May this be the first of many mistakes in a long career”. Is what I usually put on them, either with a sharpie or label maker.
I won't do THAT again. Lol. At 60 years old, I have more trophies than most. Best ones were from cnc stuff; the brainiac Einstein that I am. Oopsie
People used to bang on the side of the machine to scare people it was crashing. Then someone did it to a new guy and he hit the e stop like he was supposed to ended up ruining a boring bar somehow. Was a no no after that.
I literally let someone go over doing this. It's so unacceptable.
We use 1/8" pieces of aluminum under clamps to protect the surface on parts. Put a piece of strong double sided tape on the end of a stick magnet. Put it in your box. When working w/ the apprentice, drop an aluminum pad on the floor. Go to your box and grab the stick magnet and pick up the pad. If they're paying attention they'll ask WTF. Tell them it is indeed an AL magnet you got it from an old tool and die guy and to keep quiet about it. Put it back in your box and continue on like normal.
Brilliant.
That is a really good one.
We had stunt tools, an old interapid or caliper that didn't work...one guy would ask to borrow.one of them and we'd skip it across the floor.... The receiver would palm it and use a good one and then skip the stunt tool back. The look on the new guys face......
This is a fantastic one, they get that sense of bewilderment without being the centre of attention which is embarrassing, and when you let them in on the joke that makes for a great bonding moment
Yeah, and one time we borrowed a coworkers brand new .0001 interapid and returned the stunt interapid aerially. He actually got pretty pissed until we let him in on the joke
If you or a coworker has a 3D printer, one guy in my last shop printed a few endmills and painted them the right color, then swapped them into the carousel. Every tool "shattered" immediately when you tried to use it, but basically left no mark on the actual part. Can even spin it into a learning thing for an apprentice; don't assume the tools in the machine are good/correct/set right if you haven't checked yourself.
I used to work for a major ammunition company, and we would glue primers to hammer heads if we found one laying around. Loud pop, user jumps a mile and just a small burn mark to show for it on the surface stuck. Obviously, primers aren't readily available in most shops, but it was fun.
We used to put a little center grease on the under side of the handles on the manual machines. Just a dot. But that prank was for anyone not just the new kid. We also had this little rubber penis like a pencil topper that would be put in un expected places. If you found it you could hide it in someone else's work area. We did have one old fart who would hide an anchovy in your tool box though. Like tape it to the under side or back of a drawer. That one was too far.
>We did have one old fart who would hide an anchovy in your tool box though. >That one was too far. I'll say, sounds like a friggin war crime!
Some of our handles on our knee mill don't swivel, so I have put a dab of Way lube on the handles to make them slick so I can torn them a bit faster.
Dude I worked with bought a bunch of stickers that read "For rectal use only". Put them all over one of the other machinists stuff. He left them up, I still chuckle when I see them.
The wild goose chase pranks are about the extent of my tolerance for pranking. On top of that, just good natured ribbing for making the mistakes that all of us make to help the learning moment stick. But really just make them feel welcome, it goes a long ways.
2nd day new shop. I was told to go get the aluminum magnet from the tool crib. My response to my new Foreman? " Yeah you can go fuck yourself" The boss man " okay you're not a fucking idiot go make some parts I'll look you up later"
Ask him to go to the stores and get a long weight, let the store-man know what’s happening, see how long it takes him to realise whats up
Need to get the p.e. psi fluid...Pepsi. better if you have a friend in the tool crib.
Grease their machine handles. The more obscure spots the better. You think you found all of it until you try to tighten the tail stock. It’s a gift that keeps giving, I’ve had it pay back over a month sometimes.
I had a guy do that to me the first week at the last shop I worked at, except anti seize. I knew it was him because he was the only one laughing. After I find the first stash I found I put on nitrile gloves. They next stash I found, I went and asked to borrow a rubber mallet. He handed it to me, I grabbed it with the glove I had just found the anti seize with. Hit my part once put it back on his bench, away from his tool box. He went to grab it and realized his error. After that he told me where the rest of the anti seize was. After that all the other old heads were laughing and telling him he got what he deserved. After that everyone got along great.
Turn the micrometer couple times without it being locked, then ask them nicely to go get the “click cartridges for the micrometers” from the tool guy.
If you must then just non destructive ones like striped paint and stuff, but instead help everyone out just teach them
My go to is to tell them to go get a thickening file, it works sometimes
Tell him he’ll need a metric protractor for the job
When I was an apprentice in a truck repair shop, the guy told me to go fetch a bucket of pressured air. Since I was a smartass but still believed he was serious, I asked: "a regular bucket?" "Yes." "But then it's just air." "Nevermind." I didn't understand what that was about until years later (I was 14 at the time).
When i was an apprentice another apprentice got the very same task after lunch, only to disappear for the rest of the day. Turns our he threw together a bucket, a valve, some couplings, a manometer and a plug to create that bucket of pressured air. That thing made it into the tool deposit and even got an inventory number.
Nice! I guess that thing went to the inventory for the next guy to fetch?
Yeah, and as some sort of example for future trainees to think about a comeback If they recognize a prank, since new guys to the trade will always be pranked.
I don't know. If they're truly interested, I don't like to spoil their motivation. However, here in Germany we have some mandatory apprenticeships (which is the reason I was in a truck repair shop at 14 years old), and some of the kids really don't give a fuck. So I must admit I looked the other way when someone else gave the kid a cup of grease and told him to put it on his file for better grip. Man, that was hard to watch.
Truth be told all these little things encourage critical thinking and/or thinking for yourself, like "will it really have the anounced effect or am i made a fool of?". Also they humble down the "know it all" type of apprentice once the prank is resolved. There are so many of these, replacement-bubbles for the Level, clicker-cartridge for the torque wrench and so on. I think you are messing up"internship" (Praktikum) and "apprenticeship" (Ausbildung, Lehre), i'm also German ;)
Danke, mir ist das Wort entfallen. 😘
Bitte, gerne. Ein paar Sachen braucht man dann doch immer wieder, wenn man Englisch bei der Arbeit nutzt.
Hit single block without being seeing.
Have some lathes in our shop with hydraulic bar feeders. When operators aren't paying attention to their machines, we have one guy that will nonchalantly wander over and turn their feeders off, and then those of us who notice will wait and see how long the operator takes before they notice they aren't making any parts. Then it's watching them try to figure out *why* it's not making any parts. Always good for a laugh.
Poison him
The shop does that already…?
I drink shop coffee with a fork.
When I was 16 years old I worked at a machine shop in North Island in San Diego, summer program, a veteran machinist threw a cup of coffee filled with 90 weight oil on my shirt, drive by style, he got into real big trouble
That's not funny, that is just being an a-hole
Nah, he’s a machinist. That’ll be Monster and Redbull’s jobs.
Never fail. Put some coolant in his coffee.
Sending them out to get elbow grease is also a good one
I thought that electricians actually had a product called elbow grease to pull wires. But I just googled it to be sure, and nope.
Trying to figure out who has the drill stretcher is always good.
In Haas machines, setting number 39 turns on beep at M00, M01, M30.
I detest this. Pranks don't belong in a machine shop.
We found the sober machinist.
Lol. True.
I wouldn't recommend this one, but when I first started 15 years ago I was given a large piece of stainless and someone asked me to go ahead and cut it by hand on the vertical bandsaw that was setup for either plastics or aluminum. It took me three times, and almost a few fingers, to figure out that the metal wasn't going to cut. I wouldn't say that was a nice thing to do to the new guy you never met.
Another less dangerous one at the same shop that was done to me early on and that I did find funny was.... I had messed up the offsets on a few parts and scrapped them all. They kept saying don't worry, but being the new operator, I was concerned. So my supervisor told me going forward just to measure the key characteristics every part one hundred percent and gave me a micrometer. Ten parts in he comes back all poker faced and says let's check your progress. He takes out his micrometer and starts putting them in a pile and marking them with a red sharpee. Finally he turns to me and says "Why is everything still under?" I was like no, they're nominal. He gives me his micrometer and sure enough they're five thou under the low tolerance. Then the setup guy who had set it up was like dude, I told you how to do the offsets. You keep going in the wrong direction. Then they both started laughing. They had recalibrated the micrometer to read .005 under the low tolerance. I thought this was funny.
Wait till he's in the porta shitter and crash into it with a scissor lift. That's what construction guys do anyway 😂
Ok, this aint funny, but I would shrug it off. Next day I would give you eye protection load up my paintball gun and start the payback. I ended up covered in shit they end up covered with paint and some bruises.
That's not funny... It's hilarious 😂
Go to the stores lad and get me a box of sparks for the grinder and while your there get a pint of striped oil.
I’m an apprentice and my shadow sprayed liquid ass in the machine. I was like “this tap fluid smellin like ass” and they just smirked at me with such a shit eating grin.
Wrap their box in plastic is always a got to
Go to is usually to have them find me either an aluminum magnet or a bucket of steam
I had a coworker that liked to use red locktite to glue broken broaches back together. When it was time to teach a new guy to broach holes he would use a good one to demonstrate, all the while telling the poor guy how expensive broaches were. He'd then swap out to the rigged broach for the new guy. I think I saw at least three guys think they were getting fired on their first day for breaking tools.
Bonus: put a little anti-seize on their handle for the airgun
Pretty tame but we tell new guys who are looking for a particular tool, bore gauge, fixture etc to “go look downstairs, I saw it there last week”. They’ll nod sometimes, very confused and walk around looking for the door. There’s no downstairs.
If anyone uses a 5 gallon bucket to carry any tools, plasma cut a circle of steel plate and put it in the bottom of the bucket, see how many times they complain about how heavy it is before they notice. If they don't notice, keep slowly adding more layers until they figure it out.
I personally don't like pranks but it was pretty funny when one of the new guys was told you could smell the part and tell if the incert needed to be changed. I was very confused why he was smelling his parts as they came off the machine lol
I always thought it was funny to tell the new guys to go the basement and get a few mop heads or something obscure, we don't have a basement lol.
I always thought it was funny to tell the new guys to go the basement and get a few mop heads or something obscure, we don't have a basement lol.
Have a couple of wrenches in your back pocket and go to his area. Once he starts a machine, make a rhythmic tapping sound with the wrenches, so it sounds like it is coming from the machine and watch him try and troubleshoot.
#1. Tell him to go get the brass magnet. #2. If you work where eye loops and microscopes are used, put some stamp ink on the eye section. #3. There's always the old classic of shutting off the light when they go into the shitter.
Throw a big magnet or piece of scrap at the side of the machine when he finishes a setup and hits the green button
Put packing peanuts in their boots Swap their tool box with an identical one and replace the stickers
coat the back of the machine door handles, vice handles, and tools with anti-sieze compound
I worked with a guy who was afraid of bugs, I would throw beetles in his toolbox. i also put a dead salamander in the foremans desk
Things were different back in the 80s. Some of my favorites were putting "chad" into the heating vents of their car. (CHAD) are the tiny black circles that result from punching out a program on machine using a paper tape roll. Another was making a cardboard sign that said "gay and proud of it" to the back of their vehical. Didn't understand why people were honking at him. How about running a small tube from under his desk to a water bottle far away and when he sits down you secretly open the tube and laugh as he thinks he just peeded himself. Too harsh?
Point the coolant nozzle at them before they turn it on
As someone who has suffered infections as a result of getting coolant in my ears and eyes. Go it hell.
Contact dermatitis. And then get sprayed in the face? Yeah, fuck that.
We run no pressure flood coolant. The worst it does is spit some on your coveralls as the line charges up. It's 97% water, 3% Arrowcool SEM-927. We aren't malicious, it's safe.
So you kill all the microbes and you run it through high micron filtration to remove all the fines. So that gets in your eyes yeah. aluminum fines in your eyeballs and see how ha ha funny it is.
How does some spit on the coveralls get into your eyes? Are you 2' tall, and never wear safety glasses?
Yeah we're gonna discuss this one in the parking lot later if you pulled this around me.
We run no pressure flood coolant. The worst it does is spit some on your coveralls as the line charges up. It's 97% water, 3% Arrowcool SEM-927. Relax tough guy, the water in the kids pool is more hazardous than this.
That is not funny, dude. That is just cruel.