what is a fender washer?

Blueskies wrote:
"VideoFlyer" wrote in message ...

Lowes and Home Dee-pot are *not* hardware stores. . . ;-)


That's true.....but they're the closest thing to a hardware store that I have
seen for many years. Where did all the GOOD hardware stores go.

I went into Menards a few weeks ago looking for a 3 inch V-belt pulley for an
air compressor. The person who waited on me had no idea what a pulley was.
He started showing me ratchet cable "pullers"....like a "come-along." Last
month I went into the same store and asked if they carried tap and die sets.
Again...the person who waited on me didn't have a clue as to what I was talking
about.
snip
I must sound like an old f*rt reminiscing about the good old days. I am a
YOUNG 47 year old male.

We have a really good Ace Hardware store here. I know they are struggling with Menards, The Home Depot, and Lowes within
4 miles. I use them every chance I get...

Ace is pretty good, for example they carry number and letter size
drill bits. I've never found that at Home Depot or Lowes, just the
fraction sizes from about 1/16 to 1".

The help you get from staff depends. At a Lowe's once I got good
help from an older guy, who seemed to have actually made stuff with
his hands and knew what I was talking about for moderately obscure
tools (hand chuck).

Not knowing what a tap and die set is? That's pretty bad, hopefully
you caught one dumb guy on a bad day with that one.

While we're ranting, I went to school for mechanical engineering. A
lot of the people seemed to be in it because their high school
guidance counselors told them they were good at math and science.
Smart people, just a different kind of smart. I got into it because
I thought it was neat the way stuff worked, but I had that in common
with less than half of the guys. I don't work in that field now
though, so it's just a pet theory of mine. Maybe Ron W. could weigh
in on this one?

[PS I'm a young 30, right now is the good old days]

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 00:54:31 -0600, Jim Carriere
wrote:

While we're ranting, I went to school for mechanical engineering. A
lot of the people seemed to be in it because their high school
guidance counselors told them they were good at math and science.
Smart people, just a different kind of smart. I got into it because
I thought it was neat the way stuff worked, but I had that in common
with less than half of the guys. I don't work in that field now
though, so it's just a pet theory of mine. Maybe Ron W. could weigh
in on this one?

I got into engineering because I wanted to design stuff that would actually *do*
things. Flash lights, make weird sounds, etc. I used to disassemble transistor
radios and make strange little oscillators from the parts...one transistor, the
output transformer, one resistor (preferably variable), and the speaker. Used
to experiment for hours, finding out what a capacitor would do here, rigging up
a light-dependent resistor for the pitch control, etc. Knew a guy in school who
absolutely hated high-pitched sounds, so a built a fixed-frequency oscillator
into a small candy box and arranged to hang around him for a while.

Funny, how things turn out. I got my EE degree specializing in high-tension
power lines, but was an ROTC type and went into the Air Force. Which completely
ignored my educational background and assigned me as a sensor specialist for an
early warning satellite. Post-Air Force, I worked as a test engineer for a bit
then ended up as a Systems Engineer. Other than a two-year stint managing a set
of RF design engineers at a dot-com, I've never even come close to using my
degree....

Ron Wanttaja

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
I got into engineering because I wanted to design stuff that would actually *do*
...
Funny, how things turn out. I got my EE degree specializing in high-tension
power lines, but was an ROTC type and went into the Air Force. Which completely
ignored my educational background and assigned me as a sensor specialist for an
early warning satellite. Post-Air Force, I worked as a test engineer for a bit
then ended up as a Systems Engineer. Other than a two-year stint managing a set
of RF design engineers at a dot-com, I've never even come close to using my
degree....

Oh... for some reason I figured you currently worked in the field,
that's why I said maybe you could offer some insight about hands on
vs book smart people in technical fields.

Funny how things turn out, as you say.