The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest The toys are getting bigger- - - -

And more expensive! While browsing Ebay I found a valve seat and guide machine identical to the one I used for 20-something years in my high school auto shop, including the air float work table and more tooling than mine had- - - - -at a price less than one third of what Nashville Metro schools paid! It's also got a "Make offer" option. I tossed out a lowball offer- - - -the seller accepted- - - -and I sent a check! I've done business with the same guy before on my portable line bore machine. Now I've got to make another 500-something mile trip to the People's Republic of Illinois between snow storms to pick it up! I hate traveling to places where I'm not allowed to defend myself! An effort to get it into temporary storage fell through when the seller overestimated the weight of the machine. Guess it's going to be time for another road trip soon!
Jerry

Good luck on the trip to never-never land. I hate having to disarm, unload, and put the weaponry in the trunk. But, you are saving old machinery from the crusher, and you know how to use it. My high school didn't have an auto shop. You could take small engines or vo-ag, where most of the guys worked on tractors or farm trucks. No machine tools were available, basically what farmers had available, an arc welder and a bfh. I saw no use in those classes, eventually interned at a local mechanic shop, where the machinery was for valve grinding and seating and starter and generator rebuilds.Now you have to leave the state for that kind of education.

I was lucky enough to inherit a school shop my father had opened 20-something years before I took it over, with only a 7 years' gap between us. Dad had what was probably the best-equipped high school auto shop in Tennessee at the time, with full machining capabilities including cylinder boring equipment, a head and block mill, Sunnen hone, and a Winonna seat and guide machine. The shop also had a Bosch floor-mounted chassis dyno, and a Go-Power bellhousing dyno. In the same wing of the building, there was a welding shop, an aircraft shop, a machine shop, a body shop, commercial refrigeration, building trades, electronics, and woodworking. Elsewhere in the same school there was a print shop, commercial art, photography, and commercial foods. In all, the school opened with 22 trade and industrial programs, and a total enrollment approaching 3,000 students. The building covered 10+ acres on three floors, and the campus was close to 50 acres.

I had a sweetheart deal with a couple of local race car owners- - - -they provided the financing, my students built and dyno tested NASCAR-specification short track engines,. and kids who were at least 16 years of age could compete for a summertime position on several pit crews. Some of those same kids from 15 years ago or so have their own race teams now.
Jerry