alicec86•27d agoProlific Poster

Hot take: That one lead mechanic who never let me touch the tool box was right

Back when I started at a small maintenance base in Boise, this old guy named Hank kept me off his Snap-On box for six months straight. He'd say 'you break it, you learn to fix it without it first' and made me use loaners and beaters. After I cracked a 3/8 ratchet trying to force a bolt on a Cessna 172, I finally saw the point. Has anyone else had a mentor hold back tools like that and it actually helped?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_john27d ago

Cracked a 3/8 ratchet on a 172 you say? I once tried to use a half-inch snap-on on a stripped nut and ended up launching myself backward into a parts cart. Hank sounds like my old boss Frank who made me hand-file a stuck bolt for two hours before he showed me the tap and die set. That was some painful but solid learning right there.

hollyramirez27d ago

Wait, @the_john, do you REALLY think hand-filing a stuck bolt for two hours was a good teaching moment? I gotta disagree with you there. Frank sounds like a guy who got off on making people suffer instead of Actually teaching them. That kind of "learning" just builds resentment and wasted time, not skills. If Hank was a good mentor, he'd show you the tap and die set UP FRONT and explain WHY it works better than brute force. Making someone file for hours is just hazing, plain and simple. I've seen too many young mechanics quit because of that old-school "earn your stripes" garbage. Learning is good, sure, but not when it's just punishment dressed up as experience.