G'day all,
I've just got a new apprentice at work and we've all been sat down for the standard pc chat on 'tom foolery' and 'horseplay' in the work place.... apparently nowadays not even being sent to the shop for a 'left handed screwdriver' or a breakfast roll and a 'randy tart' will be tolerated......
Anyone else been told this?... I remember my first tree lopping lesson as an eager agriculture student, I got sent to the top of a sappling only to then have it cut at the base, I rode it to the ground like a proper cowboy, lol good times when I look back
Any other stories of such 'man building' apprentice abuse???????

A mate drilled and screwed a grease nipple into another blokes tool box and completely filled it with grease.
 
Matt

Haha riden cowboy! Yew! :) as a butcher by trade back in the day we were making sausages and used a compressed air filler unit to push the mix out of filler into skins so we sent the new apprentice to the local servo for a box of compressed air ! Upon returning with the box thanx to the fast witted servo attendant, he was instructed to pour the air into the filler, and was amazed to find himself in the ****e wen opened the box and released the air!! So was detailed by the boss and sent to retrieve another box of air, he got half way across the car park only to return empty handed and red faced! :)) good times, good times!! As an apprentice my self I've had to dodge flying pigs eye balls, trotters, pigs ears hats and swims in the brine tank! Aaghhhh they were the days! Character building!! :)

As a mechanic all the usual left hand screw driver, short weight, long weight etc were always on the menu with apprentices and work experience kids but I always remember one that stood out.
while another mechanic kept the apprentice occupied in the office, I went to his car and rigged up a wire straight from his ignition coil (electronic ign car) thru the firewall and to the base of the drivers seat. We then asked him to get some change from the bank, while we all had smoko outside the workshop with a clear view of his car. He jumped in cranked it over and got jolted so hard, As the best earth was his arm on the key,it actually took him a few seconds to rip his hand off the key to stop the cranking. The poor **** went to crank again but he looked over and saw 3 of us literally rolling on floor laughing. I don't think I ever laughed so hard in my life. Yes those were the days when you could engage in the character building antics.
 
Cheers

I was told the story of a panel beater apprentice who had the broom break when he was using it. In a panic he asked his master what to do, in case the boss found out the handle had broken. His master, my mate, told him to go to the store room and get the wood welding flux of the shelf, he would show the apprentice how to fix it and the boss would be the none the wiser.
The kid returned some time later with no flux. His master swore at him and said its on the shelf and to find it quick.
In another more serious panic after continuing the search the apprentice started swearing and pushing stores around noisily. The store was behind the bosses office where the boss was with a client...
The boss came out back to the store to find the apprentice in a frenzy, asked what was going on as the kid broke down and confessed to breaking the broom and couldn't find the wood welding flux that he had been searching for for half an hour or more.
Apparently the boss shrieked, calling the kid all sorts of derogatory names and finally sternly demanded he get back in there and not come out until the wood welding flux had been found.
I assume the kid is still looking.
 
JP

But sometimes the jokes can go overboard and get out of hand.
I remember on a building site during a mandatory work experience period as part of my uni-studies I was bent over head in a hole attending to some plumbing fixtures when I get a sharp stinging in the ass. one of the younger builders had taken aim with is nail gun and shot me twice from up in the rafters. I pulled him off the roof trying to pull the nail gun via the air hose out of his hand, we both went to hospital that day!
 
JP

Back when i was a mechanic one of the other lads has a ke55 corolla.  we jacked it up in the carpark just enough for the rear wheels to break contact with the ground, then fitted some stands underneath.  was classic see ing him try to figure out why the car has lost drive haha 

When I was an apprentice I copped the old long weight trick.
 
The guys in the panel shop got sick of me annoying them after half an hour, so one of them directed me to a large anvil. Needless to say the guys in the workshop where rather amused when I returned an hour later struggling with the bloody thing on a trolley.