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What's your brew, as in life trade

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Orcade-Ian:
It always amazes me how we all came from such diverse backgrounds but ended up at the same point with our hobby (I know for some it's still their only income stream)
I loafed about at a very good Technical Grammar school in Hull and only came out with 5 GCE's - failed Inglish  ;) and got a grade 1 in German.
5 year Aeronautical apprenticeship followed by a couple of Service Engineering jobs and then Lab Tech at the local College.  Off to teacher training college in Huddersfield and then 20 years teaching engineering at Southport College - met my Wife there who was catering manageress (no wonder none of my clothes fit!)
Seconded to a Spinal injuries Unit for 3 years but stayed 12, involved with devices for upright mobility of patients with spinal cord injury and electrical stimulation of paralysed muscle.
Used a recumbent pedal tricycle belonging to the patients for Lands End to John O Groats to raise money for another project in the unit and realised that doing bugger all was infinitely better than work so I retired early and we moved to Orkney.
Into cars, especially Jaguars and classic Minis and still have too many bikes - still hauling a 1500 GoldWing around at 68.

RGP750:
Started a Patternmaking Apprenticeship in 1970 and never looked back.
Even now i'm lucky i just love the job.
Started Dial Patterns Ltd in 1988 and still going strong lots of work but one of the dying trades.
Maggie shut the collages in the 80's "because we didn't need manufacturing" now we are in dire straights
re patternmakers. In 1970 approx 17 patternshops all employing about 10+ people in Kent and Sussex
now two of us total 8 employees and none under 58, 2 years and Dial Patterns will be gone as well :(
Diverse work from Brighton seafront railings to Bently cylinder blocks, Triumph cylinder head to Audi auto union crank case
and anything in between. Never gets boring.
Live It :) :)

Orcade-Ian:
You are leaning against an open door RGP with the bit about Maggie and she even had advisers telling her the folly of dismantling the training boards but we will get our collars felt if we get too political.  When I first started teaching I felt that I was imparting useful knowledge to young 'uns, it changed first to child minding, then to zoo keeping just before I jumped ship.
My lifelong friend from Hull, who I often meet up with for motorcycle trips served his apprenticeship as a patternmaker - company (Rose, Downs & Thompson) now closed of course but he still turns out some excellent artifacts in wood in retirement.
Ian

Moorey:
21 years as a colliery mechanic until closure then 12 years as a services engineer at a factory that produced personal care products until made redundant again. Then went self employed in engineering working mainly in the chemical industry. Now retired due to big C. It gives you a different outlook on life   :D

matthewmosse:
I did art and desighn in tec collage after school, 18 months in a rather grotty factory building circuit boardss, then went to work in the care sector, did a years blacksmithing at anothe tec collage ( Hereford) whilst funding myself in the care job as a flexi, a year of that was enough witha 30 hr week caring and full time collage plus a cleaning job in collage too, so I wound up settling into another care job for 12 years whilst building up a workshop and expanding my hobbies of anything mechanical, then got severly pigged off with 7 years of pay freeze and cuts to working conditions so jumped ship to engineering based on my skills demonstrated in my hobbies, got laid off after 18 months supposedly because I was part time due to childcare issues which they accepted when taking me on, personally I reacon it was a lot more to do with me making a fuss when tod to shot blast a 27 ton trailer for the company director and I found the brakes were well shot and wasn't happy the deathtrap was being tarted up with a coat of paint to get sold on, brakes and cracked A frame un fixed. Spent the next 12 months being self employed doing anything from lambing and farm work, to tractor repairs and building rennovation, decorating and groundworks. It aint as well paid as some things but at least its honest which the engineering place wasn't and the care company who took my old place over were not. I'm building up a stock of small machinery thats modified to do specialised jobs and re engining old rotorvators in my downtime so hopefully inproving my cv engineering wise as I enjoyed that when we were not bodging dangerous junk.
Interesting that there are former pattern makers on here, one of my lathes is a pattern makers lathe, though probably a bit older than anything anyone in industry anytime recently would have used, mines a 1914 Oliver lathe, I bought it based purely on the gap bed being big enough to accomodate a cb500 wheel, tyre fitted and all to skim and re line brakes, as my other lathe needs the hub stripped bare to do the job, still got to get a chuck to fit this monster but the fact its fitted for metal and wood turning meant I added wood turning to my hobbies.

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