Some of the "old" guys here will have some good tricks here I'm sure...
As an apprentice you were a constant target of these "tricks" as the journeymen saw fit to bestow them on you... I don't recall any being particularly "mean spirited" but generally they were always funny almost always embarrassing and part of the ritual of "coming of age" so to speak.
One that took a while for me to figure out was everytime I was sent on a "post hole safari" when I returned someone always had some small copy (1" or so) "to be done right away" well if you've ever done any strenuous activity then tried to thread a needle you have a good idea what it was like...shaaaaking all over trying to calm down enough to letter while the journeymen passed thru one by one wanting to know why I was shaking so bad...or comments like "it takes a lot of practice to get rid of that shake"
Well it took awhile but I finally figured it out...funny thing tho they never quit doing it to you!
Aaanother trick...
To test your nerves a journeyman would slip up behinde a sheet metal flat you're lettering on and slap it with a yard stick...this never quit til you quit spilling paint or backed over yer coke crate.
Those were good times (didn't seem so at the time sometimes)I hear Devo still practices these antics with his firecrackers at the oz meets.
Please add to this list of tricks...I'd like to hear them all!
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
As an apprentice I was sent out frequently to do re paints on old neon cans. I learned how to spot out the letters with white after making a dotted outline with a pencil that bled through the white as the color dried. Learning to do patterns with that broken line technique was faster than solid lines and left margin for corrections to be done with the brush.After spotting out side two, side one was often ready for us to cut in the red background. There was much to be learned about lettering by going over someone else's, and by defining the letters by painting the background. Learning to get the proper flare at the ends of the strokes was something that is determined by letter size and the distance and speed from which it is viewed. Those re paints were valuable teaching lessons. I remember learning to do the black outlines that separated the red from the white with the tubes in place and never touching them.
Oh, remember that lesson about always having the customer turn on the sign before you ever climb up there, and agree on what is lit and what is not. Otherwise, they'll get me to pay for the tube repair out of the repaint money!
Posted by Peter Schuttinga (Member # 2821) on :
An old painter told me a few tales I thought relevant on this topic. When he was a young apprentice he was told on occasion to head back to the shop and look for a 'long stand'. He'd catch the bus back, and spend some time in the warehouse looking and looking and looking. Eventually the boss would come into the warehouse and ask him what he was doing there. He explained that he was looking for a long stand. The boss asked him how long he had been looking. He'd reply 'about an hour'. Boss said 'I guess we are out of them, just go back to the job site. It took him many years before he figured this one out. He had many a search for a 'long stand', guess he ticked of his lead hand on more than one occasion. Another time when repainting some store fronts the leadhand instructed him to go get 'barber pole' paint form the shop. Caught the bus and went back to the shop. Looked for hours, popping lids the whole while, looking for the distinctive red and white swirl of 'barber pole' paint. Never found this either, although he did attempt to mix some with no success.Apperently he was 45 years old when he figured this one out. He's a nice guy, a good painter, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. When I was learning hand lettering I remember the level of concentration was extreme, and I had a tendency to hold my breath while making a stroke with the brush. I was all tensed up and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The older Italian teaching me would ensure that I occasionally took a break and relax a bit by dropping a dictionary on the floor right behind me. One of his buddies would drop by occasionally and sneak up on you, and out of nowhere would bellow out as loud as he could 'meow', like a cat in heat. I got wise to these guys and taped a small mirror to the easel. The next time I seen one of them sneak up on me I would load up the brush, and swing around acting all startled with a loaded brush still in my hand. Ussually I was right on target. The antics soon stopped. Trying to letter after running a palm sander for an hour is always fun too. Cutting plywood with a hand saw will ensure a shaky hand also. Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Back in the t-shirt biz, one of the favorite tricks was creative placement of ink, also known as getiing the guy better than he did you...lol. My shop foreman, Bruce "Boo Boo' Howe was the best at it. When you least expected it, he'd lay a big glob of plastisol ink where you were destined to grab it. In a moment of sheer genius, he managed to lace the interior of my old clunker Chevy and hid in nearby bushes. I grabbed the steering wheel...black ink. Went up 2 flights of stairs and back with stuff to clean it up. Started the car and shifted it into reverse...silver ink. Back upstairs for more rags and thinner. Steering wheel again. I finally heard Boo Boo in the brush and jumped out of the car after him. Chased him for almost a mile across Natick, Ma.
I got him bacl later that week on his favorite coffee mug and the draw of his desk.
"Youth is wasted on the young."
Rapid
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
I take great delight in 'breaking in' my newbies. The folks that have been with me for a long time are wise to my tricks and can't wait as the new guy gets his turn.
I try and do something original to each newby... makes it more fun.
One of my past favorites was...
On one job I had two new guys start the same day and we decided to break them in good. The plan was for me to be in a 'gruff mood' from the start. It was raining and everybody was in the shop instead of out on the site. I came in to where the guys were working and suggested that some music might be nice... only NOT LOUD and definitely not any of that ROCK MUSIC that kids like these days.
I suggested Peter (my son) get the radio out of the tool trailer and turn it on. (radio didn't get anything but static of course) I came in a short while later and the radio was silent, sitting on the bench. I asked Peter AGAIN to put some music on. He replied that he was having trouble with the radio. I said I didn't care... just DO IT.
I left and came back a short while later to a silent shop. The older guys had pointed out that I was in one of my moods and for the new guys to keep their heads down and to work HARD. No telling what might happen.
I flew into a rage and exclaimed how I had to do EVERYTHING. Tried to tune the radio and of course got nothing but static. I then took a three pound hammer out of my tool pouch and smashed the radio to bits. Pieces flew all over the shop.
I thought the new guys' eyes were going to pop right out of their heads. I had to storm out of the shop immediately as these poor guys thought I had flipped right out of my skull and someone was going to DIE. As soon as I left the room I almost did - of laughter.
Nobody clued in the new guys until the afternoon coffee break, that it was all just a gag. They were wondering just what they had gotten themselves in for.
-dan
Posted by PKing (Member # 337) on :
I was sent off a job site to another sign shop to retrieve the "sky hook" they had borrowed from us. Trying to impress the boss with my willingness to do what was asked. I was sent to yet ANOTHER sign shop that the first signshop had let borrow this item to complete a job with. Thinking this "skyhook" must be one heck of a tool of the trade,off I went to yet ANOTHER shop! Each time the owner of the shop would yell to the guys in the back to give me "that skyhook" they had borrowed,only to be told it was lent out to someone else. Imagine my heart break over the failure to do the simplest task for my boss returning to the shop empty handed,and my reprive when told they got by without them anyway and was able to complete the job. Seems that there was a LETTERHEAD movement back then also! Only what they had in common was...messing with the new guy.
Posted by Pam Eddy (Member # 1858) on :
My uncle, an old school signpainter, didn't do this to me, but told me about doing it to other beginners. They would tape a pattern to a sheet of metal and tell the new guy he was going to learn how to pounce and pattern using the electro pounce. They would give the new guy a metal yard stick to use for pouncing straight lines. The old timer would show him how to get started using the electro pounce, but he would be holding a wooden yard stick to make the straight lines. Running the electro pounce down the edge of the wood yardstick made a nice straight line, but the new guy kepted getting shocked. Some would catch on right away about using a metal ruler with the electro pounce, others didn't understand why they were getting shocked, but the other guy wasn't.
Pam
Posted by Dwayne Hunter (Member # 133) on :
When I worked for Spevco, a large motorsports graphics company outside Winston-Salem, NC, there was always something goin' on. Chad, one of the coolest guys at the place, would walk up to a newbie, usually after a day or two had passed, get in their face and sternly confront them with, "If you're gunna talk crap about me, talk about me to my face!!", knowing full well, the guy had never seen him. This always had someone shaking in their boots, 'cause they either feared losing their job to a confrontation or they got back in Chad's face and had him quakin'...
Mike, a painter I'd known way before I started at Spevco, was always full of himself or crap (maybe that's one in the same. Well, he started in a new division in the same building as the art dept. After a couple of days of the usual cut-downs, I printed up a tag and laminated it to styrene. It had graphics like a true NC tag, but it spelled "I-S-U-K-D-I-X". Mike rode for TWO DAYS before he caught it one morning.
Tim, a really talented airbrush artist, was also a health nut (to the point of being a freak). One week, his new kick was two bananas a day. After a while, it never failed that he would come back from a meeting only to find his banana turned into 'unpeeled' banana pudding. Andy, Chad or I would grab the bananas and SQUEEEEEEZE them til they were mush.
It also got violent at times. No fighting, just stupid tricks. Like the time Shadow bounced a tape ball off the trailer against my head, knocking the X-Acto propped on my ear blade first into my leg (I have a handy lil' holster now) SuperGlue in the tape measure was a slightly costly gag.
The meanest and the most painful was when we wrapped Shadow's huge mullet in transfer tape. Once it's stuck to itself it doesn't let go...his har did, tough...
Maybe these aren't as deceiving or exciting as the others I've read, but they were fun!!!
Posted by Ron Carper (Member # 999) on :
Since I always worked alone, I missed all the fun. But, in 7th grade shop class, after working for months on our wood lamps, we were ready to plug them in and see if they worked. Our teacher warned us not to let the wires touch or when we plugged it in it would explode. As the first student plugged his lamp in, the teacher, standing behind us, slamed a large block of wood onto the wood floor. It echoed thru out the shop and we all jumped thru the ceiling. It was great fun, especially for the teacher. Of course if you tried that in school today, I'm sure you would get sued for causing "mental distress".
Posted by John Lennig (Member # 2455) on :
When I moved into Vancouver in '67, I worked at Sign-Ads, a traditional(weren't they all!!)shop.Being the new guy, all of 21, they had fun with me. Lard oil(our brush oil at the time) added to my paint on a 4x8, didn't dry over Christmas. Norm H., he'd goose you when you were lettering, Old John Bonar tore up a 28x44 card once, he was so mad!!!
Later in '81, at SignMajic in Surrey, Steve would "bump" your mahlstick, occasionaly. And once, only once, unhook the groundwire on the Electro.
Working alone, I miss that now, but when I'm on a Show, well, there's some oportunities, I tell ya!!
Old Skool Fun, let's have more of it,....no animals were injured .....
JOhn Lennig / SignRider / On Tour
Posted by John Lennig (Member # 2455) on :
When I moved into Vancouver in '67, I worked at Sign-Ads, a traditional(weren't they all!!)shop.Being the new guy, all of 21, they had fun with me. Lard oil(our brush oil at the time) added to my paint on a 4x8, didn't dry over Christmas. Norm H., he'd goose you when you were lettering, Old John Bonar tore up a 28x44 card once, he was so mad!!!
Later in '81, at SignMajic in Surrey, Steve would "bump" your mahlstick, occasionaly. And once, only once, unhook the groundwire on the Electro.
Working alone, I miss that now, but when I'm on a Show, well, there's some oportunities, I tell ya!!
Old Skool Fun, let's have more of it,....no animals were injured .....
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