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Old 04-20-2016, 08:06 AM
steve B steve B is offline
Steve Birmingham
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: eastern Mass.
Posts: 8,394
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It's really old fashioned now, and probably not allowed in larger companies. But every industry has it's things.

The print shop did a little but more of a "We've decided you're Ok so we'll include you in pranks" sort of hazing. The really traditional one was to tell you that the printing ink heated up as you mixed the color and you could tell it was ready by holding your hand over the ink to feel how warm it was. Of course then the guy would slap your hand into the ink.

Being picked up and put in one of the waste paper bins. Not bad, they were just big cloth boxes on wheels. They'd put the ink which was really sticky on something you handled but where you couldn't see it. The backs of the handles on the press were prime places. You'd get the ink on your hand, then every itch or anything you had got inked. That usually lasted till someone just couldn't keep a straight face. It was banned after someone did it to all the drawer pulls on the bosses desk.


In Hydraulics you weren't a "real" mechanic until you'd been soaked by oil spraying out of something. (Trapped air which is common in some broken stuff can make a really impressive spray of oil if it's not released properly)
They tried maybe three times, but didn't catch me. Then there was a baler with trapped air and the boss removed the valve. I happened to be standing in the one spot shielded from spray by one of the bolts holding it down. (Picture a basically round spray of oil but with one pizza slice shaped bit where nothing went. )
Finally I had to go to the airport to pick up a hose. Pretty cool right? I got to drive out to the truck which was between two taxiways. And that truck was parked over a small pond of leaked oil. The hose was underneath the truck. So I had a bit of a swim. Totally soaked. After a bit of cleanup and finishing the last bit of the day we all went out for beer.

Steve B
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