Here's Mom's '64 Studebaker 289 spread out on the garage floor when we rebuilt it.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1671048064.JPG
This was before we had auto shop in school.

I took "industrial arts" in junior high. It consisted of a little woodworking, sheet metal and drafting. I did not get much out of it but it beat taking the alternative home ec.

By that age I was already spending most weekends at a friend's house whose dad had a home business with a huge shop full of tools and materials to build stuff with. We would stay up all night on Fridays building and or modding all kinds of contraptions... Suspension bmx bikes, home built gocarts, turned dirt bikes into 3-wheelers, later painted our old cars etc etc.

Yep - loved it too. Made a mailbox, ash trays, hammered copper bowl,

I can't imagine the stress on the teacher dealing with 15 knuckleheads and power tools.

In 7th grade I built a wood lathe in wood shop. I found some plans in some magazine like Popular Mechanics. The shop teacher found some cherry wood to make the ways out of. He figured it was the hardest, most dimensionally stable wood in the shop stock. The tail stock was made of plumbing parts with a floor flange mounted to a sliding wood assembly that would clamp on the ways with great big wing nuts. The tool rest was made of wood again with a long piece of steel plate bolted to it. It was adjusted and clamped with one big wing nut. I bought a mandrill, motor and two three-step v-belt pulleys that I could arrange for different speeds from Sears. My dad used his small Unimat lathe/mill to cut a spur center and a dead center to fit the mandrel and the all-thread shaft running through the plumbing parts on the tail stock. It had a simple crank on the end. I made a face plate for turning bowls out of a plumbing floor flange. I still have it up in the shop at the Armadillo Ranch. Mostly used with a grinding wheel mounted on the mandrill but occasionally for turning wood.
I made this on my lathe about 40 years ago.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1671057639.JPG

No. I went to private, Catholic schools. It was definitely not offered in Jr high and I don't recall if it was offered in high school. If I could turn back to clock, I would if I could.

Whew! I thought I was the only one to be deprived of that. Mine was a prep school so none of that stuff, but we did have an investments class. Out teacher was a Wall Street bond trader.

In my 7th grade junior high (1957), boys had metal shop. Learned to stick weld - poorly - how to spot weld - better at that - and how to use a metal lathe, a bending brake and other metal working tools. Invaluable lessons. Girls took sewing and we switched classes for one six week period so I learned some sewing skills too.

8th grade junior high was wood shop. Learned to use a lathe, table saw, band saw, jointer and planer. I made a mahogany bookcase I still have and turned a maple and walnut zebra bowl - still have it too. I loved wood shop. Girls took cooking that year and we switched for a six week period with the girls. I learned to make a great coffee cake.

9th grade junior high was mechanical drawing. Learned drafting skills and basic architecture principles. Girls took Home economics. We switched for a six week period that year too.

Our high school was both vocational and traditional courses. The school had auto, electric, machine, wood, and welding shops. I was on the college prep side but did take machine shop as an elective.

This was all in public schools in a city of 60,000. I really learned a lot in shop and it’s a shame it’s gone from most schools.

Excellent.

You reminded me. We had a spare hour to do whatever we chose. my friend had the idea we took cooking and got to meet some of the girls that were in other classes that we wouldn't otherwise get to meet (big school). Duh, one of the guys who went to woodworking or engineering said "Amazing, you wouldn't believe the gorgeous girls in my woodworking class." We lucked out. Mind you I did win the cooking competition and we were a hit with the girls in our own class by arriving back with hot blueberry muffins etc.

Wood shop and mechanical drawing. Built all kinds of stuff. First year the obligatory cutting board, then a 100 tape cassette rack, a queen bed with head board out of walnut (which in 1970 was $1.40 a board foot!)
I made a walnut cross bow stock, sent away for the trigger assembly and 80lb. aluminum bow. I doubt they would let kids build cross bows in wood shop these days. Are there even any wood shops in high schools anymore?