Mishaps In The Trade
Submitted by member: Nuvistor
A couple of tales that I found out about from other TV repairers, most of the chaps knew each other in the local trade and tales were passed around, not invented, well you couldn’t make them up. These two were from the same shop, this shop would tackle many jobs
Tale 1. Someone had brought an old fashioned kettle used on a gas stove to have the spout re-soldered on, diligently the spout was removed and re-soldered in place. Lots of care and patience, he looked at his work and said “ Oh Dear” I have put the ****** spout on upside down. Hilarity from the rest of the workshop ensued.
Tale 2. The shop sold mirrors to go into bathrooms, so off two of them went with the mirror, screws drill etc. Placed the mirror on the wall above the sink, marked the holes and then let the mirror slip and fall. Looking down breathed a sigh of relief, the mirror was OK, looked again and two taps with pipe work were standing free with the sink in pieces on the floor.
Glad we didn’t have to do those sorts of jobs to keep the workshop going.
Not so much a mishap but a comment made by an apprentice when he was at college. The subject was aerial theory and one of the chaps was asked a question from the lecturer, he said “Ian what is the advantage of a folded dipole?” Ian duly replied “Its easier to get in the van”! As you can picture the whole class including the lecturer were in fits of laughter.
Some of the stories were and things that happened were literally hilarious. Remember the SABA CTV’s with the thyristor line stage, they used to blow the 15 ohm 17 watt resistor in the power supply, caused by bad line drive or a duff component, one engineer said that it only happened when the TV was loud and it was vibration upsetting the line stage, again one of those daft things some come up with.
The boss had a friend who had a TV shop in the next town, this shop installed aerials for us. One day we had an irate customer on the phone complaining there were two large dents in his otherwise immaculate lawn. Seems the rigger couldn’t be bothered with the ladder and got on the roof someway, a bungalow. Getting down was more of a problem so he jumped onto the lawn. That was the end of a that alliance, we found an excellent rigger who did all out work from then on.
Oh dear, that reminds me of shop I worked in that sold Colour TVs (in the early years). We usually recommended a fresh aerial installation. Our association with the rigging company was cut short one day by a visit from the police. Apparently there had been a number of burglaries where a colour TV was stolen. After interviewing us they arrived at the view that our rigger was the common denominator.