Old timer told me I was stretching my seams wrong - changed my whole method

Last week a retired installer named Hank watched me do a seam in a commercial office near downtown. He said I was pulling too hard and the seam would open up in 6 months. I dialed back the tension and used a smaller tucking tool, and the seam laid flat without that wavy look. Anyone else have a seasoned guy call them out on something basic they thought they had down?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesm3824d ago

Man, old timers like Hank are priceless for catching those little habits we don't even notice.

james_campbell1224d ago

Yeah @jamesm38, you're absolutely right. I had an old guy named Ray at the shop I used to work at who'd spot a loose ground wire just by how the engine sounded on a cold start. Saved my butt more than once when I was about to throw a whole alternator at a problem that was just a bad connection. Those little things they notice from decades of doing it are stuff you just can't learn from a manual.

joelt7024d ago

Honestly, nobody brings up the flip side of that though, @jamesm38. Yeah, Hank catches our bad habits, but he probably got them from some old timer before him who insisted on doing things a certain way that might not even apply anymore. Ngl, I've seen guys waste hours trying to match some crusty 1970s trick when a modern diagnostic tool could solve it in ten minutes. The real value is knowing which habits are worth keeping and which ones are just stubbornness wearing a nostalgia hat. Tbh, the best old timers are the ones who admit when their way isn't the best way anymore.