It being school vacation I have been in my school shop doing things
that I can't get done with students around.

One of the things I wanted to get to was to start making whistle
bodies because Cabin Fever Expo is coming up fast and I hoped to have
at least forty whistles to hand out to the little kids.

My wife, Terri, asked if I needed some help since she is off work
presently and I said sure. All help is welcome and appreciated.

So, today we headed up to school and I walked her through the
operation of our CNC lathe which was set up for making whistle bodies.

http://newenglandmodelengineeringsociety.org/ scroll down to find
Steve Lovely's Whistle Plans for the plans in PDF format.

Anyway, after a bit, and some starts and stops, she got the hang of it
and by the end of the day had machined 35 brass whistle bodies.

Pretty darn good for someone who had NEVER touched a machine tool
before and better than most of my students would do in the same time
frame.

She will probably not give up her day job (or more properly her night
nurse job) but she made a heck of a good start as an apprentice
machinist today.

Come August it will be 39 years that we have been putting up with each
other and I am pretty lucky to have her.

Happy New year to all,

Errol Groff

Instructor, Machine Tool Department

H.H. Ellis Technical High School
643 Upper Maple Street
Dantieson, CT 06239

New England Model Engineering Society
http://newenglandmodelengineeringsociety.org/