I traded a hole for a lawn tractor.

[Magicman]

He told me this morning that in addition to a "Mop Pipe", he is having a blade built that will completely cover the teeth for digging across gas pipe lines.  Gas people do not like teeth.

[Jeff]

This is what mine looks like. Didn't matter digging the pond, in fact in that clay, it left structure.

[doc henderson]

We should affectionately refer to her as "Ol snaggle tooth!  

[Jeff]

Just the,way I got the old hoe. She probably deserves some new teeth, but anything tooth related after the last month scares the bejabbers outta me.

[Hilltop366]

A hole with a hoe for a whole lawn tractor...pretty good deal!

When trying to get a flat bottom with a toothed bucket when getting close to the correct depth I will put the bucket in so the flat part is almost level with the ground with the teeth pointing slightly down the as you move the dipper towards you you raise the boom and roll the bucket down to level all at the same time.

It takes a bit of practice to get the correct amount of movement of three things at the same time, I use to be ok at it but rarely use the backhoe enough to keep in practice.

[Wlmedley]

The first full time job I had was working at a Case dealership. Would have been 1975 and the newest 580 model was the 580B. I played with them every chance I got and eventually got pretty good at digging with one. A few times they let me take one out to demonstrate to a customer. At that time they had 5 levers and foot swing. I expect that they have wobble sticks now but I really liked the 5 lever set up. On the 580B you had to split the machine to replace the clutch and I got pretty good at that also. I was wanting a raise and I thought I would impress the boss one day and I did a clutch replacement in 4 hours. Pulled the machine in the shop at 8am and pulled it out at noon. Later that day I asked if it might be possible to get a raise.Boss said I was doing pretty good and he would discuss it with the company owner which was my uncle. Next day he said he got me a raise. I asked him how much and he said a nickel but don't tell anyone. I said "don't worry am just as ashamed of it as you are " 

[doc henderson]

a nickel raise in 1975, that was I got every few months loading trucks.  I was 15.  but we started at 70 cents an hour.

[Wlmedley]

I think I was making $3.00 a hour before I got my raise.  Never did get another one and in 1977 I quit and went to work for the company that I retired from and started out at $4.75 a hour. Which was a heck of a difference at that time. I remember around that time the coal miners were making $50 a day which I thought was a tremendous amount of money.

[Tom K]

This is what mine looks like. Didn't matter digging the pond, in fact in that clay, it left structure.

In your earlier picture it looked like you had a tooth missing, and you sure do. I was going to say try not to us it too much like that because you will wear out the socket and you may not be able to pin another tooth in, I think that ship may have sailed. By the looks of that socket I think your going to have to weld a new tooth on now.

I went through that last month with my mini. I was scrubbing out some brush and lost a tooth. The hardest part was trying to find out what type of tooth I needed, switching them out was fairly easy.

I welded up a 36" straight edge with pockets for the teeth and tabs to bolt to my 24" bucket. It's real nice for grading, or a redneck ditch bucket.

[Jeff]

Yea, it's been like that since I got it. There was a tooth in the toolbox and a pin, I tried to put it in when I first got it, but no go.  First time I dug with digging with it, it disapeared. 

[Magicman]

I asked him how much and he said a nickel but don't tell anyone. I said "don't worry am just as ashamed of it as you are "

You made me look back at my first raise in 1963.  It was a whopping 11 cents per hour.  That was one month after we got married and it kicked me up to $65 per week.

[Resonator]

Looks like that shank would need some quality time with a welder before the tooth will stay on, nothin' that can't be fixed.
-----------

Later that day I asked if it might be possible to get a raise.Boss said I was doing pretty good and he would discuss it with the company owner which was my uncle. Next day he said he got me a raise. I asked him how much and he said a nickel but don't tell anyone. I said "don't worry am just as ashamed of it as you are "

Reminds me of a story...

Guy drives in to work one day, parks his well worn family car in the employee parking lot. He gets out and just as he does, his boss pulls in and parks next to him with a brand new Porsche. He looks at his bosses new car and says: "WOW!" Boss looks at him and says: "Really nice, ain't it? Tell you what, if you work really hard, put in as much overtime as you can, and dedicate yourself to making the company as profitable as it can be, in a year from now... I'll buy another new one for myself." 

[NE Woodburner]

Years ago I ran a mfg plant for a guy who owned the company and was also president of the company. He had a nice, couple year old, company car and parked in a prominent spot marked out with his name on a sign.

One day we had a company meeting where he announced that there would be no raises that year for the few hundred mfg employees. Literally the day after the meeting I saw his car parked in the spot next to his marked parking space and a brand new car in his space. I figured it was a sales person or visitor that had pulled in to his spot. I thought to myself boy, Bill is not going to be happy that someone parked in his spot and he had to park in the next spot over. I went in to the office and Bill was proudly telling people in the office about he new car he just bought and all about the various bells and whistles. He mentioned he was going to keep the "old" car to run in the winter since this new one was so nice.

I mentioned the optics of telling the employees there would be no raises then buying a fancy new car and keeping the almost as fancy "old" car. He looked at me with a puzzled look like I was speaking a foreign language. He had no clue. I did not stay at that company very long...

[barbender]

It is amazing how tone deaf people can be!

I'm kind of a youngster as far as the Forum goes. I think my first jobs were $5.00/hr. But, that was more buying power than $10/hr us now. 

I remember when the Kinco insulated pigskin work gloves hit the shelves at the local co-op at that time, they were $5.00 a pair. They're $25 for a pair now.