The Apprentice

6 months ago I spoke to my boss and said I needed help coping with all of the installs, I suggested a part-time installer. What did I get...an apprentice!

I do not know what to do with him! He is a great kid but insteading of speeding me up he has slowed me down because I need to take time to show him everything, explain why I'm doing things and teach him electronics all at the same time (I am the worlds worst teacher)

After 6 months he is only just starting to get the hang of Ohms law, I'm not sure if it's a case of it's not sinking in or if I'm not teaching him correctly. I still can't leave him to install a HU by himself, am I expecting too much?

Some examples I've seen him do...

We had to install 4x35watt amplifier, I suggested that using ohms law he work out what size power cable would be appropriate, his answer? 2ga!!

I got him to run the speaker cables for a system, when I checked afterwards, I found the rear spk wire running to behind the HU, connecting into the old power loom which then ran back down to the rear speakers.

He installed a handsfree kit and connected the earth to illum. wire, it fried the power diverter in the customers phone.....$350 company dollars later....when I got to him fix his fault the kit wouldn't work at all, I had a look and found the earth wire screwed into the plastic heater piping.

Plus there is an assortment of scratches, dents, broken dashes and a customer driving off with my $250 cordless drill and my Snap-On side cutters

On these occasions I lost the plot about not thinking properly and had to apologise to him later, I know these are simple mistakes that were made and it was wrong of me to yell at the poor kid. I've spoken to my boss about it again and all he could give me was "Make it Happen"

Does anyone have any suggestions, links I could give him and we could work through, or perhaps books that we could sort through?

I'm quite happy to sit down with him after work one night and go through some stuff. Plus I have a project car that I'm about to start work on, should I maybe include him on this over the weekends if he is keen? Do you guys think this will work? I'm at my wits end, he has a lot of potential and could go a long way, I don't want him to lose interest because he has a bad teacher.

Thanks guys, any help or criticism would be greatly appreciated.

Raymond Wilkinson-Reed

Thank you for trying to give something back.. I know how hard it is.

 If the kid is truly interested in learning stuff like this, then I would suggest after-hours study.. either home based or local community college. (I'm in the US.. I don't know what resources you have available to you Down Under). Radio Shack has the Mims book on basic electronics, that might help him. As you've pointed out, you'll not be faster when you've got to teach someone..

 I've got more suggestions, but don't have the time for them now.. I'll post later when I do. But I wanted to congratulate you for giving something back. It's not easy at times, but it's worth it.

 One thing.. explain how you would use Ohm's law on the amp.. my background isn't sound equipment; I want to see if what I'm thinking is how you'd do it.  I usually just see what the equipment is fused for, or see what the manufacturer specs for current draw.

 Thanks..

 Jim

Hey Jim

Thanks for your words of confidence mate, I'm going insane here! I thought the problem was laying in me and not him, now I'm begining to think that it was both of us. It would be great if you could give me some pointers. Another thought I had was he might be having trouble listening to someone who is only 6 months older then what he is, I'm 22, his 21. I orignally thought that because we were the same age, it might help him a bit, you know, we could talk about the same things and he could view me so much as his mentor/boss, but more as the guy at work who shows him stuff (if you know what i mean )

Lets say we have an amp that puts out 100W's thats 8amp in theory, but thats also presuming 100% efficiency, which they never are, infact we need to work on about 50% efficiency, so that means we will be using about 12amps. Now if I remember correctly the last 100W amp i  installed was fused at 10amps I know there isn't much difference between 10amps and 12 amps..but as we get into bigger amperage draw gap might be 100 amps and 120 amps....and if there is one thing I hate most it's resistance down your power cables, especially over the distance of a car. Plus I also take into account that the stereo system might be upgraded. So if we have 100 watts for main speakers, lets put in another amp, say 250W's? for the subwoofer theres another 30amps that we will be pulling (20amps for 250W +50% for effiency factor = 30amps) so now in total we have the potential to pull 42 amps, thats too large for 12ga cable..in fact it's getting a bit too close to 8ga powerhandling(56A?) So  if youwanted to go silly you could put in 6ga cable, but 8ga will definetly suffice as I highly doubt we would ever be nearing that 42A mark once you take into account that the biggest current draw will be with the low notes and as such they will be spikes down the cable.

Thats how I would explained it to my apprentice, did you follow that?

Hi Warren

Yeah I gotta admit, I leave tools on the bench until the end of the day, but I think the only thing I might leave in a customers car is bits of wire off-cuts that I missed as I was cleaning up.

He considers it a job, but I think it's also a passion for him. This Thursday I had a fleet install planned out for the whole day but it's now been cancelled leaving teh day free, I think I might use this time to get HIS car in and we will go through it pull everything out and start again and maybe even do a few of the projects that I have seen in here, see how he goes with that, I've seen his install...AYE CURUMBA!

My other problem is that in one months time, we will be flying to Sydney to install Sat Tracking in a fleet of 27brand new trucks, we have been alloted a weekend to do this, if I can't rely on him. I'M F&CKED! I mean this is a 100K contract, that will be pulling in a further 15k every month for the next two years, the company won't happy if things start going wrong, my boss won't be happy if he has to sob contract another company in Sydney to go out a repair some faulty wiring I know I sure as hell wouldn't be!

Jim & Dwarren, thanks for vote of confidence and all the nice things said, maybe I just grumble to much?

Raymond WIlkinson - Reed

 First, let your Boss know that you needed someone to help, not someone to spend time teaching. Nothing wrong with teaching someone, but it's not helping the current problem, which is too much work for one person. Make sure the Boss understands that.

 WRT the amplifiers.. Watts is Volts times Amps.. if you were to measure volts/amps on the speaker wires would the answer be close to the rated output of the amp?..

 Jim

I have been stuck in this exact same situation....My boss at the first shop I worked for had a son who hung out at the shop all the time and he decided he wanted to try his hand at it...

So it was cool I liked his son good kid and all...I told my boss I would try and help him...He could do the simple stuff like HU installs (Matching colors is easy)....I taught him to solder...I tried to get ohms law past him...He was good help with pulling wires through cars an extra set of hands is always needed...

But in the end the kid just didnt have it...He wound up in the way more than he was helping...I took him to a point with teaching him and it was like a wall he just couldnt go any farther...I simply told my boss to get him out of the shop and put him up front as a salesman...

He was very good at learning from books so he basically memorized all the product manuals...And wound up being a kick ass salesman....

Maybe your apprentice is just in the wrong place...

I haven't had a chance to read everyone else's post, and I don't wish to yet. Here is my little thing:

I am a guy in a situation similar to that kid, I want to get into the electronics/electrical of vehicles so bad and am now down to simply hoping for apprenticeships, which the only shop with a good electrical rep is still considering. Now given I would have expected him to have grasped some of Ohm's law in 6 months, I atleast understand it when I'm using it, though that may require reviews in the book since I don't get to use it enough.

Link material I'd suggest:
www.bcae1.com - Will help all around knowledge. Well worth the read IMO.

Book Material:
MECP basic Installer - This isn't that great, and the site above is free and says the same... But it is a different look at the material which he made need to help understanding. And also be sure to make syure he is reading and understanding it. Same with the site. The MECP has some errors in the books I'm sure(The study guide entirely neglects the answer to 1 question and/or put the wrong answer that I can find in the material.)

The Project and Afterwork:
The project car, get him in on it and take the time to walk him through. THIS WILL BE INCREDIBLY valuable. The only thing holding me back from full out assault on my car is the insecurity of knowing what I'm doing. I don't, therefore I won't. He'll atleast have you there to immediately stop him on new and mysterious projects.
Afterwork would be a GREAT *addition* to the inshop experience. Notice, in addition. He's going to have to eventually work on his own, so small projects(A head unit on his own should NOT be hard after 1 showing, I can do it through my own logic and no help, depending on how you do the wiring I guess.) If he is not learning and hurting the shop more than helping, your boss should make the decision to cut him from the shopwork until he proves acceptability for knowledge or that maybe you approve of him coming back. Him leaving the shop doesn't mean you can't help teach him on the project car.

I'd personally love a shot like this, infact, I'd kill for it pretty much. If he is into it as much as I am, he will understand any of the situations concerning working outside of shop hours as to not hurt business. If not, then that is illogical and he is ungreatful, period.

EDIT: After reading everything, I believe Asmo had a great point. Right area, wrong place. ;)

Alright guys, thank you for your help, tomorrow I'm going to pull all 3 of us in for a little meeting and go through a few issues we are having....My points will be..

What can I do to help the apprentice?what part is he having most trouble, as in concepts? Is there still any chance of getting a PT installer?

I think we all need to sit down and be upfront about the problems we are having. When I immigrate to WI later this year, I don't want my boss to be left without a competent installer of some sort and I don't want the apprentice to be left with a whole heap of things to do and no clue how to go about them.

Raymond Wilkinson-Reed

Okies folks, meeting over.....I have to start looking for another PT installer (thank god!) and we are going to be keeping the app (umm, great!)

I will spend a bit of time with the neg guy and get him upto speed with the way our bay operates, the way I like things to be done basically. After that he will take over teaching the apprentice on the days that he is in, thus allowing me time to finish up reports, arrange meetings with corporate customers, peice together information nights/powerpoint presentations and generally try to drum up some more business.

I will take a look at this bcae1.com site, hopefully it will be of some use to us, being in Australia we do things a little differentally here but it should be the same....electrons only flow one way right? it's not like water the down the drain.....is it?

I just heard something break down in the bay! do I want to go look? No, I think I will wait another 10-15 minutes, I'm in a good mood at the moment, it doesn't happen around here all that often, lets not spoil the moment.

Once again guys, I appreciate all the help and responses, I will keep you posted when the new guy comes on board.

Raymond Wilkinson-Reed