The soothing sound of Shop Teacher Voice

December 13, 2010 6:36 AM

"Tubal Cain" was the name of a Christian version of the Roman Vulcan. It's also the nick of YouTube user and retired shop teacher mrpete222 in his many videos covering machine shop tips and procedures.

A standout multi-"volume" series is the simple "wobbler" steam engine he builds. As with any expert, he's thinking and planning several steps ahead, so some things he does or says in early videos may not make sense to the non-expert until later videos.

Volume 1 is patternmaking: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Volume 2 is casting patterns (note that these aren't the same patterns as above because he posted it as a different series, but all the same operations are done. I put it in here to fill the gap of how he got from wood to metal.): Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Volume 3 is machining and assembling the parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10

posted by DU (19 comments total)

Tubal Cain is also the "secret" password of the Freemasons.

Thank you, William Poundstone and Big Secrets.

/IwantafourthBigSecretsBook
posted by inturnaround at 6:41 AM on December 13, 2010 [6 favorites]

Well. I feel...diminished.

I'll have to check these out.
posted by Tubalcain at 7:18 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Man, I wish my son got to take shop class. Why, again, have schools stopped teaching shop class, home economics, the manual arts?
posted by billcicletta at 7:36 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Man, I wish my son got to take shop class. Why, again, have schools stopped teaching shop class, home economics, the manual arts?

Schools (in general) still offer these, but the courses are now all in the "career track" for those who are not going onto college.
posted by Xurando at 7:47 AM on December 13, 2010

Inturnaround: I can neither confirm nor deny what you read in a book, but I will say that there are *multiple* passwords, signs, handshakes, and modes of recognition.

/MasterMasonreportingin
posted by mrbill at 7:48 AM on December 13, 2010

I think when they realized they couldn't get kids to learn to enjoy reading and basic algebra, why try to teach anything useful?
posted by Redhush at 8:16 AM on December 13, 2010

Not to be a stick in the mud but I'm sure just as many parents said "Why the hell are they teaching davie jr to make salad bowls, he is going to be a lawyer." I'm with you guys though, I deeply regret not learning anything like this in school.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:21 AM on December 13, 2010

I was quite happy to be able to avoid shop class in middle school by skipping 7th grade mid-year, but I've always been a bit of a wimp around sharp objects. All the safety videos we watched at the beginning of the year didn't help either. It was a missing limb here, decapitation there. Though not quite as bad as Klaus the Forklift Driver.
posted by kmz at 8:25 AM on December 13, 2010

I deeply regret not learning anything like this in school.

Never too late. I'm learning it now.
posted by DU at 8:55 AM on December 13, 2010

"Tubal Cain" was the name of a Christian version of the Roman Vulcan.

What a weird way to put it. It's an English translation of a Hebrew name that might be an etymological precursor of the name "Vulcan."

Calling it a "Christian version" of the Roman name makes it sound like Christians borrowed it from Romans rather than Romans borrowing it from Jews.
posted by straight at 9:05 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Calling it a "Christian version" of the Roman name makes it sound like Christians borrowed it from Romans rather than Romans borrowing it from Jews.

Leonard Nimoy, specifically.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:11 AM on December 13, 2010

Now, wait a minute here.
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:27 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

The impression I was intending to convey was "is the analogue of" the way trickster or thunder gods correspond to each other without there necessarily being an ancestor/descendent relationship.

As for why Christan instead of Hebrew: The guy in the video pretty clearly chose it because it's in his Christian Bible, not because it's in his Jewish Torah.
posted by DU at 9:30 AM on December 13, 2010

"Episode 315,[8] entitled "Rose Bowl," of the television situation comedy "NewsRadio" features "tubalcain" as a secret word which, when uttered in court, compels the judge to rule in one's favor and depart immediately to a secret cave in which judges paddle each other off. The character Joe Garelli, played by Joe Rogan, alleges that all state and local judges are members of an obscure sect of the Masons, which prescribes these rituals."

*Thank god* for Wikipedia. I was preparing for an afternoon of desperately trying to figure out where I had heard that before.
posted by bonecrusher at 12:31 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, Jimmy James on NewsRadio wins a court case involving him having bought a cardboard box full of junk by saying "Tubalcain" to the judge, having been advised to do so by Joe.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 1:16 PM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

The impression I was intending to convey was "is the analogue of" the way trickster or thunder gods correspond to each other without there necessarily being an ancestor/descendent relationship.

That's also misleading, sort of like calling Nikolai Tesla the American Zeus. (Not that I'm claiming Tubal Cain was a real person, but just that he's not the Hebrew god of metalworking. Rather he's just the dude said to have invented metalworking.)
posted by straight at 1:54 PM on December 13, 2010

Damn, I came here to talk about the Newsradio thing too.

I try to be good metafilter man, but refrigamator so messy. So so messy.
posted by Earthtopus at 3:17 PM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Well, Jethro Tull was a real person* QED.

*I saw him play at the Coliseum.
posted by sneebler at 6:31 PM on December 13, 2010

DU, where do you live? Because I need to come to a meetup in your area and buy you a beer.

I inherited my grandfather's Logan lathe when he died, and as it is in almost pristine condition (it was his home coming gift from my grandmother after this) and have been afraid to do to much with it for fear I'd screw it up somehow. But looking at some of his Logan lathe videos, the sky's the limit.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 6:54 PM on December 13, 2010