It ain't about stress or job's suckin'.
It's tradition!
If ya gonna throw in with the toolmakin' crowd there's an etiquette that must be observed.
If you try to buck it they'll fug with ya *bad*.
Toolmakin' is a peculiar form of mental illness unrecognized by the medical profession,..and machine shops are asylums equipped with lathes and milling machines.
If you decide to enter one, you need to be prepared to medicate your*self*. The doctors won't do it.
They don't understand.
I know so little about the finer points of machine work or the trade, and have no reason to doubt your take on it as stated above. Maybe the exception has a way of proving the rule.
Dad worked through from apprentice, to journeyman, to shop foreman and on to some really responsible roles. All along the way he was a knockout machinist - first order tool and die and anything else maker long before anything "controlled" was invented. The guy had a level built into his left eye, a dial guage in his right and a micrometer for a brain. He could look at the darn most complicated item, make a few notes in his little spiral-bound book and then go off and produce it from raw.
I know that others can do this stuff just as well and better - he was no superman - but he was really good and he was one I knew and witnessed again and again. Add to that the fact that his colleague machinists/etc. and those he supervised thought the world of the man - turned out in droves for his memorial service.
But, he did not fit in. Harry did not drink - never touched a drop.
