Joe and the $50 Bonus

Joe and the $50 Bonus

One of Joe's first jobs was working at a precision tool and die shop. Joe was detail oriented and spent a lot of time at his desk, pouring over his boss' drawings, sometimes redrawing them from scratch to his own liking.

"Joe! Just use my drawings! I can't have you wasting time!" said his boss. "So get to work!"

One Thursday morning, Joe's boss handed Joe some drawings and said "We need this done Friday! I have to deliver to a customer on Monday." 

Joe took the drawings and started to look them over.  

His boss immediately swatted the paper out of his hands. "Joe! Just build the die! Get to work!"

Once his boss was out of the room, Joe looked over the drawings. This particular die was designed to punch holes in a thick sheet of metal and then, in a second step, bend the metal along a fold. Once finished, it was essential to have the holes line up precisely with other parts. 

When Joe reviewed the plans, he noticed that the boss had made a calculation error in the way the metal folded that would have made the holes not line up properly.  Made according to the plans, this die would not have worked! 

"That's because, when you fold metal, you have to realize that the metal on the inside of the fold will bunch up, and the metal on the outside of the fold will stretch," Joe explained. "This moves all the metal around it." 

"His holes would not have lined up!" 

So Joe decided to play a little trick on his boss. 

He secretly corrected the plans and worked diligently all day Thursday and Friday and completed making the die. When tested, it worked correctly!

On Friday, the boss asked if the die was ready and Joe said he had finished but there was a problem. Made according to the plans, the die placed the holes in the wrong position.

Joe's boss let out a cry.  "Argh!  This is an important deal Joe! What can be done?"

Joe offered a solution: "Well, if I work all day Saturday and all day Sunday, I can redraw the plans and make another die and we can still get it delivered on Monday."

"You would do that?!" his boss said. "If you do that, I will pay you overtime for all the hours you work this weekend.

"Well," said Joe, "I normally make $4 per hour, so you will pay me $6 per hour for two days, or 16 hours?"

"Joe," his boss said, "If you can get it done and save this deal, I'll do it."

"Wow!" said Joe. "That's $96. I could sure use that money, but I will make you a deal, boss."

"What's that?" asked his boss. 

"How about you pay me $50 for catching your error," Joe said with a smile and plunked the working die on the table. "Here is the working die. There is no mistake in it.  I noticed the mistake in your drawings and I made the die correctly." 

His boss' eyes went wide and he took a deep breath. He grabbed Joe's hand and shook it vigorously and both men had a big laugh. 

From that point forward, Joe was permitted to review all drawings entering his shop and he went into the weekend $50 richer.

Groeger's Block Fire of 2014

The squat and solid looking cinderblock building housing Groeger Special Tooling has held down the southeast corner of Bay and Douglas in Redwood City since 1985 when owner Jochim "Joe" Groeger, designed the structure himself.

"I wanted a building as large as possible for the property, said Mr. Groeger, who is listed as "(Watch Maker) and President" on his business cards.   "I drew up some plans - 50' X 100' -- and took them down to the city hall and fire station so I could approved to build my structure. The architects and engineers there said they'd never seen such clean and neat drawings, and declared them perfect!" said Joe, letting out a big smile.

"Where'd you learn to draw like that Mr. Groeger?" they asked.

"I'm a technical guy. I like that kind of SCHTUFF!" said Joe and burst out laughing.

Many years ago, the property owner next door asked Joe casually if he could share Joe's cinderblock wall and build a roof out from it to help reduce the costs of his own structure.

"No," replied Joe. "You build your own wall.  Two buildings; two walls. With a space in between!"

That kind of prudent thinking paid off  early Friday morning at about 5:30am, January 17, 2014 when a fire allegedly started at another shop burned down much of the block.

Light shines through the space Joe demanded be built between the two walls.   Joe's shop was undamaged by the fire which utterly destroyed the property next door, as well as several other properties on the block. Our hearts go out to those who lost property in the fire. Luckily no one was injured in the blaze. 

Thank to Hans for the news screen shot graphic. 

Joe's shop survived largely due to the solidity and quality of the building he designed and had built. Based on the condition of the roof, it appears as if water, dropped by firemen's ladders, kept the roof moist enough to withstand the tar bursting in to flame. The roof itself was strong enough to hold the tons of water on top, and the robust drain stacks were able to carry away the water quickly enough so that roof did not collapse under tons of water. 

So much water flowed from the site that the "tide" washed the half-burnt flotsam half way up the drive, depositing it, and indicating "high tide".  Somewhat ironic that the billboard in Joe's lot advertises the Air Quality Resource Board. 

The boys showed up bright and early on Saturday to asses the damage and offer help. 

Firemen cut a hole in the side roll up door about 6' square. They must had a go of it since it was corrugated aluminum track mounted. Luckily Joe's motorcycles were undamaged. 

A crew was called in late Friday night to board up the damaged door.  Thanks to Blaise for the photo. 

The firemen are not blocking access to Joe's shop. Joe is optimistic his insurance will cover any damage.



During breakfast Joe was content to dine alone, at a separate table from the group, perhaps contemplating his good fortune. 

It seems to me as if sometimes one has no control over one's life. Was it W.C. Fields who said, "You pays your money and you takes your chances" ?   However, on the other hand, it occurs to me that the farther one journeys on the path of life, the more likely one is bound to encounter disasters and catastrophes. The prudent man prepares and builds his castle walls thick, and lives to see another day.

Pending the electricity being re-activated -- he and Lola are expected to roll up in Joe's 1953 Mercedes Benz on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. to open Groeger Special Tooling for business as usual ... a routine that hasn't changed much in several decades. 

Lapping valve seats

I was hanging out with Joe Groeger this past Sunday. I joined him for breakfast at his usual spot and we had some coffee and oatmeal together. It's wonderful how many people will stop and say hello to Joe and his dog Lola while he is eating breakfast.

Afterwards, we returned to the shop and he said, "Let's work on one of your projects. What have you got?"  I went out to my car and pulled out a pair of R69S heads that are going on my own bike as part of my long-running R69S motor rebuild.

I brought the heads back into the shop and put them down on the table by the door.  It was then that Joe noticed that the lighting for this table isn't too good.  When you are 94, I suppose you need good lighting. So Joe set about trying to rig up some lighting for his table. When you are Joe Groeger, you can't just string an extension cord across the floor and setup a table lamp. You have to do it "right" ... hang some 2x4's from the ceiling joists, reinforce them with a triangulate, tap into the correct lighting circuit, run new electrical flex conduit from a junction box down the 2x4s, and then install a grounded 4-plug outlet box about 3' off the table.  This is why Joe's shop is so amazing.  Even when he is building something for himself, he builds everything  so that it will perform flawlessly for another 100 years.  And Joe is 94 years old.

So yes, Joe does have a way of getting side tracked on shop projects while he working on other projects. These side projects are often fantastic and wonderful in nature, so I don't usually complain when we get off-track. I just go with the flow and I usually learn something fantastic and wonderful from watching and helping. Last week Joe decided that the knob which tightens the collett on one of his lathes was too small and too hard to grip.

So we rooted around in his parts bin until we found a lovely wooden wheel that looked as if it had been made in 1925 and we transformed it into a lathe handle.  Talk about wonderful. I was in heaven.

But today I was a little under the gun. I've decided to get my motor swap done in time for the Norcal TT which is in 2 weeks.  I had to get these heads done today.  So with Joe preoccupied which his electrical project, I went in search of his box of tools for head reconditioning.  Joe keeps all of his tools in bins in a room dedicated to /2 engine work.  Each bin holds a selection of tools, jigs and parts for performing a particular job on a vintage BMW motorcycle. In this sancta sanctorum, the air is still and quiet and the aroma of bare metal and decade-old oils calms the mind.

On the top shelf I found an unlabeled box which contained some devices I recognized to be valve seat grinders. I also found some valve stem guide reamers and drifts, so I knew I had the correct box. I took the box out to the main workshop and emptied the contents on the bench.

I have always removed valve springs using one of those c-clamp looking things that reaches around the head and squeezes the valve from both sides. They are clumsy and awkward and always managed to slip off the face of the valve and send springs and keepers flying everywhere.  I did not find a valve spring compressor in the box so I asked Joe where I could find one and he walked over and showed me his system.

His valve spring compressor consists of a stand that he made which holds the head by the valve face.  Two "arms" hold the head and keep it from slipping off the stand.  Joe had made several windows bushings for various BMW models (R50, R60, etc.) and they were in the box.  You can see them in the photo above. The ends of the window bushings were stepped on a lathe so that they gripped the valve spring tops and would not slide off.  Once assembled, the entire unit was placed in the arbor press and the keepers were easily removed.  It was a simple (and fast) two-handed operation...and brilliant!



I was so excited that I forgot to take a photo of removing the keepers.  Here is a photo showing the head stand with the valve lapping tool installed.  (I'll get to that later.)

Next up was grinding the valves. Joe has a cool, old valve grinder that does a great job.

The valve guides on these heads are well within spec so I left them in place and just ran the reamer through with a hand tool to remove any carbon build up.  I then taped up the guides and media blasted the heads, valves, valve covers and finned exhaust rings.

When it comes to lapping valves, I've always used one of those suction cups on a handle things that you spin between your hand. But I couldn't find it in the tool box.   "They don't work!" says Joe.  Joe's valve lapper is another one of those items in his shop that looks as if it was created as a side project during a main project, and built to last 100 years.

An old Jacobs chuck mounted to a shaft with a hand grip. After lubing the valve stem with oil and coating the valve seat with grinding compound, the chuck is tightened on the valve stem.  

Then, the entire assembly can be lifted up by the handle on the chuck and the head can be "swung" around in circles, effectively (and quickly) lapping the valve seats using the weight of the head. It is quick and easy and, again....genius. 

I had some video of me swinging the head around and lapping the valves, but my digital camera ate the footage. Next time I do it I'll try again to shoot video.

Putting the heads back together was a snap. 

My heads are now ready to go.

The only thing I am waiting on right now is a pair of Ed Korn's lightened wrist pins.  Once they arrive, I will be able to finish up the motor and break in the new motor before the big ride!