This is what I had to fix and repair daily when I worked at Atlanta National Golf Course.

[greg vess]

Atlanta National is a Pete Dye Golf Course. The same Golf Course designer that built TPC at Sawgrass if you watch golf lot. He's kind of famous for building Island greens. On number 16 we had an island green and right above it was Kenny Rogers house if you want to call the house. Mansion is more like it. It was a very upscale gated community that cater to Italian shoemakers, Kenny Rogers, Don Sutton and a lot of the key sports players and all of that kind of nonsense.

Well the golf course was just sensational all year round. To the zoysia fairways with bent grass greens and Bermuda rough. It was all cut every single day to a precise length.The course looked like it could be on the PGA tour schedule every day of the year! That's how nice it's Golf Course was.
Here are some pictures of the kinds of equipment I had to deal with every single day. Hydraulics, electrics, diesels and everything else you can imagine.

We had multiples of all these equipment. Ranging from $100,000 down to the cheapest which is the walk behind green mowers and they were $15,000 a piece. The one in the pic added is the simplified version of what we used. We had groomer units installed which were little serrated blades that went into the slots of the front roller. That in turn stood the grass up to be cut. A lot of moving parts on one of those Jokers. A lot of the problem is that the Latino crew had to wash the grass off of all the mowers every day so that just played hell on all the circuitry, bearings and everything else you can imagine including frame rust. It was a nightmare. I mean I did it and I did it well.

I was the first lead surface technician to bring the golf course in under budget for the first time since the club has been opened. I also did it three years consecutively. Most mechanics just start buying parts and throw them at it thinking that'll fix it. I actually would diagnose the problem, rebuilt the part if I could and only bought a new part if it was absolutely necessary. Saved a ton of money that way.

I worked on cars for most of my life but I also worked on this equipment as well and I did it very very proficiently. Just kind of wanted to give you an idea of my mechanical background. God says to take pride in your work and I am proud of what I accomplished mechanically speaking.

 

[41mag]

Wow… that is cool.
It is amazing ….. I too was a mechanic by trade. But I worked on school buses, handicapped apparatus, installed lifts and done hand controls. Worked on med/ hvy duty trucks and construction equipment. Did automotive for a long time as well. I done Blue Bird warranty claims and authorization work for some of N.Ga area for a while as well as worked with Goshen Coach and some others that done limousine work. I did work on cars, buses, trucks, construction equipment, etc, etc,
Then I got to where I was too damned deteriorating in the spine (after my third spinal fusion ) to even do service writer work (which I hated - I am a mechanic, not a paper pusher !! ) . So I had to just leave it all behind .

 

[greg vess]

Wow… that is cool.
It is amazing ….. I too was a mechanic by trade. But I worked on school buses, handicapped apparatus, installed lifts and done hand controls. Worked on med/ hvy duty trucks and construction equipment. Did automotive for a long time as well. I done Blue Bird warranty claims and authorization work for some of N.Ga area for a while as well as worked with Goshen Coach and some others that done limousine work. I did work on cars, buses, trucks, construction equipment, etc, etc,
Then I got to where I was too damned deteriorating in the spine (after my third spinal fusion ) to even do service writer work (which I hated - I am a mechanic, not a paper pusher !! ) . So I had to just leave it all behind .

Me as well. I love diagnosing problems it's in my blood. Especially electrical problems. I love that because it's so in-depth and you really have to know your p's and q's to do that. But it is kind of therapeutic. The only thing I didn't like about working at the golf course was Golf Course mechanics are hard to find because the spectrum of knowledge that you must have across the board is rare especially in young guys right now. That meant most of the time I was working alone in a two-man job.

When you have 17 Mexicans on equipment all day long it's just a blizzard of problems. I had to be there 30 minutes early to open the place up, check all the oils in the equipment and make sure everything started so they can get right to work when they arrived. Then it was just full out diagnose and repair from the start of the day to the end of the day with absolutely no breaks. Every now and then you would get a little for maybe an hour if you were good mechanic and kept up with the equipment. You took advantage of those times I'm telling you.

I remember passing a Bluebird bus place. I believe it was in either West Virginia or Virginia. But when you pass by you could see all the buses parked out in the yard. I'm not sure if it was a production place for the bus as a whole or just a facility that added the seats and necessary equipment for transportation. Anyway it was interesting to see that place every time we went from Ohio to Virginia to visit.

But failing joints in my back just losing the lower third of its function is the reason why I started repairing, refinishing and building AR guns. It's something that I can do for just a little while until my back starts hurting and stop. Then take it back up as soon as I'm able to move around again. But yeah it does stink when you lose the ability to do what God gave you a natural ability to do.

 

[greg vess]

Those were just a few examples of some of the stuff that I've worked on. Believe it or not they had everything from dump trucks, tractors, weed eaters, fly Mo's, blowers, water pumps to suck standing water out of the bunkers to you name it and it we had it if it came to Golf course and landscaping equipment. I mean we did our own landscaping as far as moving Earth and stuff like that so we had all that kind of equipment.

 

[41mag]

If you ever get a chance to go to Ft. Valley (there around Macon) and tour the Blue Bird facility , I would suggest it. It is very interesting to us wrench freaks ! lol.
They do some cool stuff with the robotics and other things along those lines but it is still mostly just hands on mechanical work/knowledge.
I also wanted to go to Detroit and tour the old GM plant years ago. Just never made it…. I think the manufacture industry just interested me . I also love the robotics and all .

 

[greg vess]

If you ever get a chance to go to Ft. Valley (there around Macon) and tour the Blue Bird facility , I would suggest it. It is very interesting to us wrench freaks ! lol.
They do some cool stuff with the robotics and other things along those lines but it is still mostly just hands on mechanical work/knowledge.
I also wanted to go to Detroit and tour the old GM plant years ago. Just never made it…. I think the manufacture industry just interested me . I also love the robotics and all .

I watched the How It's Made episode on the Z06 Corvette. Dude I was glued to the TV for that. The Z06 has a aluminum frame as opposed to the sheer metal frame on the regular vettes. You want to talk about something that is interesting.

I also saw one on the Ferrari Huracan. Simply Amazing! For gear heads it don't get no better than that. Maybe the Bugatti Veyron. That was a strike of technical and fiber optic genius there!

 

[JonB]

If you ever get a chance to go to Ft. Valley (there around Macon) and tour the Blue Bird facility , I would suggest it. It is very interesting to us wrench freaks ! lol.
They do some cool stuff with the robotics and other things along those lines but it is still mostly just hands on mechanical work/knowledge.
I also wanted to go to Detroit and tour the old GM plant years ago. Just never made it…. I think the manufacture industry just interested me . I also love the robotics and all .

I was the vp of operations for a Blue Bird top 10 supplier for 20 years. I was in the plant, purchasing department, or engineering department regularly. We had a warehouse in Fort Valley that supported production. I worked out of that facility for 14 years. Moved my office up to the company's main office near the Atlanta airport when I began traveling every week in support of vehicle integration projects we did for Boeing and Joint Program Office MRAP. I was involved in many interesting projects over all those years at Blue Bird, Boeing, and on the Military's MRAP vehicles. I retired three years ago this month.