Mechanics can’t do their job without parts.
Students learning to become mechanics also need parts — for practice repairs and to learn how pumps, motors and other components work.
Students at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon now have plenty of parts to train with, thanks to the generosity of one of the institution’s instructors.
Lloyd Carey, who teaches in the college’s heavy duty equipment and ag equipment technician program, recently donated $95,000 worth of agricultural parts to the college. The parts, mostly hydraulic and hydrostatic pumps and motors for combines, will help the students get a hands-on feel for machinery repair.
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“It’s almost better sometimes for students if they take something apart and they can figure out, ‘oh, that’s what was wrong with this?’ ” said Carey, who studied at the college and became a journeyman heavy duty equipment mechanic in 1994.
Carey bought the parts through an online auction, when a company called Harvest Salvage was going out of business.
This isn’t the first time Carey has donated parts to the college. When he worked for MacDon Industries in Winnipeg, he would collect unused parts that were destined for the scrap bin.
If a MacDon service truck was going to Brandon, Carey would encourage the driver to take the parts to the college.
“The (MacDon) stuff was used here (at Assinboine) and used well,” he said.
“They do get put to good use with the classes.”
When he isn’t working at the college or donating parts, Carey has a hobby and part-time business repairing and restoring old Volks-wagens.
“I have a bit of a Volkswagen problem. My wife thought there were 20 around home right now, maybe more.”
