[modeleng] Re: Swarf!
- From: peter.chadwick@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 13:53:47 +0000
Shep said:
>Practical fitting and turning is no longer used in production
engineering,
nor I suspect, is technical drawing - all being supplanted by the computer
in its various guises.<
The problem with this is that there are still many occasions where you
need
model shop techniques, especially for experimental work. There are times
when
you want to validate (or otherwise!) the computer models. So young
engineers with
no capability of drawing can't readily express their needs if they can't
draw, and
if they've no feel for the practicalities, they can (and do)ask for the
un-manufacturable.
It has now reached the stage where various experimental bits and pieces
for my work are
faster made in my workshop at home (despite the scrap and the swarf!) than
for me to
do a drawing, finding an engineering jobbing shop to make them, get a
quote and await
their arrival.
Plus a common failing is that for bit of radio frequency stuff, jobbing
shops use
their initiative in material substitution. On one occasion recently, that
happened at one
of our other places that went down this sub contracting route. PTFE was
specified. The jobbing shop
didn't have PTFE, but PTFE is white plastic, right? And they'd got some
white plastic...
Thus a delay while they got PTFE to make it work!
There's more to being a real engineer than being a computer jockey who can
drive a simulator!
Peter Chadwick
Swindon
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