Engineers' Mechanics qualifications/insurance

[dmr]

14 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Yes but what few people realise, is that every bubble is made individually by Alan, then assembled into whole chocolate bars by a bloody big machine in Slough.  

And yes, reading a vernier is another of those virtually lost skills. Even those who can read them rarely understand how they actually work.

 

I have a "vernier calliper" with a digital readout and it requires little skill to read it . 

Actually its just broken after ten years, noticed that the cheapest ones on eBay now start at £3.00. Can anybody really make a precision measuring instrument for £3.00 ?

I suspect that in a few time the word "vernier" will have totally lost its original meaning. Have worked with a fair few machinists in the past and was always impressed at the speed and accuracy with which they used a micrometer.

...............Dave

[bizzard]

The cheap ones are ok for rough non precision measurements like measuring the diameter of a water hose and other knock about measurements where precision is not really needed. My Japanese Vernier gauge is about 30 years old and has correction adjustable jibs, not digital.  Close the jaws, hold up to the light and there shouldn't be any light at all showing through, though there almost certainly will be with cheap ones. The eyes are very acute for this.

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

(Although I'm sure you do!)

I use mine quite often. Just the other day I was wondering what ever happened to my slide rules; I don’t know where they are but I reckon I could still use one if I came across them. 

[frahkn]

53 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I use mine quite often. Just the other day I was wondering what ever happened to my slide rules; I don’t know where they are but I reckon I could still use one if I came across them. 

I took my 'A' levels in 1972 so was still in the slide rule era, two years later they were starting to be superseded and by the end of the decade young people had forgotten them.

Unlike you, I doubt that I remember how to use one, except for multiplication or division.

[cuthound]

3 hours ago, frahkn said:

I took my 'A' levels in 1972 so was still in the slide rule era, two years later they were starting to be superseded and by the end of the decade young people had forgotten them.

Unlike you, I doubt that I remember how to use one, except for multiplication or division.

Yes I had to use a slide rule when I was at college. However by the time is started work calculators were beginning to become popular. 

When we moved from Surrey to Staffordshire after I retired, I came across it. I am ashamed  to say i no longer remember how to use it. 

[MtB]

10 hours ago, frahkn said:

Unlike you, I doubt that I remember how to use one, except for multiplication or division.

 

That is exactly what they are for innit.

The one thing you can't do with a slide rule is add up or subtract....

Gwarn you KNOW you want to comment on that!

 

[frahkn]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

That is exactly what they are for innit.

The one thing you can't do with a slide rule is add up or subtract....

Gwarn you KNOW you want to comment on that!

 

Yep, I absolutely do but I'm into self-denial this morning. 

'T'is tempting though - no, I can resist.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

20 hours ago, dmr said:

I have a "vernier calliper" with a digital readout and it requires little skill to read it . 

 

 

I thought those things were digital adjustable spanners. Learn something every day.

Jen

Micrometers are precision g-clamps...

Edited April 22, 2018 by Jen-in-Wellies

[Momac]

On 18/04/2018 at 17:54, dmr said:

There is a lot of truth in what Nick says here. As someone who has worked in a University and holds a degree in engineering I have a healthy disrespect for academic qualifications, there are good engineers and bad engineers, and good mechanics and bad mechanics. I did "work" with an engineer who eventually obtained a PhD in engineering, and, I promise this is true, he just could not work a spanner.

................Dave

A BSc or MSc degree or PhD in Engineering and the qualification Chartered Engineer are respected academic and professional qualifications . However they have nothing at all to do with manual labour. In the UK  the term 'engineer' is much abused. 

[Chewbacka]

9 minutes ago, MartynG said:

A BSc or MSc degree or PhD in Engineering and the qualification Chartered Engineer are respected academic and professional qualifications . However they have nothing at all to do with manual labour. In the UK  the term 'engineer' is much abused. 

And whilst I was a charted engineer before retirement, I would not want your average PhD servicing an engine.

[dmr]

8 minutes ago, MartynG said:

A BSc or MSc degree or PhD in Engineering and the qualification Chartered Engineer are respected academic and professional qualifications . However they have nothing at all to do with manual labour. In the UK  the term 'engineer' is much abused. 

This is still much debated within universities, should they produce graduates with no practical skills whatsoever, or should a graduate mechanical engineer (for example) have at least an appreciation of what goes on in a machine shop? I have seen cases of "competent" engineers using big computer simulations and believing the obviously incorrect results (wrong by a factor of 1000) because they have no intuitive grasp of physical reality.

As for respect for academic qualifications.....

an MSc is a convenient way to paper over a poor BSc result.

and a PhD is three years moving bones from one graveyard to another 

..............Dave

[X Alan W]

22 hours ago, WotEver said:

I takes real experience to read a vernier calliper accurately while assessing the dimensions of those bubbles. 

Oh is that what a Vernier is for I was under the impression you could use iit as an adjustable spanner & a micrometer make a Quality "G" cramp

22 hours ago, WotEver said:

 

 

Edited April 22, 2018 by X Alan W

[X Alan W]

22 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Yes, I often marvel at the high tech engineeringinvolved in making those bubbly chocolate bars. 

The general public have no idea!

 

That was the problem with the SR71 Blackbird it used to cause so much heat with it's speed iwe couldn'y find any chocolate bars that didn't melt

[X Alan W]

During my working life I ' had my share of "Coal face" experience so to speak  having worked as  engineer on under ground Locos mostly Gardner & Ruston powered in SA gold mines that was a brain tease to keep them running from the abuse they took Cannibalization was the order of the day & daily "bodging" & making incorrect parts work was a standard company practice It was not a thing I liked but it was a keep running at the least amount of cost not Ideal but the company's operating practice & then to work for Lockheed on the SR71 Sublime to ridiculous no spend to spend like it was no tommorrow

[WotEver]

2 hours ago, X Alan W said:

During my working life I ' had my share of "Coal face" experience...

Surely that should be ‘gold face’ experience...

[X Alan W]

4 hours ago, WotEver said:

Surely that should be ‘gold face’ experience...

Granted it was a gold mine but you came out looking as is you had been involved with coal without sounding raciest it show as much on the locals