Hello Daniel and welcome to the forum where I'm sure you will find lots to interest you.

Like Tractor Man, I didn't think any meaningful engineering was taught at schools and I'm delighted to be proved wrong, especially in Sheffield.

All the best to you and if you have any questions, someone on here will almost certainly know the answer.

Brian

Ian. I saw kelham island in a children’s school programme. I went along and asked how to make knives, that was in 1990, I now know a fraction of the subject but feel I can call myself a Sheffield trained knife maker. I don’t make knives that often these days but still keep my eye in.
One incident that highlights your point about such skills happened when the doorbell rang at kelham. A lady came in asking if we could make her a knife. She had a hand that was not properly formed at birth and could not hold a normal table knife. When she was a child a Sheffield knife maker had made a table knife with a ring to fit over her thumb and a wrist strap. It served her well into her 50s but had finally fallen to pieces. She had spent hours visiting every cutlery firm in the city trying to find someone who could replicate the original. All she was told was “We put steel in here and a knife comes out there” there was no skill other than machine operation. I spent a few days making an improved version of the original for her and she was amazed at what I had created. If it hadn’t been for a museum of our out of date trades she would have not been able to eat or cook as she had most of her life.
Embrace modern tech by all means but don’t forget first principles of making things with your own hands. Mick

Hi Daniel

For information on your Triac go to the link below which is the Denford Forum, if your machine is listed you will also find manuals and electrical drawings.

**LINK**

Emgee