Anecdotes-04-Paulines cube .

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

I've always been irritated by the expression that ' it takes a lifetime ' to master engineering skills like turning , milling and welding . It gives a very misleading impression to many beginners who must think sometimes that their quest for skills is going to be hopeless .

Realistically any one skill can be mastered to a reasonable level in from a few weeks up to a couple of years . Depends on the individual and where any teaching is coming from . There is no logic to the timescale – some people take to things quickly and others take longer .

Where I worked mostly the ordinary engineers were expected to gain a basic understanding of a new manufacturing process or an engineering design problem in a few minutes . Not nescessarily in depth but certainly sufficient to start any further technical investigations on a sound basis .

To give encouragement to beginners mentioned above here is an example of just how fast skills can be learnt with the right person and right environment .

We had our own well equiped technical college with a big intake of trainees each year . Mostly engineering apprentices with a constant trickle of others on short courses .

Among the young people on short courses one year was Pauline – 4 ft – 11 , blonde hair and gorgeous – previous knowledge of engineering nil . She was a maths and computer science graduate destined for the computer department . It was company policy to put such new intake graduates on a 10 week engineering awareness course which included four weeks in the training workshops .

A standard module passing off test for normal apprentices was to make a 2 inch side steel cube to best accuracy with each side made by a different process – some hand and some machine .

Pauline had made good progress in the training workshops so section tutor had idea of giving her one of these cubes to make .

Pauline's cube was almost perfect and certainly one of the best ever seen . In four weeks she had mastered at least six different engineering skills .

MikeW

Edited By MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 15/08/2013 12:50:48

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

I'd go along with the spirit of that. On your journey through life you can either pull up the ladders behind you or for each river you cross turn round and build a bridge for the next person.

regards Martin

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Michael.

Do you have a phone number for Pauline ?

[Chris ParsonsParticipant @chrisparsons64193]

You get it with every digital subscription to ME <g>

Chris

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

John S ,

Sadly no phone number now . We went out for a while and kept in touch for years but lost contact when she moved away and got married .

She was a classy lady though .

Back on original topic – how would any of you make that cube ???

MikeW

[Gordon WassParticipant @gordonwass]

Using different machines and hand work ? If I remember right one face was done on V. mill, one on H mill one on lathe in 4 jaw, one on lathe on F/plate, two by hand, saw and file. Also made ahole in gauge plate to test all sides. Mine was not very good, but I'm not very pretty either.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

This was one of the first trade training tasks that I did as an Army apprentice back in 1953 after 6 months square bashing..

A 1" square block and a 2" plate about a half inch thick. The block had to pass in all faces and we were not allowed to draw file. Got round that by using chalk on the files.

Firstly I filed and squared up the plate to size as it then only needed the square hole doing. Then I set to and filed up the block using the biggest roughest file I had down to about 5 thou over size.

Then I drilled out the plate hole and filed that to about 5 thou under size and square. Back to the cube and dressed up 2 faces parallel and then worked on 2 adjacent faces ensuring squareness, no light visible under the square on 3 faces. Then filed to size to make it all square and to size, this now became my gauge. All this under the scrutiny of the Instructor who would walk by eyeing up everything you did.

Next was to fit the cube to the plate which just took a bit of time by using one corner of cube to get a fairly tight fit on opposite sides. Slowly dressing the hole out until it was a push fit all faces. then I used the finest file and chalk to clean up and qualify the fit as a sliding fit. lastly I took off the sharp edges and handed it in for assessment.

The following week I was transferred to the Instrument Wing and became an Instrument Tech.

Then I spent 6 months bench fitting using different materiels like Tufnol and Brass to do much the same thing before going on to make tools that I would use in my trade. Calipers and Dividers and Scribers and Tap wrenches and Die holders. This set was then entered into the Model Engineer Exhibition in London and won a Diploma of merit, signed by the well known J M Maskelyne, this was in Aug.54.

Clive

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Clive, it's a wonder that they didn't transfer you to the cook house after that test piece. Ian S C

[Author]

Posts