Discussion on the Future Direction of Model Engineer and Workshop

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

In total agreement Martin especially the bottom half of your post especially people posting links to YouTube videos that anybody can find and most are pretty c**p with woeful misuse of machine tools to boot. Rant over out to the workshop to actually make something.

[bernard towers]

On bernard towers Said:

[…] Rant over out to the workshop to actually make something.

Oh to have a useable workshop .. and the strength to do something in it.

Treasure what you have, Bernard and go easy on the ranting.

MichaelG.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Good points by Noel and graham a few posts back. How do we address this for visitors to our club? On here I often shout (inwardly) “read a b***** book”. After they have come into the club we can direct them to books and even our secretary’s newbie articles in our club mag, but still have to get them over the threshold to do that.

BTW years back at Ally Pally someone from Chingford MES mentioned that they make a point of getting the teenage visitors ‘on a job’ asap. Like guard, coal carrier, queue organiser even by pretending they are short staffed today. They respond to a bit of recognition and responsibility so at the end “You were a great help today can you be here next week” can get them hooked. This shows why public loco running is so important to clubs aswell as paying for the insurance/rent/tea/etc. How do the stationary engine only moaners pay these club overheads?

Content: yes a lot of articles are a bit padded. I did like the loco articles back along from Keith Wilson as he (and LBSC) used to slip in bits of real life anecdote and off topic advice.
Can we paper subscribers have free digital access back please. We have already paid for the content and want the paper record but is nice to be able to magnify and adjust brightness to suit reading rather than having to fiddle around with glasses and get the lamp not reflecting off the glossy paper.
Butterside Down has got to be ok – picture 133 gets my support 🙂

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle Said:

This shows why public loco running is so important to clubs aswell as paying for the insurance/rent/tea/etc. How do the stationary engine only moaners pay these club overheads?

Lets just hope the poor lad or lass was not a Stationary moaner as they would not have taken kindly to being made a guard.

I suppose the Loco clubs have a problem in the overheads and maintenance of a track so the obsession with rasing funds from running days overtakes other activities. Something you don’t need if you are into say traction engines, stationary steam, IC, hot air, etc.

Club/group that I belonged to would meet 3-4 times a year, pay £3-5 on the door and that covered rental of the hall for the day, any fee the speaker wanted and refreshments. A bunch of like minded modelers enjoying an informal chat and catch up with what they had been making, etc. In the summer the meeting was held at the village football club so those wanting to run traction engines could go round the field or out into the lanes. Bring a workmate and run your IC or steam engine on it. Or if in the hall just light up a hot air engine on one of the tables set aside for those attending to show their models.

So that is how we managed.

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle Said:

[…]  Can we paper subscribers have free digital access back please. We have already paid for the content and want the paper record but […]

+1 for that ^^^

It was a bad day when that little bonus was suddenly withdrawn.

MichaelG.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

I have been thinking about what I would like to see in the new format magazine.
I agree with many of the comments about long build projects but rather than not have them at all I would rather see them as a short sequence of highlights starting with a general description and overview followed by highlights of particular innovative parts and machine set ups for particularly tricky operations. A final article on commissioning and running would finish off with the full build being published in book form which would be a revenue earner long into the future. I actually bought the BR2? Aero engine book just for a good read whereas I’m not sure I would have read it as a series.

Anything oddball. By this I mean something out of the general run of articles and topics. We have a very interesting chap called Norman in SMEE who is an industrial chemist of some note and great experience. He did a piece on acids in ME a while back that was very informative and just this last month at a SMEE meeting did ‘the history of rubber’ which was quite fascinating regarding this vitally important engineering material which you never really hear anybody talk about.

For a more permanent slot I should like to see Toolroom Techniques. By this I would expect a series of articles about how to achieve more professional results in anything from jig and fixture design, screw cutting accurate centering and positioning of holes, marking out, fitting and very importantly getting out of trouble.

Perhaps associated with the last point would be its offspring ‘ upping your game’ which is obviously how to improve in simple terms.

As a last comment I agree that the likes of Alec Farmer, George Thomas , Tubal Cain etc we’re so readable because not only did they impart so much useful information but did it in a chatty manner by which you grew to like them as people. So a balance of valuable information and asides to make it human works for me. When it’s all chat or all technical it is either lightweight or stodgy and hard to get through. It’s a magazine not a textbook so it’s supposed to be entertaining too.

I think that’s all for now.

regards Martin

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