Issue 220

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

Recd my printed copy of the latest magazine. I have not had time to read it all yet but on a glance through and the initial reading, this is a winner. Well done Neil, something for everyone.

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks Ray, I was worried there were a few too many articles that run on into 221 (a couple of articles turned out longer when set out than I expected them to be).

How do you feel about the 'random workshop shot' on the cover? This was pretty much the rule during the early years of MEW, but is something not seen for a good while.

Neil

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Read it twice in the electronic version before the printed copy arrived… then read it all again.

Congratulations Neil, another well balanced magazine, no problem with the articles carrying over, only one I'll be glad to see the back of is the Beginners guide to home metalworking, I really don't think this is adding value to the magazine.

As for the cover picture, it illustrates what the mag is about, man in a workshop making stuff – what could be wrong with that

CB

[Martin CottrellParticipant @martincottrell21329]

Hi Neil,

I think you've cracked it! Like Ray, I've only thumbed through too (saving the in depth read for the weekend!), but there seems to be a nice variety of interesting articles. With regard to the DRO fitting article, I'm not sure it it has appeared in MEW previously, but would it be possible to run a short series explaining how to use the many features available on modern DRO systems? The instruction books that come with these systems are generally not well written and don't go into the various functions in any great depth. Maybe they assume that users are already conversant with the operation of DRO systems but clearly there must be many of us first time users who are not!

As for the 'random cover shot', I have to say its pleasing to see a fellow model engineer happily functioning amongst a chaotic mass of tooling and accumulated "stuff" which accurately portrays my own workshop arrangements!! I'm sure the H&S police will be up in arms over the number of potential hazards visible in one shot, time will tell no doubt!!

A good mag getting better all the time! Regards Martin.

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

I only buy the Mags when there is something of interest to me or I am away on a vacation. So I can not comment.

But I can agree with coal burner.

This is en8 being turned into my crankshaft for my Durham.

Bri

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

While I’m all for multipart articles, the Unimat SL upgrade seems to be dragging on. No offence if the author is here amongst us but it seems so much has been made from scratch, why even bother keeping the springy two bar Unimat SL body?

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

why even bother keeping the springy two bar Unimat SL body?

My first lathe. They were too thin at 12mm, but a great early learning centre for "doing stuff" for the first time

Now if those bars had been 16mm… that little lathe would have been a winner

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Much better than usual.

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Thanks to the team for putting the magazines together its not an easy task.

I haven't finished reading 219 yet 1/2 way through it and enjoying the read.

220 I only have access to the on-line Pocketmags and the forums copy so far, another two weeks or so to wait till the hard copy arrives.

What I have seen as I have flipped through I will be reading a few of the articles for sure mostly the new ones. I will leave most till they are completed as

1 – I don't have the machines mentioned although there is always something to learn from whats being done.

2 – I hate reading only part of an article. (I recall reading a mag when just a teenager with a 3 part series it took 3 years before part 3 was finally published. This took some doing I believe and was mostly threats by mature readers. I think it was an auto magazine)

I will say tho I am disgusted at Pocketmags uploaded version, it is fuzzy making it hard to read even zoomed up its still fuzzy. In zooming up it then means having to scroll all over to read even just one paragraph.

The forums how ever slow it maybe to load does clear up enough to read without zooming up or zooming in just one step. The slowness maybe my connection ATM some other sites are also slow to load.

Having produced, vehicle/ambulance workshop booklets and user/driver manual as well as travel brochures and newsletters for the clubs I was involved with I can understand Neil's and the teams time and effort somewhat.

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

I have 50 Meg fibre broadband but for some reason this site is always very slow to load so it must be something to do with the site itself.

Doug

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I am disgusted at Pocketmags uploaded version, it is fuzzy making it hard to read even zoomed up its still fuzzy.

It's called ghostscripting and it's probably to meet copyrighting requirements

It makes a document readable by humans but not much good for computers or printing

Unfortunately a lot of detail gets lost in the process and the document becomes computer unsearchable

Edited By Ady1 on 29/08/2014 09:27:51

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Strictly speaking, under the trades descriptions act, it's a bit naughty of publishers/providers to portray it as an original copy, or to be more precise, decline to mention that the product on offer is an inferior scrambled facsimile of the original document

Most people sign up under the delusion that they are getting a proper legible copy

Edited By Ady1 on 29/08/2014 10:10:54

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I've known Des for some years Neil – and seeing his workshop photo on the front cover, I eagerly paged through the magazine to see more of his workshop (not that I'm normally 'nosey' of course!).

When I didn't find any "Des Workshop" article the first time through, I went right through the magazine again, certain that I'd somehow missed it. I finally found the front cover note on the inside page….well, "disappointment" doesn't quite describe it!

But maybe this could be a great idea for a whole series of MEW articles – a workshop/shed version of "Through the Keyhole". You show us the workshop (and all the machinery & "junk" in it) and then we have to guess who the 'Celebrity' Engineer is (and what they do in there – apart from drink coffee of course)

IanT

PS If this concept goes viral and Channel 4 decide to buy the TV rights of "Celebrity Workshop" (It's got to be bigger than Big Brother!) – I'd like my share of any royalties please.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Sorry Ady, but you are incorrect.

Ghostscript is just pdf display software that is used by many, many applications, it's not used to degrade quality.

Pocketmags actually uses Microsoft Silverlight, not ghostscript.

Your example shows 'font hinting' which is used to improve the readability of small fonts on pixel-based screens. If you look at the two images you can see the lower one is at much lower resolution. This is nothing to do with stopping machine reading.

Neil

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Strangely enough I find the Pocket Mags viewer gives a clearer image than ME.

Take these two drawings from the latest ME, I zoomed the viewer to make the 2" dimension measure that on my screen and then snipped the image, ME on top PM below

Worth noting is that the drawing is half scale in the magazine so the above images are what you would get if you tried to blow up the magazine image 100%, I'm sure most people at home doing that  to a scanned printed copy would get some loss of sharpness.

How do the two viewing methods compare on your screen ADY?

Another advantage of the pocketmags online viewer over ME vieweer and certainly the mag is you don't get a fold or staples right down the middle of a two page spread like this one

 

Edited By JasonB on 29/08/2014 13:48:44

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

It's the other way round for me, the PM image is fuzzier

[BikepeteParticipant @bikepete]

Yes please to a person on the cover! And a real workshop – always interesting see what's in the background and how it's laid out. Lovely light he's getting with the lathe just by the window. Like IanT I'd have loved a full 'Workshop Visit' report with more pics, a little more about the chap in question and what he makes, and so on – and I'd second the idea for this to be a regular series if possible. Even if not, on the cover is still good!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Ady, is that based on the actual online viewers or just looking at my images?

To me the PM is a little fuzzy but in general its easier to read than the ME which has a lot of ghosting or lines and a general grubby appearance like a pore photocopy where too much toner is on the page. eg the "3 off 1/16 D" rivits is easier to read on PM than ME where it could just as easily say 2/10!!

I also prefer the thumbnails that you get on the Silverlight viewer as it makes it easy to go straight to a page rather than have to flick through the whole mag. How do you find the two viewers to actually use?

J

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I'm hoping to print a review of a new product by Des soon, when I do I will append his brief biography.

Neil

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by JasonB on 29/08/2014 15:05:11:

….. like a pore photocopy

Is that what you get when you sit on a photocopier?

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Posted by Ady1 on 29/08/2014 09:24:27:

I am disgusted at Pocketmags uploaded version, it is fuzzy making it hard to read even zoomed up its still fuzzy.

It's called ghostscripting and it's probably to meet copyrighting requirements

It makes a document readable by humans but not much good for computers or printing

Unfortunately a lot of detail gets lost in the process and the document becomes computer unsearchable

Edited By Ady1 on 29/08/2014 09:27:51

Huh???
Sorry I am paying a high premium especially being an overseas subscriber even if I was not I expect better quality than I am getting as any one would.
As for copyright again i am paying for it if it was a hard copy I'd be demanding a better quality printed version.

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Some screen shots of both Pocketmags and MEW's

The problem here is screen capture reduces quality in both.
Mew's takes time to clear up but at least it does readable at zoom x 2 for me.

Pocketmags as you can see each zoom allows just that much reading to be done while MEW's at zoomx2 can be read without any trouble.

[SteveIParticipant @stevei]

Hi,

MEW 220 was delivered to me today Sept 9th 2014. P.17 "Exclusive Reader offer" expired on the 1st Sept.

Apart from that I support the move to a wider range of content.

Steve

[John CoatesParticipant @johncoates48577]

I really like the variety in articles since Neil took over. Some of the mega issue articles do get flipped past if I have no interest (Marcus' CNC, DC's intro to home workshop, Unimat mod, but then I have always skipped them nit just under Neil's management) so I tend to read and re-read the ones about machine modifications or workshop tricks. The current style seems to be more reminiscent of the first MEWs with little snippets of good information

The problem I find with the long series articles is that if they are of interest then progress is dictated by the speed of the print run. If not then any nuggets of machining/workshop knowledge or practice won't get found because I bypass them anyway,

But I've got every MEW and they are a great resource and fun to randomly pick out a sequence of 5 or 10 and just read through them now the nights are drawing in and I'm not riding my motorbike (too little daylight after work)

Keep up the great work Neil

John

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