By a quick count ( not super accurate I accept) I make it 20 folk want less (or no) CNC articles, 4 really like them ( and are generally sniffy of those who don’t) and 3 diplomats on the fence. However, of course, we cannot assume this to be representative of the readership as a whole.
Steve as far as your barometer link goes it’s a good example of the need to be very careful in how you put a question – That may have relevance to the survey returns!
As to the answer I suspect the scheme of tying it to a rope, lowering it from the top of the building then measuring the rope would produce the most accurate result.
Ah well no workshop fun for a few days – major decorating project here for a while!
I am slightly worried by your answer regarding the most accurate way of measuring the building’s height. As the barometer is lowered the rope to which it is attached will surely stretch due to the weight of the barometer so you have to make an allowance for this, then to compound the error the weight of the rope will need to be taken into account as this will also cause the rope to stretch. Unfortunately the rope, depending on how far from the point of attachment, will have a varying load so even if the barometer is allowed to touch the floor there will be a load on the rope . Therefore if the rope is measured over a flat surface it will be shorter than the building is tall .
Here are some other non-CNC topics in issue 177 of MEW, that some people might object to being published, on the grounds that they’ve all been featured before, in one form or another.
Two Wheel Knurling Tool
Using Collets In The Lathe
A Drill Sharpening Jig
Metric Screwcutting
Now if I start a thread and kick up a fuss, because I’ve seen this all before, or I’m bored by it and want them ‘banned’ from the magazine, what’s left for others to read?
Just so we know for future reference, could the ‘We Don’t Want Any CNC Articles Brigade’ please tell the rest of us at what date time stopped, so the sniffy ones don’t accidentally appreciate – or indeed ask for something – that the self-styled arbiters of content here, find is too modern for them to digest?
I’m not sure about your definition of ‘Renaissance Man’ Steve, I wish you would elaborate!
With pleasure. Blowlamp’s response on the first page shows quite clearly that he regards CNC as one of an arsenal of tools he can use, and also that he can see the issues raised from other perspectives as well.
So let’s take a typical definition of renaissance man:
“A renaissanceman or polymath is a person who is skilled in multiple fields or multiple disciplines, and who has a broad base of knowledge.”
Whilst he’s by no means the only person doing this here, I think he was the first to respond in a manner which immediately made me think that as well as exhibiting a mechanical appreciation, he also appreciated the issue from a philosophical and historical one. And it’s pretty clear from some other reactions to this issue that others, er, haven’t necessarily done that at all… But before the rest of you get the hump, I’m absolutely not having a go at anybody. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and it would be very boring if everybody behaved and thought exactly the same way, wouldn’t it?
Several people in the past have considered that the best way of measuring the height of the building with the barometer is to use it to measure it up the side and express the result in barometer units. It is quite refreshing though that this hasn’t happened here, and I think that’s entirely due to the general adherence in engineering circles to single reference datums for measuring, to reduce probable cumulative errors. Almost certainly, the best answer of the ones given, at least, is the last one. Although I have some metaphysical doubts about that too… (along the lines of ‘how would you know the answer you were given was correct?’)
“…Almost certainly, the best answer of the ones given, at least, is the last one.”
Well….
It is also the most expensive (cost of barometer), dangerous ( “selling” goods he didn’t own), and the answer is not verifiable. I still favour the simple long rope method. I suspect that , even allowing for the inaccuracies due to the rope stretching ( which could be allowed for ) , the result would be better than a barometer – unless it was a very accurate (and expensive) instrument!
All this could have been avoided if the question had been “… using a barometer alone to calculate….”
Now enough of these leafy lanes and back to the brilliant white emulsion ! (urrk)
With pleasure. Blowlamp’s response on the first page shows quite clearly that he regards CNC as one of an arsenal of tools he can use, and also that he can see the issues raised from other perspectives as well.
So let’s take a typical definition of renaissance man:
“A renaissanceman or polymath is a person who is skilled in multiple fields or multiple disciplines, and who has a broad base of knowledge.”………………
Regds, Steve
Hi Steve,
A succinct. if lacking, definition. certainly a true Renaissance Man Has a wide and often expert depth of knowledge over a large and diverse number of Fields and Disciplines from the Sciences to the Humanities and arts as well as concomitant skills. However the term is derived from the beliefs and tenets of the Renaissance Humanists who included social skills such as Courtesy, Kindness, Understanding, Acceptance and Enlightenment among the essential skills of the ‘Renaissance Man’. It was also understood that he would always behave in a ‘gentlemanly’ rather than boorish manner.
Blowlamp may be a good engineer but a Leonardo Da Vinci?
I’m sure the first blokes that used a lathe of some sort got slated by their peers for missing out on the pleasure of bringing their work to the round by applying a hand-made abrasive device to its surface, whilst supporting it in the crook of a branch of an English Oak………………………………….
Martin.
Funny you should say that Martin,
Quite a few years ago I broke down in a remote part of Rural France while on a family caravan holiday. Late in the day and France was closed for Le Weekend. There were no mobile phones in those distant, primitive days, but my two young children and my wife were getting distressed. The nearby Phone box was a newly converted card only one, there was no sign of life anywhere nor traffic passing.
I discovered that the problem was caused by a broken pin in the gear change linkage, it had sheared and half had disappeared, the other half jammed in place.
I sat there cursing the fact that I had left the Boxford CNC lathe on the bench at school together with the materials stock. Didn’t matter much as I’d forgotten the generator as well. However that depressing thought was soon cast out when I remembered the immortal advice on the front of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy – “DON’T PANIC” – and I decided to act to get the circus back on the road as the stocks of food didn’t run to a family of four for weekend by the roadside.
First I investigated my simple toolbox and found an 8″ flat file and a broken hacksaw blade in a pad saw handle somewhere near the bottom. Looking for some suitable materials I spied an old fashioned winder type can opener – the type with one flat handle and one made from round bar. What more could I need? Damn, I’d forgotten the bench vice – how I regretted bolting it down in my garage.
Fortunately in the (French) oak tree nearby there was a crack and I was able to wedge the can opener in there with the round bar handle sticking out. I managed to file that into a taper pin about 2″ long having sawn off the ball on the end. I kept trying the handle until it seemed that I could use it to knock out and replace the remains of the broken pin. I then cut it to length using my Oak tree vice and to my joy it worked perfectly and the taper acted to hold the pin in place. We were back on the road and Dad was the hero, priceless and not a credit card in sight. (In fact the pin was still in place and behaving when I sold the car 2 years later. The remains of the opener are probably still in that tree today and will be grown over, much to the chagrin – and perhaps bemusement – of some future sawyer trying to convert the timber.)
Actually the amusing bit was that I got soaked in a typically torrential French summer storm, so I stripped off my wet clothes and completed most of the work wearing only my swimming trunks and a pair of flip flops in the pouring rain, it must have been a strange sight!
Moral – “Ingenuity tops technology”? Nah! the real moral is to always to keep a CNC lathe, together with a generator and materials stock handy. Or don’t leave home.
Amusing thread, especially the antagonistic and insulting attitudes of the so called modernisers.
Well not the insulting, perhaps (although this could only possibly be perceived, rather than explicit) – but the antagonism, yes. Seriously. Otherwise all you are left with is people being complacent in their attitudes. Back when I was doing Ed. theory lectures, I used to sum it up by saying that effective education has to cause brain damage – or it simply doesn’t work; you end up with a brain doing just what it was before. So it’s not about being antagonising just for the sake of it – I’d say that there’s a real purpose to it.
Hi Steve,
“antagonise[ænˈtægəˌnaɪz]
vb(tr)
1. to make hostile; annoy or irritate”
How does antagonising someone stimulate them to overcome what you perceive as their complacency or into changing their attitudes? It merely tends to stimulate an antagonistic response.
I also find your approach to the psychology of learning quite interesting, unusual but interesting, and different to my own (developed over 30 odd years of successful practice) and that of my lecturers at University.
Well it doesn’t IMO have much with my psychology, or developments a coming or even with whats gone, or even whether CNC is a worthy successor to manual metal munching..
Personally I buy a magazine because its contents interest me. However marvellous CNC may be (I used to do a lot of control engineering and guidance theory, so unfamiliar, Luddite or reactionary I am not) personally I find it just plain dull.
And when I see a page of code, “Wow awesome” is hardly my first response. More like “Wonderful” in that wifely tone we know so well, and for the same reasons.
For those that like it, good for them, its not for me to criticise or interfere. I’m just not going to pay for a magazine full of it.
Given the response in this thread as a whole, that is possibly a hint our beloved Editor might want to take. If his polls and survey say otherwise, then he has a judgement to make, and he will know soon enough whether he jumped the right way.
First off let me say that I haven’t read the issue in contention because I let my subscription run out by accident………doh! but as keen CNC user at home I can see little point and hardly any interest (even for me as an enthusiast) in pages and pages of G Code if that is what these articles contain. If you get into CNC you will very quickly realise that you will rarely go near G Code, the computer will look after all of that for you – the interest and challenge is in the new opportunities that are now open to you and sorting out how to exploit them on a budget (real 3D CAD and CAM software is extremely expensive and most home machines will be home brewed conversions of one sort or another).
I think that if we had articles on what folk were doing with CNC that might be a whole lot more interesting for everyone. Articles giving print outs of G code in past issues have left me wondering whether some of the authors have realy “got” CNC, or just got lost in it?
I’m moderately interested into getting into CNC but would quite like a step by step guide of what, why, who and where I can follow and emulate, a sort of CNC for dummies. A magazine can never please everyone with every article but having a bit of variety always helps. Rather than a ‘new’ magazine, wouldn’t it have been better to issue all the CNC stuff in a stand alone special if it wasn’t intended to spread the articles over a number of issues?
Just as note of interest, I’ve mentioned before I work in the film industry in special effects. There’s a magazine called Cinefex that’s been around for years that used to look at how special effects were created for films. It used to show miniatures, animatronics, effects rigs, glass paintings, pyro’s etc and was considered essentially reading for pros and joe public. Of course in the last fifteen years or so, things have started to be done solely on computer (Computer Generated Imagery – CGI) and as a result, articles in the magazine have become frankly tedious with a succession of photographs of people sitting at computer monitors drolling on about what software they used to replicate something that all been seen before anyway. There is nothing to be said about the process. It’s a huge snore and the sales of the magazine have plummeted so much that they now regularly run retrospective articles of how effects were done of films in the 60’s and 70’s before computers came in.
That’s not to say that computers are a bad thing. They’re not and they will inherit the world, but unless you’re into the technology for its own sake, personally, I start glazing over almost instantly and turn the pages quickly to something far more interesting. The magazine is a pastime indulgence bought for pleasure, not an industry journal. It boils down to the type of ‘fix’ a buyer is expecting when they buy the magazine and if people are disappointed by the content, they won’t buy in future. The argument whether they’re right or wrong to feel disappointed can be argued about and accusations of having the wrong viewpoints can fly back and forth (there is no right answer) but the buck stops with market forces and magazine sales. A small percentage will lap up the CNC stuff avidly and that’s cool but I’m guessing it’s mostly being bought by retired gentle folk and enthusiastic metal workers working in a garden shed enviroment when they see it in the very domestic W H Smith’s which is why it’s being sold in Smith’s.
Hi, I kinda agree with every-one’s posts. I don’t have any CNC machines, and am not likely to, any time soon, that’s not because I’m against it, as I can see its value. However, along with the three CNC article there are two Myford articles as well (alright I know one Myford article is also one of the CNC articles) and apart from an old “M” type Myford that I bought off a work mate a while ago because he had a cash flow problem, I don’t have much interest in Myford articles either. So you might think I’m a bit hard done by with this issue of MEW. But at least the information is there should I ever have any need of it in the future, and one issue with what may or may not be too many CNC articles is not going to make me consider cancelling my subscription, but like mjg says, if it becomes full of it or even becomes a to frequently thing of more than one article per issue, then yes I most likely would not renew my subscription next time.
I can only see one page with any amount of G Code, and as it’s an introduction article about CNC milling I guess it can be justified, I have not read it through yet, but may well do in the next week.
I think it is only fair that all interests in this field of engineering should be covered, not always full of only the one’s we like ourselves.
Hi, having now read Chris Trice’s post, it reminds me of an electronics mag I used to buy many years ago, and then the PC revolution took off and the mag had about 90% of its contents every month about add on computer boards, and programming codes, it became boring and therefore stopped buying it. Not sure if is even still going now.
Ian. An excellent post and it’s absolutely true that there is seldom a time that you need to be writing or editing the Gcode yourself.
I know a few responders to this thread have remarked that CNC machining is about programming the part. If they’ve come to the conclusion by seeing all the Gcode, that they’ve got to learn how to write it, then I can see why there is little enthusiasm for the subject. In short, pages of Gcode in the magazine are boring and unnecessary.
As for 3D CAD/CAM being expensive, well industrial grade stuff is, but I’m set up and happily churning things out for about £155.00 or $250.00. My software consists of ViaCAD 2D/3D @ $99.99 and CamBam Plus @ $149.00, which enables me to do loads of interesting stuff quite easily, quickly and reliably. And I never edit the Gcode either.
After talking to David Clark a while ago, I made a submission to him using these two programs in concert with one another, which culminated in the production of a simple Connecting Rod. In my opinion, it was a nice, non-technical, step-by-step introduction to the matter of CNC, with only a very short mention of the actual Gcode. I still think it has some value and would like it to be published.
This thread has to me highlighted the problems of any magazine in that you cannot please all the readers all the time.
I happen to have a cnc mill albeit a small one and although as they say into cnc didnt find the articles all that enlightening come to that I do not usually find all that of interest in most of the recent issues but there are usually little snippets of information hidden in the depths of the mag which usually only surface on 2nd or 3rd reread!
My biggest problem is that as a relative novice in engineering terms I dondt know what I dont know if you know what I mean. Biggest of which is in the various methodology in the work holding way, some of these problems are not cured by cnc or even covered in books.
My latesst snippet of knowledge was in finding about the keats block for holding work on the face plate.
My take on this is do the cnc brigade stop getting the mag when there is no cnc related offering as for the last few issues!
Just stop gripping and wait for the next thrilling issue!
A succinct. if lacking, definition. certainly a true Renaissance Man Has a wide and often expert depth of knowledge over a large and diverse number of Fields and Disciplines from the Sciences to the Humanities and arts as well as concomitant skills. However the term is derived from the beliefs and tenets of the Renaissance Humanists who included social skills such as Courtesy, Kindness, Understanding, Acceptance and Enlightenment among the essential skills of the ‘Renaissance Man’. It was also understood that he would always behave in a ‘gentlemanly’ rather than boorish manner.
Well that may have been true of the origins of the term, in common usage today the attributes of the Humanists are simply regarded as being an example of good manners, which we might hope would have spread slightly further than just Renaissance Man… and as such, they are not necessarily regarded as an absolute necessity, although still desirable.
How does antagonising someone stimulate them to overcome what you perceive as their complacency or into changing their attitudes? It merely tends to stimulate an antagonistic response.
I also find your approach to the psychology of learning quite interesting, unusual but interesting, and different to my own (developed over 30 odd years of successful practice) and that of my lecturers at University.
Well, in terms of your single definition of antagonise certainly doesn’t make it look that good. But when you consider the other definition (often given first), which is ‘to act in opposition to’, or counteract, if you like, perhaps this makes a little more sense?
My approach to the psychology of learning is based on having graduate and post-grad qualifications revolving entirely around it – and experience of using it going back over several decades, too. And I didn’t exactly fail either….
A succinct. if lacking, definition. certainly a true Renaissance Man Has a wide and often expert depth of knowledge over a large and diverse number of Fields and Disciplines from the Sciences to the Humanities and arts as well as concomitant skills. However the term is derived from the beliefs and tenets of the Renaissance Humanists who included social skills such as Courtesy, Kindness, Understanding, Acceptance and Enlightenment among the essential skills of the ‘Renaissance Man’. It was also understood that he would always behave in a ‘gentlemanly’ rather than boorish manner.
Well that may have been true of the origins of the term, in common usage today the attributes of the Humanists are simply regarded as being an example of good manners, which we might hope would have spread slightly further than just Renaissance Man… and as such, they are not necessarily regarded as an absolute necessity, although still desirable.
Exactly my point, where are the good manners in your example
Well, in terms of your single definition of antagonise certainly doesn’t make it look that good. But when you consider the other definition (often given first), which is ‘to act in opposition to’, or counteract, if you like, perhaps this makes a little more sense?
As you seem so keen on ancient Greek Philosophy I would have anticipated that you would have been keen on accurate philology. especially Greek:
“Greek antagnizesthai, to struggle against : anti-, anti- + agnizesthai, to struggle (from agn, contest; see agony).] “
Not my definition, no dichotomy here then, the term always implies conflict.
My approach to the psychology of learning is based on having graduate and post-grad qualifications revolving entirely around it – and experience of using it going back over several decades, too. And I didn’t exactly fail either….
Regards, Steve
I also have both Graduate and Post graduate (including two Masters and one to Doctorate level, but I don’t quote those) qualifications in Educational Psychology from one of the best Universities in the UK. Education never Damages the brain, merely exercises it and develops the capacity. I’ve must admit to never having encountered your philosophies (except in Dickens) despite many years of study and research.
I must admit Steve, in the best possible way you remind me of Humpty Dumpty (Lewis Carroll) in your unconventional use of language and words, Quote:-
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’
Hi, having now read Chris Trice’s post, it reminds me of an electronics mag I used to buy many years ago, and then the PC revolution took off and the mag had about 90% of its contents every month about add on computer boards, and programming codes, it became boring and therefore stopped buying it. Not sure if is even still going now.
Regards Nick.
Edited By Nicholas Farr on 15/05/2011 15:41:26
A lot of the photography magazines have gone the same way. With the almost overnight revolution from film to digital cameras, product reviews can virtually be reprinted each week and just change the brand name in the title. Things that previously took skill to achieve with film can be produced by anyone very quickly on the PC. The unskilled will argue this is a good thing and it probably is but the problem is that when something becomes easy, it loses its value.
I love CNC, I promise that I will read all the articles and enjoy them and never whisper another word about it again if only you will put a sock in it.
I really can’t cope with all the wisdom generated by these exalted qualifications.
Exactly my point, where are the good manners in your example
Like I said, not an absolute necessity… and anyway, I wasn’t claiming to be Renaissance Man, was I? And if I was being that rude, I think that several other people would have complained by now – and they haven’t.
Not my definition, no dichotomy here then, the term always implies conflict.
I particularly like the ‘scornful’ bit
Well duh, of course it implies conflict. And I’d certainly noticed that you like the scornful bit…
And my use of the language looks to be a lot more precise than yours, quite frankly. But regardless of that, you appear to show a remarkable lack of imagination in the use of words, one way or another; you don’t seem to appreciate the value of alternative and perhaps challenging explanations of things at all, really. But…
Education never Damages the brain, merely exercises it and develops the capacity. I’ve must admit to never having encountered your philosophies (except in Dickens) despite many years of study and research.
That’s rather patronising, and quite frankly, I’m unimpressed. There is a wide body of (admittedly mostly American) research into the notion that, joking with the terminology aside, Education most certainly can cause brain damage – that’s what the Calandra barometer link was about. It’s also why Montessori schools operate the way they do, in an attempt to counteract this – one of the key words in the way they describe their working ethos is ‘challenging’. Do I really need to explain how this works in terms of damage?
My mother was a teacher for over forty years, (head of the maths department at an exclusive girls school). People skills and the ability not to turn the pupils interest in what you were saying off is very important. Teaching is more than just regurgitating facts. Wasn’t the point of university to encourage original thought and re-examine those things we take for granted along with taking on board what we think we already know? Questioning the accepted nearly always leads to a pupil coming to the same conclusions or it highlights that maybe there is further research on a subject to be considered. A closed mind is a stagnant one. Imagination for other possibilities and thinking outside the box is what separates us from machines and it’s how human knowledge evolves.
I don’t envy David Clarke in his job. It is difficult to balance all of the various interests.
Personally I find the CNC articles boring but I read them anyway. The CNC articles are generic and applicable to just about anyone’s machinery where the six hundred part series on making a set of collets for dear old Orac was not or maybe it was, I don’t know. But it was boring even though I read it from start to finish.
I have meandered through nine different trades and know that the most difficult part of starting in any of them is learning the language. Because of this I am gratefull for the articles because exposure to the concepts and language gives me a headstart when I do eventually get to CNC.
And I know that at some point I am going to get there. I ran a small turret lathe for a while many years ago and although I like them, they really are old technology. I know that some will chide me for that view and that they can set them up in next to no time and that the entire war effort for Two World Wars was produced on them but that was then and this is now.
In the Reader Survey, David asks the question of whether a dedicated CNC magazine is a good idea. As I am not ready to head in that direction just yet, I woudn’t purchase it.
So even though home dentistry is far more exciting, I think it is good to have some CNC articles.
I also don’t envy David his job. However, what does he do if he doesn’t get the articles to publish, or he does but the quality is not there. I can understand why David hasn’t commented. i must admit I also spent more time reading the free addission then the magazine.
However, I still go to smiths and buy both mags even if the content is to my liking or not – I may use it in the future.