"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 2 Nov 2013 12:02:28 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

I spent my working career building custom industrial equipment and
developing engineers' ideas. Much of the work was electronic, but
when
I had to demonstrate my mechanical proposals I could machine
adequate
proof-of-concept models on my entirely manual machine tools from the
1960's, a Clausing vertical mill, a South Bend Heavy 10 lathe and a
Delta Toolmaker surface grinder.

That's a great badge of honor, Jim. Kudos.

That home shop is similar to the model shop I inherited at Mitre,
where previous, retired engineers and techs had prototyped advanced
military electronics for the Cold War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre_Corporation

They had a real shop too, but the machinists required finished
drawings and wouldn't let engineers doodle on the HLV.
jsw