On Wed, 1 Aug 2018 08:47:03 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 30 Jul 2018 17:35:42 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


Yes, I see the wisdom in that. Thanks for the Grinders 101. I've
obviously never used one.

When I started in industry I quickly found that I couldn't reasonably
design a part to perform a task without knowing something of how to
make it, though not every newly minted engineer felt that way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_engineering
"Traditional engineering is also known as over the wall engineering as
each stage blindly throws the development to the next stage over the
wall."

I love that def. Isn't the vast majority of engineers that way?
Most teachers are instructors rather than educators in the same light.


So I learned to operate some machine tools and observed how others
worked, in terms of the geometries they could or couldn't create and
the accuracy they could reasonably deliver. I didn't use the more
dangerous equipment until taking adult-ed night classes in machining
and welding at local high schools.

I think innate curiosity drives much of that, of people wanting to do
more than they are, and wanting to find out how things work.


In small non-union startups that built custom equipment on order it
was easy to learn machine tool operation without threatening the
operators that I wanted their job since I clearly had a good job of my
own, building and testing the electronics. I tended to become the
liaison between engineering and production and had to learn new
operations myself so I could explain them, or convince the designer to
make a change..

Cool. You were lucky to have worked at small non-union businesses, or
your endeavor would have been quashed instantly. I'm sure that you
had good relationships there, and then got plenty of good referrals in
between those jobs.


Eventually when I bought a house I knew enough to assemble a small
machine shop that was adequate to make the devices I'd thought up.

Nice!


I've never created anything patentable because I ultimately reduce
problems to very simple solutions, like using a sink spray as a
water-saving shower head.

snort Whatever works, eh? I wouldn't be a bit surprised if someone
tried to patent that, too, though, nowadays. Biological and genetic
patents are really starting to bother me. I wonder how the Trump
administration will affect all that.

--
America rose from abnormal origins. The nation didn't grow organ-
ically or gradually from indigenous tribes--like, say, the French
or the Poles--but emerged out of courageous, conscious acts of
will by Pilgrims and Patriots. --Michael Medved, Right Turns