Experience

"Good judgement comes from Experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement." - Will Rogers

Dave
The Emerald Isle

Which of the American astronauts was it who, having fixed a vital piece of machinery by giving it a thump (in just the right place, of course), described the technique as "impact engineering"? It's a description of the technique which has stuck in my head for over 40 years.

At different firms I've worked for, the guys who always reached for a hammer even for repairs on delicate machines were dubbed "percussion mechanics". JD

Jeff

You have me a little worried.

One of my (Oriental) lathes has a manual which describes it as a "Percission Lathe". I had thought this a typographical error but now wonder if it is an abbreviation for "Percussion Precision Lathe", i.e. keep bashing it until you achieve the required level of accuracy!

Pero

If at first you don't succeed.... use a bigger hammer.

Let's hope "percission" was just a typo error in your lathe's description.... JD

And old and wizened foreman I worked with when I was an apprentice was well versed in "Knockometry" or "Tapestry" and he had a selection of hammers in his tool bag for "minor adjustments to machinery". He was the person to show me how to dislodge stuck tapered joints on my motor car using a big hammer on one side and a smaller on the other. Just one well aimed biff had the ball joint jumping out of the steering arm. I have never forgotten that trick. He called a hammer a "Birmingham Screwdriver".

But surely that's because Birmingham chippies used them for putting in screws. I've seen them do it ;hammer it all the way in and give half a turn with a 'driver at the end to ensure it 'bit'.

Pete

Hi all,

When in doubt give it a clout was a local saying here in wet and windy Sussex.

Regards,

Bob Y

I always understood that wood screws were put in with a hammer A screw driver was to remove them

Back in the old days with valves in the television sets, my colleague was repairing a faulty television set - with a hammer! He knocked at each valve, and suddenly smashed one. "Aha - here is a faulty valve!" So he put in a new valve......and the television set was ok!

Life was simpler in those days!

Mum's father, a plumber in Paisely told us of how the workers fitting out the Queens before the war had orders not to use hammers to put the screws in any of the woodwork, but someone spotted a hammer being used, but when confronted the worker's answer was, I'm using a Glasgow Screw Driver. I think my Grandfather worked for a time on the Queen Mary, and Mum got a day off school to watch it being launched, although she had to wait until 1984 to get on board at LA. Ian S C