2021 AUTUMN SPECIAL

Stan Bray, quite correctly, felt that MEW would serve a different market from ME, although there would be overlap in interest and readers..

The fact that both magazines have survived through these troubled times shows that those two, similar, but distinct, readerships still exist.

Some of the repeat articles in MEW serve a useful purpose in showing techniques, of which some newcomers had no knowledge. So those will have been of service, possibly not just to newbies.

Sometimes, repeated articles provide food for thought and inspire future projects.

And from the point of view of MTM, with lockdown, there have been fewer people allowed to walk to a shop to buy either magazine, plus the problems involved in distributing, inland, as well as overseas, so income will have fallen, and no doubt there will have been problems with staff being unable to meet and / or having to isolate.

So these are factors which probably account for a longer interval between issues, old articles being repeated, and new ones perhaps being fewer.

After all, if there are problems obtaining material or tooling, or even machines, the project may not come to fruition, so that no article about it can be written.

Hopefully, better times are ahead, and life, ME and MEW, will more closely approach what we regard as "normal".

Howard

Things move on, the sort of practices we refer to were highlighted by the one on lead soldering. I felt that many readers younger than me might not be aware of the 'old ways' of soft soldering and that the article would be potentially fascinating to most readers (and new to them, bearing in mind it appeared in ME about sixty years ago).

Neil

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

The point that I was attempting to make was that, in my view, it would be sensible to warn younger/newer readers against using techniques that were no longer considered safe.

MCB

My feeling is the warning should be enough. Once alerted there's a risk, the operator should think about it and take suitable precautions.

The worst old-style dangers have mostly gone. Top of my list are unguarded open gear trains and the appalling workshop electrics once considered normal! The really dangerous chemicals recommended 60 years ago are no longer readily available and smoking is much less common.

I'm impressed by how safe Model Engineering is compared with many other hobbies. I think it's because all our risky processes are fairly obvious, and our tools aren't as uncontrollable as handheld power tools or as vicious as other activities. Wood working is particularly blood splattered - their saws will have you arm off in a blink! We aren't in the same league as horse riding, motor cycles, car maintenance, or even amateur radio, though I admit my workshop is more likely to bite than computer programming!

Dave