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Mistakes in Van Rennes article

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The Merry Miller04/11/2010 20:20:21
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I wonder if any of the authors, prior to submitting an article for publication are able to get an engineering colleague to cast a professional eye over it.
This could no doubt pick up many of the basic errors that occur thus enabling corrections to be made prior to issue. I'm not saying that they would all be spotted but it would be a worthwhile exercise.
 
Len. P.
 
Steve Garnett04/11/2010 23:46:25
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I'm sure that is all it would take really - the Ed saying 'do you have a colleague to check it?' and if a contributor doesn't, then he suggests somebody suitable...
John Olsen05/11/2010 02:29:36
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One thing I do with the words is get my wife to read it all with a blue pencil in hand. She will not necessarily pick up technical errors, although she often does, but can tell if it all seems to be making sense or not. Another trick is to write it all, then put it aside for a while and get on with something else, the drawings or the photos for instance. You will not always pick things up when you read it immediately after writing, but once it is no longer so fresh in your mind they will stick out more.
Checking drawings is I think a little harder. You know what was intended, so it is harder to come at it fresh and see that you have left out some detail or other. A check list is good so that you can count up the bits and make sure that you have  put all the important ones in.
Photos need to be taken at the time of construction, so it helps if you are thinking about publication right from the start. Then it is a case of being selective, choosing the ones that show some important detail of the construction or machining, and of course coming up with suitable captions. 
 
Getting a model engineering colleague to take a look (or for that matter anyone else with the right sort of knowledge) does seem like quite a good step to add in.  I can see where it would not necessarily be the easiest thing for the magazine to arrange, since there could be issues of premature exposure. One thing for the writer to show it to his mate, and another again for David to send a copy to some third party. Probably the reviewers would need to sign some sort of non-disclosure.
 
regards
John

Edited By John Olsen on 05/11/2010 02:30:12

David Clark 105/11/2010 09:38:53
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3357 forum posts
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10 articles		Hi Eric
Finally had chance to look at errors in Van Rennes.
The plate drawing is incorrect, the illustrator got it wrong, the text was correct.
Yes, we missed the figure numbers off. It happens occasionally. Fortunately the drawings were named so no problem.
Throughout the text the reader had the option of a 10mm or 3/8in. thread.
A 3/8 or 8mm hole to take a retaining bolt was mentioned but not a thread.
As no thread was mentioned, it was easy to miss that the 8mm should be 10mm.

So, apart from the 8mm hole, James got it right.
(And 8mm may well be right anyway, you can fit what bolt you want.)

I have checked the text and drawings in the current article (4391) and found no errors in James article.
The only errors were from us, not James.
regards David

Edited By David Clark 1 on 05/11/2010 09:46:54

John Olsen09/11/2010 05:34:07
1294 forum posts
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Well, I just had a play this afternoon with the Van Rennes article to see what I could make of it. I can confirm the uncertainty about the location of the mounting hole, the article says one thing, the drawing says the other. Also the hole size in the plinth which is given in the text as 8mm, when to be consistent with the base platform it should be 10mm.  One thing that was not totally clear at first was that one side of the lower column does not get the decorative groove, and although it is a reasonable assumption, we are not told that this is done with a ball ended mill. At least, that is what I would use.
 
But these are not show stoppers.
 
I did my check drawings in metric since this seems to be the native format. The dual dimensioning is a difficult thing to do without causing a bit of confusion...my own preference would be to choose one or the other, but then I am sufficiently bilingual to be happy either way.  I went with the offset position for the column since it seems that the rest of the engine will be in front so that made more sense. Easy to change it later if I am wrong.
 
One thing to bear in mind is that this article has been done more in the style that LBSC used to use, in that much of the information is in the text rather than being detailed in the drawings. ("take a piece of 3/8 hex, chuck it in the 3 jaw and turn a quarter of an inch down to 5/16 inch bare.... " You remember the sort of thing perhaps? At least if you are of a certain age. ) Anyway, that is one way to work, and no doubt it will suit some. My main comment on that would be that a few more photographs could help. So here is a near equivalent of a photograph of the column withoutthe rest of the engine obscuring it.
regards
John

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