How did you ..................... Job back ground

Having posted on here so often I feel I can do nothing but join in, public profile or not - and not, I confess, being the operative word!

My modelling interest began at quite an early age - Meccano (no3 I think) at 4th xmas just before 5th birhday and my life has been influenced by it ever since - modelling not Meccano! However, I was most happy with Meccano until I saw my first stick and tissue model aircraft at age 11 when I was hooked well and truly. Seemingly nothing else mattered until, seeing them powered with 'engines' a few months later, I think my fate was definitely sealed

Schooling was 'A' stream Sec. Mod. but despite protestations from those that mattered decided to leave and begin work as an apprentice welder on the local shipyard. At 171/2 decided to join the Army, relinquished said fume laden apprenticeship and spent the next five years in the Parachute Regiment where, along with such a grounding in life, I experienced diving with the RE and was 'hooked' for the second time. Set out to transfer to RE but got a job in civvy street with Underwater Welders of Cardiff. Came up into the North Sea on the rigs in 67 and stayed diving until 81 when, newly married I decided to come ashore to re-train as a milling machinist. During my time on one rig - I saw the electrician building a 'traction engine like' amalgamation of bits and pieces which he eventually got running on air. Under his stewardship I made my first oscillator using a brass end cap used for terminating large cables as a cylinder. There was no lathe, just a drill press and it was soft soldered so could only run on air but it did work. However it 'didn't fly' so at the time didn't make much of an impact. Diving played no part in my engineering development but proved a very interesting carreer taking me all over the world. It began in a few feet of water in the muddy River Avonmouth, and ended running a saturation system on the rig Norjarl off the Shetlands.

Model aircraft have always played a big part but around 1970 our club had a great guy join who was a keen model boater - his logic was simple no model boat club in the area, join the MAC. Arthur and I hit it off and he soon had me building an OS40 powered Aerokits PT boat. That lead to taking the Model Boats magazine and that lead to the Feb, Mar, and April 1972 editions that covered the steam launch 'Wide a Wake' which unbelievably had a real 'Steam engine' I was 'hooked' for the third and but not quite final time of my life and it is from that first Feb issue that my workshop and interest in Model Engineering began.

My interest in ME became such that model aircraft took a back seat for some time and and certainly influenced my thinking when as said I finally came ashore to re-train. I was fortunate enough to obtain work in a jobbing shop where the work was varied and interesting, my first day a baptism of fire but that's for another time perhaps. I then worked for another jobbing shop where I was made foreman and stayed there for four years before taking a job as a 'toolmaker' working on progression press tools. (I place toolmaker in inverted commas because that's the job I had but 'toolmaker' I aint!)

This developed into running a newly equipped machine shop in support of the toolroom and the small press tools we used to supply to the customers and lasted for a happy fourteen years before a new MD arrived one September and by the following January the machine shop was closed and redundancy faced for the first time. (By the middle of the year all the production had moved to Slovakia)

I then worked for the company that had bought our newly installed Haas machining centre which just over a year old had been sold for a fraction of its cost. I spent the next two years there doing one off jobs, writing G-code for all, no CAM, before finally deciding to retire early and enjoy my workshop. Unfortunately I was not prepared for the machinations of the previous two/three years to catch up and seemingly, without any real warning I found myself with an absolute total loss of interest in all matters machining. That lasted for about five years and was on the point of actually disposing of my workshop, such was the lack of its use, when my friend John coaxed me into building that Nova engine - well, you know the rest

Despite training as a milling machist I have always preferred turning and quickly found that was where my time would be utilised. Certainly however the skills learnt in a jobbing shop environment coupled with the high tolerance precision grinding work in the factory has without doubt enhanced my enjoyment of machining particularly recently - Flying seems dormant,  I haven't flown a model since 2006 and have no desire too but do often wonder whether that 'achilles heel' will weaken and the 'bug' will strike again

Oh, and that final time of getting hooked? Well that would be meeting my wife Sue - who shows seemingly endless interest in my endeavours and has always supported me in all my modelling interests wherever they have taken me - you could say, I suppose, a truly great 'co-pilot'.

Regards - Ramon

My word it doesn't look half as big as that in the box

Time served Die and Tool maker. 25 years as a Police Officer. Now a school caretaker.

Always happy with the smell of oil and suds.

I started back in the seventies as a Toolroom apprentice and worked my way through to Toolroom chargehand, embracing the metric revolution and CNC machining on the way! I can say making 'stuff' is the best job possible bar none. Through various redundancies I now find myself in an office punching the keyboard all day but as my wife says "at least you have a job". I like to read most of the posts and hopefully pass some of my knowledge on to people who ask for help.

Tony

Edited By Tony Pratt 1 on 09/07/2012 13:24:46

Simple really, I was born an engineer

Hi All

Well here goes......

But first I must pay my respect to many exceptionally gifted members of this site that give so freely of their time. There is never a day when I do not learn something from reading these posts.

From my first recollections as a child I liked to know how things worked, much to my parents chagrin when I took apart the vacuum cleaner (Hoover) and various other appliances to their detriment at first; they would not go back together, although soon I got quite good at it and even managed to do basic repairs. My Meccano set was a prised possession. For me making stuff was to become a way of life.

My working background started in textiles. A parent had run a clothing manufacturing business that unfortunately failed in a recession in the 60’s. That convinced me that fashion was a bad Idea, however I did have knowledge of the sewing industry and decided to use that and started a small wholesale manufacturing business serving the retail furnishings industry with my wonderful wife. We had no money 2 old machines and a table we set up in a disused loft above a knitting factory. Our main focus was the design trade. After 3 moves we bought a decent factory. I have always been interested in engineering. The practicalities of manufacturing ensured that my engineering skills would always be needed. Over the next 30 years we designed and built some interesting machinery from basic jigs to CNC profile stitching. It also took me to England twice a year for most of that time Visiting suppliers. I still have many friends in the UK.
After 30 years we decided to change tack and for the last 8 years have been involved in building dwellings. The jump to building was easy having worked in the design industry. we are currently working on 2 projects.

I also taught myself to program firstly with quick basic then on to Access VBA and now VB.Net. The Costing system I developed is still in use by the new owners. I am not retired but have more free time than before. For CAD I use AutoCAD Nearly always in 3D Solids now for engineering. I am also trying to learn Revit for building.

Having left school early due to the collapse of the family business I had to self educate myself and make a living for myself from that point on.

If I have a regret it is that I did not become an Engineer. It was silly to chase the almighty dollar instead of getting a higher education. However the Business I started allowed me to hone my engineering and design skills. allowing me to accumulate a substantial library, pretty good workshop and a good life. When I travelled up the East coast from NYC to Bar Harbor last year we stopped at almost every secondhand bookshop on the way. And a few second hand tool suppliers too. Over that month we had to US post every second day ferrying the books back to Australia. My wife has a degree in Art history and Philosophy so we always go to opposite ends of the bookshop. The engineering books are always at the back on a bottom shelf if at all. We are going back to the US next year this time going south.

Engineering wise I am still working through the design of a CNC Mill. If you Google "Epoxy CNC Mill and method" you will find A few posts about it and links to the 3D CAD files. Time has been hard to come by lately but I plan to start building soon. It will be a huge learning curve.
The CAD files have been downloaded 970 times so far from over 50 countries, many in the third world. I hope it inspires the downloader's to design and build something for themselves.

I also recently built the mechanism for a tower clock for a friend. it uses 2 step motors to drive the hands, quite a beast it took two us to carry it. My mate is an electronic engineer he did the electrics it was a good collaboration. And yes it used Cast Epoxy timing Gears.

A young artist friend, a schoolmate of my Sons. asked me to make a drive for an "Installation" This was a 2 Metre wheel fitted with 3 x 23" TV screens that turned at one RPM. Quite a fiddle it needed slip rings to drive the screens (From Moog amazingly small 6 x 2 amp 240v circuits about the size of a matchbox). It all had to fit in a 115mm thick column. and be made in a few days! Plenty of hours on that one. The drive was a stepper motor and controller fed by a small pulse generator. Chosen because it was fail safe. if someone puts their hand on the wheel it just stalls. Even in that state it barely gets warm.

If you have a workshop life is always interesting........

Cheers
John

Edited By John McNamara on 09/07/2012 16:05:10

Kwil,

> Simple really, I was born an engineer

So it was you who came out holding the coil in your fist saying "I can do better than this!" to the midwife?

Neil

I blame my grandad.

When I was going into my teens he took me aside and gave me this good advise.

Never go out with loose women lad he said.

So since then I have always carried an adjustable spanner, couple of screwdrivers and a set of allen keys, - just in case.

John S.

I suppose school counts and did both metalwork and woodwork, hated woodwork because it splintered when cut went on to build a go-kart as a school project and got most of the class involved.

Went on to do an apprentaship at J&e Halls in Dartford Kent (later became Hall Thermotank) then moved on to Vickers for few years, left that and got involved in cars via my welding skills and learnt the spraying trade.

Always was involved in something whether is was a custom car or motorbike then 5 years ago had a heart attack so was grounded for a while so got back into modelling, firstly with plastic kits then metal which led to now having a vast diecast collection spanning 1940 to present day stuff and now restore them as well as build customs.

Over the years seem to have got involved in the building trades too and now have a joinery workshop (dispite the fact I hated woodwork at school) have since set up a workshop at home to making cast parts in white metal and resin and now involved in restoring tin plate cranes and steam models, on top of that still have a real project vehicle or two on the go

That about it I think, don't consider myself good, just able

Edited By Peter Wake on 09/07/2012 22:36:21

Edited By Peter Wake on 09/07/2012 22:39:23

Hi Martin, I have always been fascinated by models of allsorts, from as long as I can remember. May have been influenced by my farther and watching him on his lathe (which I still have) in his shed that he built, and learning to use basic tools by his instructions from probably around the age of 5 or 6. I am mostly interested in steam locomotives, maybe because we lived right on top of the railway and just round the corner from a very busy terminus at that time. Photography has also been an interest from a fairly early age, and I got my first camera by saving tokens from corn flake packets when I was about 9 or 10, it was just a simple cheap plastic one but it took some pretty good pictures at the time.

I used to make the proverbial Airfix models, I also once had a simple model railway set, and used to make buildings etc. out of cardboard and paint and other things like bridges out of wood and bits of metal. I have yet to make a model out of metal as such. My interest in actual model making waned somewhat during the early 70's as my interest tuned to Disco's and my late brother myself started running a mobile Disco of our own. By this time I had also become interested in basic electronics and I built all our own Disco equipment down to component level. sadly my brother died about 18 months after we got it of the ground through illness. I carried on doing Disco's and my electronic interests until 1980 when I got married and when my daughter was born every thing else took a back seat. My marriage broke down and ever since then my interest in model engineering and models in general has recovered. Tools of almost every kind and the use of, have always been a big part of my life, metalwork and technical drawing were my two most favorite subjects at school.

When I first left school at 15 I started work in a blacksmiths workshop as an apprentice, however a sign up to an apprentice scheme was never honoured, and so with the advise given to me by my mentor blacksmith I moved on to become a maintenance fitter/welder in a large sand processing company, which had sites in various places in the UK and had partners in other parts of the world also, but is now owned by a Belgium firm. I was part of a team of around 45 fitters when I first started in 1970, but after the 80's the team started to decline due to natural wastage, farming less important work out and a slow but steady run of redundancies, until there were just two of us left in 2006. By then the company decided that our department was to be contracted out, so we were offered to ether join the contractors or take a handsome voluntary redundancy offer, we both took the latter and I am currently working as a fabricator/welder and general engineer.

Regards Nick.

P.S. hi Sam, I felt I couldn't really post this not having a profile, so have made it into one.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 10/07/2012 10:59:19

I'm actually convinced its genetic. I have clearly had a similar childhood to some of the others here with a grandfather who was an engineer in Birmingham and whose father I understand was fairly big in BSA way back.

I also was often found dismantling things at home and even managed to put them back together at times. So early visits down to Birmingham often ended up with me being left with granddad while the others went shopping and of course he introduced me to all sorts of things and a visit to the then Birmingham Science Museum was the highlight of every trip.

But then I went to school where I was pushed in academic fields and my granddad died and so the interest lay dormant for a long time although again like many others here I fixed my own car and the neighbours toaster etc and have had motorbikes (still do).

I didn't like academic so I dropped out and wandered around for a couple of years and then sorta drifted into trucking and when I was 21 and a bit I was a fully licenced continental truck driver and stayed that way for 22 years. That industry has been decimated courtesy of the last govt and the EU so I got out a few years back and had a career change. I'm now an IT engineer unfortunately I got made redundant right at the start of this recession and I'm getting odd temporary work at the moment.

One hobby I've kept up from childhood is the plastic modelling thing, I actually do it semi professionally. I display at a couple of truck shows every year and a couple of years back there was a guy at Barnard Castle with a table full of Stuart models. I got chatting to him all weekend and the old dormant interest was suddenly ignited and is burning hot and you know the rest!

Back to the genetic thing. My mams family were nearly all engineers. I have never had any kind of training or lessons and yet I can simply look at a machine and work out how it works. I have that in common with a maternal uncle and my maternal granddad. And I can't really have picked it up from them as I didn't see either of them regularly living in a different part of the UK. I'm convinced I was born with it.

How did I get into model engineering? I don't know, just drifted in like most things I do. Not really a model maker, not since youthfull airomodels and boats, just like things that work. Time served fitter /turner then toolroom drawing office and a life time of contract draughting in just about all industries. Have always repaired things, bikes, cars houses etc. 'cos I had to, not for fun, but learned a lot. We built grass-track bikes years ago, didn't even have electricity, searched scrap yards for metal with holes in it so we could saw out spacers. This fed the desire for a drll and lathe. Now just fiddle about with hot air engines, wobbler steam engine and silver soldered boiler etc. but nothing that could be called a model.

I guess I too was born like it.

Some of the first books I remember reading were Texts on

Metallurgy and Martin_Caidin’s Cyborg ( special permission from library for under 11’s)..

Then secondary school.. Introduced to the term ENGINEER as apposed to mechanic or fireman or stoker ( and now Plummer!)

From eleven that was me..only question was electronic/chemical/mechanical/biomechanical.. Much to the dismay of my chemistry teacher (retired industrial chemist).

Even at university I tried to keep my options open taking as much of the medical lectures that fit in the timetable with the Electronic engineering.

Worked for 6 years in UK defense. (cold war ends)

Worked for 4 years of UK firm .lowpower..low cost..low pay.

Now self employed and mostly free to do what interests me..got involved in industrial machine tools and controls and still learning machining esp. hobby version.

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your responses, I enjoyed reading all of your history's and it seems to me that most of us already have some sort of back ground of engineering before we took up the hobby. Its also interesting to see how varied the subject of engineering itself is, the amount of useful experience is worth bottleing.

Martin P

Hi
Noticed you were into IC engines I was one of the original founders of the Glasgow aeronotical society in the late 50s. and used to go to competitions at Abbotsinch airport.

Regards
Bob