What Did you do Today 2022

The industy I worked in was full of quality standards imposed on us by customers that we (supposedly) needed to comply with. We often found that we did with little or no effort needed to comply because we worked hard to give the best possible product.

Occaisonally a new standard was created that we needed to ensure compliance. One guy took the whole standards thing very seriously and was happy to take care of the paper work.

Some wag came up with the following military standard, MIL TFD 4 1. Our standards guy searched high and low for it in the paperwork. Eventually, we felt sorry for him, so told him what it meant, he took it in good heart!

Something else, what is "systems engineering". Never got an explanation but at one time it was a big "thing". Best explanation I got was that "it was something good engineers have always done".

Systems engineering takes the overall requirement, say for a family car, and defines the upper level design to make all the bits work together such as engine size and number of seats that makes it different from a say a sports car, but doesn't go into the fine detail of how thick the metal body should be. Then it will detail some features like the wheels must be bolted on not welded so they can be changed, but again not say how many bolts to use.
In electronics it would say that a modern laptop must have a wifi interface whereas 15 years ago it would have had an Ethernet port only so that it can fulfil the requirement of working in a modern home.
I was an electronics systems engineer for about 30 years but in the cable TV industry the role is called 'Architect' which confuses everyone and never felt right to me.

John,

It seems that if you ask this question to, say, a dozen different companies or organisations, you'll get at least fourteen different answers.

Here's what I used to answer when I was asked the question:

If, as the (development) project progresses, either the hardware development engineers or the software writers suffer a moving goalpost, then the Systems Department haven't done their job properly in drafting the design specifications. You don't start the development until the customer has read and signed those design specifications.

There was a guy called Clauswitz back in Napoleon & Wellington's time who wrote 'the Rules of war'. Rule #1 reads "Select and Maintain The Aim". Why confine that rule to war? In my opinion, much of Industry would benefit from it too.

I worked in the Defence sector. A colleague of mine used to insist that the military's job was to 'define the operational requirement' and, having done so, to leave the design to the engineers.

I was also witness of (but not party to) a project where the customer was allowed to, in effect, become the design authority - utter disaster!!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 09/10/2022 20:08:05

I think the problem here is that because it's about a way of thinking, there's very little to tie disparate users to a common ground.

My experiences of "Process Systems Engineering" are very different from my old housemate's experiences as a "Systems Engineer" for a software company who provided vibration analysis tools for aerospace and automotive clients...

The only thing that I've been able to use to tie all the different "Systems Engineering" definitions together, is that at the core there's a focus on:

• modelling complex systems based on an input of limited datasets,
• validating that model within a given parameter space,
• then using the model to optimise some output.

In turn that points to a heritage in "Operations Research" (which could be described as using statistical techniques to make better decisions about systems which are too complex to understand intuitively).

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I have also heard systems engineering (facetiously, but not inaccurately) described as:

• "Engineering your engineering, so your engineering can be engineered."

Which is kind of a consistent explanation when you hark back to the heritage in operations research; it just seems bizarrely "meta" to talk about designing a design process.

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I would tend to agree with your definition with respect to a large capital project (say a chemical plant, or a bridge), or a one-off order for a highly specialised product (like a jet-fighter or a ship).

But the waters have been badly muddied here by the rise and rise of products not linked to anything corporeal, and the rise of various "Agile" development approaches coming out of the IT sector (where they work pretty well in the whole) in which the point is that you assume the goalpost is always moving and always will be, so constantly re-appraise the direction of your work, so as to have any chance of hitting it at all.

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I've now seen organisations which undertake serial production of large volumes of a real product implement "Agile Manufacturing" in which the whole development and manufacturing process is iterative, and improvements to the product are constantly integrated throughout production...

This has positives for the manufacturer and the initial buyer, but causes additional complexities downstream especially for service/repair as it creates a myriad of slightly different models which may or may not be documented fully.

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I don't think that's guaranteed to be a disaster, it's down to the person/people involved understanding the role they're taking on and ensuring they meet the requirements the organisation has of that role.

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I've acted as both "Principal Designer" on projects where we've put packages of work out to subcontractors whilst the overall project is managed in-house, and "Clients Engineer" on projects where we've let the entire package to an EPC.

The skills are allied but different:

• as a clients engineer, you have to analyse the designs and challenge decisions to get the client what they wanted, but you can't go interfering with the actual design process directly unless you want to cause a huge bureaucratic mess.
• as principal designer, you have to take total responsibility for the design and that means that you must fully understand every aspect, or at the very least how each aspect integrates with every other aspect, and fully bottom out any disconnects with the relevant teams.

If you have someone who is determined to take on the authority and accountability of the latter, but approaches it with the attitude and responsibilities of the former, that's when it should be expected to rapidly devolve into a horrendous mess!

Jelly, good afternoon,

Thank you for your contribution, I think the points you make are fair and reasonable.

I confess that the points I made relate to just a few crystallised cherries in large slice of cake! Some were prompted by memories which are still painful or uncomfortable despite my having 'retired' some quarter of a century ago.  And I certainly wouldn't claim that I cruised through those years getting everything right!

Regarding my points about the military, maybe I wasn't entirely fair. They are no more clairvoyant than the other sectors of society, even though they do have departments whose entire raison d'etre is to identify how things are changing. And it is fair when they say 'no plan survives contact with the enemy!'.

Just to get things straight about one aspect of my career in the defence industry: I never ever met any member of the UK armed forces who could be described as a 'war monger'. The people I met were determined to be so well trained and exercised and hence so good at their job that potentially hostile forces would be reluctant to take them on. At the same time they appreciated that their side of the social contract committed them, if needs must, to go out there and do the job. That certainly inspired me and, I hope, my colleagues in Industry, to do our best to ensure that they had absolutely the best kit we could contrive. The only 'warmongers' I did meet along the way were arms salesmen! One exception was a salesman I met who changed jobs because he said he couldn't stomach selling weapons to countries that should have been buying hospitals!

Edit to add an afterthought about 'design authority': The Beck company, makers of microscopes and other scientific instruments, used to have a clause on the back page of their catalogue.  It stated that they guaranteed the performance of their own proprietary items.  If a customer submitted a set of drawings of the customer's own design, Beck would guarantee to supply an item that conformed to those drawings but in no way would they accept any responsibility for its performance.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 10/10/2022 13:31:02

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 10/10/2022 13:39:32

Despite all this cleverness the MOD has managed to spend £3.2 bn on the Ajax tank programme and has still not received one useable tank. What happened to making a trial batch and sorting the problems out? They have made over 300 hulls which might or might not be able to be rectified.

Got my dro from vevor installed, with a readout of the total available travel on the x and y axis.

During the install I stripped the table down completely and adjusted the feedscrew nuts for backlash, ending up with 0.15mm on x and 0.20mm on y, although I guess it doesn't really matter with the dro installed. I also had to fit a 'sophisticated' bed stop and brush up on my ironing skills to alter the bed cover.

The x axis scale was cut to size using the bandsaw and seemed to do a good job.

Just the cables to tidy up and the x axis scale cover to fit.

Dave.

Edited By iNf on 11/10/2022 18:52:33

Finally re-erected the Great Drawing-Board....

I'd had to make three shouldered screws to replace lost ones - modifying ordinary bolts to do that..

Putting the very heavy board back on its sub-frame was a nightmare, involving a jack and blocks... Then it obligingly tipped forwards and fell off. Then I twigged I could lock the mechanism by threading lengths of timber through it, and this time succeeded.

I'd spent hours over about two weeks, re-assembling its very complicated tilt. lift and lock mechanism by experimenting and matching fit-marks; but it's not as it should be.

I still need adjust the thing, but I don't think the brake works. The pair of small parts left over have no-where left to fit. The two left-over holes have no clear purpose. Two of the pivot shoulder-screws don't fit properly the only places they will fit anyway. The two tension-springs oddly different in diameter are almost certainly in the wrong place but give no clue to where they should be.....

I might just secure the board rigidly in a useable position with struts or braces, with no adjustment.

Oh to hell with it. I might just scrap it completely, salvage the steel as stock, and be done with it! It's too big for the house, physically; and I should be making things, not making things to draw the things on.

I wonder if you can still buy wooden tee-squares? My first drawing-board was just a big piece of 3/4" blockboard with a sheet of 'Pryoboard' stuck to it.

Got off the train from London at gone nine, but felt like I needed to do something when I got in.

So I finally got round to painting two vices which I cleaned, stripped and fettled about a year ago, then started using out of necessity, and quickly primed several months later.

That Woden 8A is massive (literally, at about 1½ cwt), and absolutely great to use; some cursory research after I got it suggests it's the second largest vice model manufactured in the UK (after the Woden 9).

And a more pedestrian Record 3 I got cheap in terrible condition as a sacrificial vice for welding/grinding but turned out to be nearly perfect under all the crud.

Now both wearing a pleasant shade of "BS101 Sky Blue" which I've tended to use for anything I need to repaint.

I'll pick out the lettering in white with a sable tomorrow lunchtime, and then give them both a coat of thinned epoxy as a hard-wearing clear coat in a day or so.

In the background of that second shot are two doors off a "modern classic" 80's Citröen my mate is restoring...

I've agreed to have a crack at doing a welded repair where they've rusted out at the bottom, no promises it will succeed whilst he tries to source alternative spares from a Spanish scrappy.

I'm sort of looking forward to getting to getting stuck in to the challenge, but know it will probably just be an absolute pain in the end.

I've got a wooden set square you can have for nothing, but posting it would be a bit of a nightmare. It's in North Cheshire, near the M6 if you're passing

Thankyou Duncan,

But I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek!

Oh - "Papyroboard" . Not "Pyroboard" - which sounds like a fire-proof lining.

I can't see what I've put together wrongly. I have though, not yet fully tensioned the mechanism, which means tightening a massive tension-spring by turning an M10 nut about two flats at a time (constricted space), and adjusting the brake as best I can.

There are two further springs involved, but it's impossible to work out where there are supposed to go. They appear to be to stop the board from falling forwards but there are no clear anchorages for them. Oddly, they are of difference sizes, too.

There are no service manuals for these things. I do not know the make, and trying to search on-line by the model name draws a blank. Well, not literally blank. Like any search now, it opens only hundreds of utterly irrelevant advertisement links.

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Anyway it's the Exhibition Expedition tomorrow - about a 300 mile round-trip,. Must try to determine what I need buy, and not just wander round the trade-stands on spec! Fettle the car, sort out the picnic-stove for roadside brew-stops. Set the alarm-clock to wake up the sparrows.

Tool inserts, see if there are gaps I may be able to fill, in the Harrison change-wheel set; and what materials do I need? (Prime would be a block of cast-iron to make a new cylinder-block for the steam-wagon. I built in unforeseen, future problems in the one I made, umm, about 20 years ago.)

Originally I was going help man a club stand but those involved have apparently decided not to mount it thanks to the exhibition organisers not giving stand-steward, only exhibit-owner tickets. I was told. That true? One less club stand then, it would seem.

I passed the final assessment of my City and Guilds level 1 in Welding and Fabrication.

This is one of the two qualifications I have to do, in order to access the qualification I actually want/need, but it's still been a good learning experience working with the tutors at Leeds College of Building.

It has been weird doing a vocational qualification for myself at a point when I have designed and assessed those courses (in a different area), but reinforced my belief in their value and utility compared to more academic qualification design (not to do down academics either given my own educational history).

Well, most of yesterday actually. Designed and printed a stand for my Metric taps and dies:

Took 8 hours to print. I like these non adjustable dies from ARC - they cut very nicely.

Rod

Drove 9 hours round trip to pick up a replacement rotary phase converter.

It works perfectly, but revealed that when the previous one packed up I left the the multi-disk clutch on my lathe half engaged, and it had become stuck from being left like that causing a lot of drag and difficulty starting

So I crawled behind the lathe, opened the back and tried to free it up... Nothing, nada, remained jammed.

After about 50 mins of very oily, very cramped work, my missus came back in through the workshop, and at my request jiggled the clutch lever whilst I was fiddling with the adjuster, instantly all freed up...

My only possible conclusion, She must be a secret lathe whisperer, no other possible explanation.

Lathe Whispering.... I must learn the technique!

Workshop doings?

I'll be lucky.

Sorting out the aftermath of a long-term, tiny leak on the washing-machine hose is No.1 priority today! No.2 was what that had revealed: a displaced kitchen unit end panel. Rammed that back into place, with long chipboard screws, a scissor-jack and a Big 'Ammer.

Still a good workshop tidying session would not come amiss and might even reveal one if not both of two head-torches that one of the domestic Black Holes (event-horizon radii often <3 feet) has swallowed.

I've a niggling suspicion one might be at the club track where I was replacing sleepers in deepening dusk, but that search will have to wait till next weekend.

However, I must resume work on the steam-wagon, and I have a suspicion that Ashpan Version 3.1 needs be top of the bill, followed by Manifold V2.1 and a manual feed-pump.

Today was spent clearing the workshop of a community organisation for a major expansion.

This included moving their big Norton surface grinder into its new booth, then installing the doors on the booth, shifting the 200lt air receiver and compressor over to a new location, and sorting through a large amount of scrap, unused tools and general detritus.

In that process I retrieved a Startrite Band-it which needs a motor shaft repair completed (it was started then stalled 5 years ago), and prepared 3 drill presses, 4 bench grinders, a disk sander, and a table saw for sale.

Planning to get started on the bandsaw on Thursday, but need to decide between "weld and turn between centers", "bore out rotor then shrink fit new shaft", and "stuff this I'll just make an adaptor and fit a new motor instead" first.

As laid out there it feels like a logical progression of more difficult options.

Edited By Jelly on 16/10/2022 22:35:21

Seeing I am milling groves etc in an oil catchplate for lathe, i wanted to measure the depth accurately, so I made an isolated probe clamped in drillchuck, 3x AAA batteries, resistor and bright LED with two clamps one on earth and one to isolated part of probe. I then fit a digital caliper to mill front.
This probe proove to be 100% repeatable in reading touching the surface of aliminium plate and groove depth milled, this actually surprised me seeing I got slightly different readings with two other methods using a caliper by hand. Attached LED & battery assembly to magnet on side of mill, zeroing the digital caliper.
I may do something else in paralellel with a milcutter in ER32 fitted without removing it.

Steam-Wagon work for a change!

Inspired and guided by 'Hotspur'...

Designed the grate a-new, not satisfied with the concoction I'd carved out of bits of scrap car brake-disc. I've also in mind reverting to a prototype-shaped cylindrical ash-pan, with a simple vertical drop arrangement. My Version 1 cylindrical then v.2 square, ones are complicated, messy contraptions intended to tip on arms extending back to hinges on the engine mounting frame.

So spent a couple of hours this evening, drawing a "Rosebud" pattern grate based on Hotspur's example in the latest "ME" as a guide.

As on his engine, my wagon's firebox is cylindrical, and not ever so much larger (115mm compared to his at 84mm) diameter. Mine leaves a narrow annular gap, a little under 3mm, between the grate rim and the firebox wall.

After going through his calculations to refresh my always-shaky arithmetic, it took me two iterations to create a pattern very similar in hole size, giving that 15% area value. Mine has 178 holes 3.4mm dia on 10mm pitches interleaved; and I've specified 4mm counter-drilling for the ash clearance.

Hotspur's design uses 95, 3.65mm holes on mainly 7mm pitches.

I have not accounted for losing any to the supports, but even if I need do that I don't think the loss will be significant, partly due to the annular gap.

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Previous discussion on these 'Rosebud' grates have expounded on the holes diverging downwards, supposedly to help the air-flow lift the fuel slightly. I have never really believed that - for one thing it would need a very strong air-flow, for another, it's the wrong round. The convergence upwards would increase the air--speed at the expense of pressure; but it's pressure that lifts, not speed. Think of injectors and ejectors. Most likely the original 'Rosebud' grates were castings and whatever else might have been intended, the taper was only ever effective for mould-draught in making, and ash-dropping in use.

'

I used TurboCAD for the drawing, but MS 'Word' for printing it. I find TC's utterly bizarre, 'WYSIWYDG' 'Viewport' system, impossible. Directly copying the selected drawing area onto a 'Word' blank worked. It shrank the image a bit, giving very tiny lettering, but the "proper" way does not guarantee fitting it at the intended scale on the selected paper size, anyway.

'

All I need now is to source a large disc of cast-iron..... Wish I'd done this last week. I'm sure CES had such a piece on their stand at "The Fosse".

So....

Thank you very much, Hotspur!

So I had a bit more time tonight than expected, and was able to sort one of those "I should get round to it" tasks...

in the form of making a 17mm ID 1.2mm thick washer to take the endplay out of my bench grinder, reducing the vibration to sane levels.

I'm astounded at how effective it was, even before truing up the new grinding wheels.

Followed that up with getting the previously mentioned Bandsaw into the workshop, and concluding it's heavier than it looks.

Turns out the previous repair attempt got as far as doing a shrink fit, but it not ending up entirely straight.

It was more appropriate to use a scale than an indicator to measure the run out...

Nevertheless, there's plenty of meat to the shaft that was fitted, so I'll get it in the 4-jaw on Thursday evening, make sure to dial in the rotor section of the overall part, then turn it down to size and see what happens when I put it back in the motor.

Edited By Jelly on 18/10/2022 00:18:53

Edited By Jelly on 18/10/2022 00:39:28

Got that motor shaft turned and fitted up, most of the difficulty being in working out the correct length to put the shoulders at with no original part to copy.

All being well I should be able to cut a keyway and re-wire to yield a working bandsaw for at most a few hours effort.

I also noted that the oil in the lubrication watch glasses for the lathe spindle looked like it was overdue a change, then immediately regretted this observation when I discovered how expensive Shell Morlina S2 BL5 (yes, ISO 5 viscosity grade) is.

I am sure when I drain the oil I will be glad I replaced it on seeing the condition it's in.