Favourite Engineering quotes.

If it's too hard to do then it's not worth doing, so says Homer Simpson

Precision ----- fits where it touches and touches everywhere !

Here's a controversial one; "Good is good enough".

Some say it's the difference between making a profit and going bankrupt in style.

Neil

I can remember one of my primary school teachers saying to me "near enough is not good enough, your best is required".

Ian S C

Here is a draughtsman's one. "You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead"

Alan

Edited By Alan Jackson on 26/09/2014 10:03:42

Always aim for perfection, but it is OK to settle for excellence.

Cheap, Fast, Accurate - choose any two!

Geoff

1. An engineer is someone who washes his hands before going to the toilet.

2. From an engineering company who supplied equipment to the police service: 'We can copper plate it but we can't copper proof it'.

3. A good machinist is someone who knows how a part will turn out before they start. (I wish).

Corollary to John's point 1: never shake hands with vets, plumbers or engineers.

Corollary to Neil's point, if you do, make sure to count your fingers afterwards, at least with the first two.

Very unfriendly of you Neil!

I would certainly shake hands with these guys ( but would rapidly wash my hands afterwards!) I would add to those listed any medical practitioners -  particularly any specializing in proctology !!

Norman

Edited By NJH on 27/09/2014 13:18:58

I would have become a vet, but I read the James Herriot books...

Neil

"If at first you don't succeed, give up" From one of the best pro precision engineers I know. (he was joking of course)

Phil

To quote my old gaffer when he thought the job wasn't moving fast enough ..."

..."come on lad we're not making gold watches here you know"

Around about 1965, I was working as an apprentice in the D.O. on the Concord project (Notice the lack of an 'e'. Things wern't going well when the following set of laws was circulated.

"If at first you don't succeed, give up" From one of the best pro precision engineers I know. (he was joking of course)"

"If at first you don't succeed, try try and fail again"

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

Ian S C

near enough good enough as they used to say at Rolls Royce aero

If it eyeable it flyable

As my dad used to say go away lad with some paper and a pencil,come up with six ideas then chose between them.

As they say there more ways of skinning a cat!!!

When I used to repair press dies and associated jigs that had been broken by production workers loading in too many parts at once or putting parts in wrong way round etc, it was reckoned that it was no good making tooling foolproof, it had to be idiotproof.

And, the Harley Davidson bolt torque method: "Tighten it up till it strips, then back it off a quarter turn."

And one from the boiler house, from an old steam engineer who cut his teeth on marine triple expansion engines: "If you come into the boiler house and see the boiler has no water in the glass, pressure gauge is over the blood and the burner is at full fire, what steps do you take? Boiler house steps, two at a time, lad."

And: "If you can keep calm and collected while all those around you are panicking, you probably don't understand the problem."

Upon seeing struggling apprentice (me) battling to get a bolt to to through its hole in the mating flange on a steam pipe etc: "Put some bloody hair around it, boy. You'll get it straight in then."

"If you were any bloody slower painting that boiler, the brush would be stuck to the job."

WHS would have him up the office for bullying and harassment these days, I suppose. But I learned more from blokes like that than I did from any pencil-pusher.