MEW, ME, RCM&E and Model Boats under new ownership.

Neil - you have a PM - cheers

Is this why the digital archive conversion of MEW is STILL stuck at issue 180?

Remember the past. The New Model Engineer in the mid-50's, lasted less than a year? If it hadn't been for Edgar Westbury and LBSC then ME would have closed before the war.

Is CAD such a wonderful thing? Look at the drawings in the 50's and 60's. then at the start of CAD in the late 80's. Rubbish. Multi colour, lines so thick you needed the drawing to be five times the real size otherwise it all merged into a mess. It was a good way of filling a page for which there wasn't anything else to say, shortage of space, pah.

Going outside your area of competence. Thinking here of the influx of electronics in the 80's, by people who didn't know what they were doing. Look at Martin Cleeve, pillar tool chap, Tubal Cain, Jeynes corner etc for quality. Then these circuits where they couldn't do a circuit diagram, had lines joining at a crossover. Couldn't design, how many speed controllers without any pull down resistors on the transistor bases?

I would suggest that the way forward is to have constructional or instructional articles. Looking back over decades there is no value whatever in reviews of exhibitions, open days and similar. Also reduce the size of the magazine back to the early 60's, less waffle, also less 'continued on page 99'. Also reduce the adverts to only 1/8 page each, if you want more then hopefully there will be boring things like contact details, missing in many cases, where is an 07... mobile phone number? This will reduce the cost of the magazine to print and post, keeping the minimum print run to a lower number. On line archiving simply won't work, and not been here long enough to prove it, paper works. Merge ME with EIM, EIM had some good articles but rather short of pages per issue so a series went on for years. Go back to the 40's with LBSC and look at his articles.

There is the Boat Anchor Archive for electronics, want a similar one for drawings, mostly just scans from decades past, but could be paid for.

No doubt it all wants a huge shake up, another LBSC, got a lot of time for him after reading 30 years of his writings.

Bob's suggestions would instantly make me cancel my subscription, and not bother even looking at the magazine on the newsagent's shelf. Although reducing the adverts like that would mean that the magazine could no longer be produced.

I do page through ME when I see it, and rarely find anything to convince me to buy a copy.

Things have changed; all those pages of densely written text can be replaced by a couple of intelligently annotated photos.

Do we really need constructional articles repeating the same things for each new project? Especially when a forum build thread does it much better.

Does anybody really make the projects exactly as described? How do they acquire the same random junk to build them?

Why?

A small advert is just as effective as a full page one, tht you see every issue and never read. If they are all the same then it will be accepted.

As LBSC realised, there are beginners, real beginners, out there and they need text, if you don't know what a screwed thrupple on the Boying valve gear is then a photo is useless. As always, if you don't know enough to ask a question then the old LBSC way works. Martin Evans did a series on beginners back in the 80's I think, and I didn't understand him. Look at the Model Steam Locomotive Construction book and see if you understand it, then ask someone in the teens or twenties who has had 15 years of education. The magazine is aiming at people over 50 in the most case, kids gone, got money, never held a file in their hand before.

I think that an ideal first project would be a Weir steam pump, LBSC has described several. It is small, cheap, looks good when working, won't take 5 years to build, will run from air and also a boiler comprising a 1/4" pipe with water in it and a gas lighter.

As for drawings, someone struggling with opening AutoCad - the professional choice? - on a different computer, sheet of paper works.

One aspect of the change of ownership is the plans service. Will it transfer to the new owners or stay where it is?

Also what about older incorporated magazines like English Mechanics and magazines like Model6 Railways and Model Railway News?

Derogatory or not, I class myself as a Luddite.

Lacking the understanding of electronics, but prepared use the end product, as on here, VFD, Digital calliper, etc.

I actually enjoy handwheel twiddling. I can see the nd product emerging (As you can with CNC ) but feel more that "I have made that".

Getting RSI to make it is less thrilling for me.

I am sure that here are cases where twiddling can deliver the end result, sooner, and possibly more accurately than CNC. In these cases for one offs, matching the new part to someting already existing.

For high volume production, CNC will be the way to go.

But we are hobbyists, in the main, not mass producers.

That should produce some high blood pressures and flak!

But each to their own. Mostly, we do it for pleasure.

Howard

Plans service was sold off about 5yrs ago to Sarik, seem to be doing a decent job of keeping it going

I have never understood some peoples dedication to LBSC, he was a man of his time and his time has long gone. Whereas GHT will live for ever.

I hope the new owners don't disrupt the magazine distribution team. Beth and her team have been fantastically helpful during the pandamic, and have ensured that I have a complete run of ME and MEW, despite the postal services failing to deliver several issues. Many thanks and a large bouquet to Beth et al!

Hi Neil i have just noticed that my subscription has been payed and it seems to have been to the old account is that a problem or will it be transferred to the new owners.

David George

I paid my subscriptions over the phone to the Rite Time subscription office on Friday without any problems.

JA