Reader Participation

I'm pleased to say that contributions for Scribe a Line and Readers' Ads continue to be healthy. In fact, I had to include three whole pages of reader letters in the last issue!

We also had a good response to the English Wheel give-away.

But there are some things that seem not to be attracting a lot of interest from readers.

I have only had a small response to the Stevenson Trophy - has no one made any interesting tooling in the last couple of years? There's still a week to get an entry in.

No-one has sent in a photograph of their workshop, with or without themselves in shot! I have modest prizes to give away and no-one to give them to. It would be great to have some well composed and lit shots to feature, and hopefully some would be good enough to use on the cover.

I'm running short of readers tips, I know we have to limit prizes to UK readers for practical reasons, but I see so many good suggestions and ideas on the forum. I only need a handful of photos (or just one good one) and a paragraph of description, and you could win a decent voucher to spend.

It seems that, on the whole, readers are reluctant to enter these simple competitions, despite readily submitting letters and photos for Scribe a Line, for example.

It would really help me to get some feedback on why this is? Reply to this thread or by email if you prefer.

And of course if anyone wants to enter these competitions, please do!

Thanks,

Neil

[email protected]

Well not much response so far

Here are my thoughts

English Wheel, probably likely to appeal more to the car/bike builder/restorer than the model engineer so could well limit the appeal to a smaller percentage of the readership. I can't se me wanting one and if I did I know where I could use a more substantial one.

JS Trophy. I think my aversion to making tools is already known on the forum but I also feel that a lot of people coming into the hobby and particularly those who are more "workshop" user than "Model Engineers" would rather buy a tool and spend their time actually working on what they want, I certainly like to spend my time making engines not tools. There is also the fact that a lot of items that may well have been made in the past and that appear in the classic ME book titles are simply cheaper to by from the far east than the cost of raw material or cost of castings that are becoming obsolete.

My workshop has previously been spread over a few page so doubt others want to see more of it.

More tips can be found on forums and Youtube so I wonder if this page has had it's day. Also I would not particularly want anything from Chester

I know you are limited for prizes by what you are given so what is on offer may have limited appeal but maybe casting around a bit more to vary the source from one month to the next would help as well as talking with the providers to get products that will be used by more subscribers such as consumable like milling cutters, drill bits, saw blades etc.

Not really surprised nobody has sent in a photograph of their workshop, it’s an open invitation to the local thieving scrotes to come and visit when you are out.

You are welcome to see photos of *** my workshop *** it is already on-line and has been for some time so I doubt it will count towards any competition, not that it is in any way out of the ordinary.

John

Personally I'll be all over it once I'm properly up and running. Though I doubt I'd be up for posting pics of my meagre workshop. Though I should hope eventually to have something to contribute regarding modularity for teeny weeny workshops.

Really enjoying MEW320... I've got to say, the Editors Bench hit me in the feels a bit. You absolutely can't please everybody all the time with every article, how could you possibly with such wide ranging skill sets and applications? The fact that anyone would have the temerity to have a whinge is a bit...off let's say, though I'd like to use something stronger and smellier!

As far as my opinion on the question of focus... All the things, as per usual! Although I would appreciate some more tool reviews. Particularly on the mods a lot of us have to do to make the best of an affordable price point. While I can appreciate the reticence to lose potential advertising revenue by delivering a bad review, I do think it's also important to let folk know when there comes a point that something is too cheaply made, to the point of being irredeemably so!

That's my tuppence anyway...

Jay

I for one don't feel as I can contribute much as I am in the very early stages of the hobby and still learning.

As for making tools as stated at the moment it is easier to buy something rather than make something so that I can concentrate on my Rob Roy build which is on hold due to building an wooden model excavator for one of the great grandchildren.

If you make the competition bits easy to use on the forum it might attract more interest

Old duffers like me don't use smartphones or even watch the TV much because of the amount of junk we are forced to deal with

(I record everything the night before if I fancy watching something, the adverts are horrific now)

Life is too short and interesting to jump through hoops if you can avoid them

Edited By Ady1 on 23/09/2022 17:14:02

Although I don't live in the UK, so am disqualified from the competitions, I would like to add some support to some comments here, for what its worth.

Like Jason, no real interest in making tools - for me its a 'needs must' thing - only if I can't get it any other way, or I need a special tool for something.

Like many people, the only way I have been able to follow my interests is because I was able to afford Far Eastern stuff. I'm sick of hearing all the knocking in various threads that this stuff is junk - I don't have money to waste, so have to do what I can with what I can afford. Perhaps going back on what I just said about tools, I would appreciate articles on upgrading these machines. I was forced to do it my machines, and have helped friends, but can't help getting the impression that unless you own a brand-new Myford/Boxford/Tom Senior et al, etc, then you are on your own. I know there is a lot of brilliant stuff on the Net, but these are rarely open to comment or suggestion, such as this forum or magazine would open up.

I don't think the forum has had its day, as suggested by Jason, but I do think it is getting a little 'restrictive' (not the word I want really, but can't think of it). It may not appear so at a glance, but sometimes it seems to be the same 5 people discussing (disagreeing?) about the same things, or something not connected with model engineering, which I could imagine would put new members off a bit - perhaps some new subject matter needed - maybe throw this open to suggestion, and encourage a wider audience. I'm sure I've seen new members pop up for a thread, never to appear again - wonder why?

Please don't trot out the 'why don't you write something then" argument. I have, and know of several people who have also done so, only for it to disappear forever - no publication, no reasons why not. Neil has said several times that he has piles of articles available: fine - publish them, or start filtering them to provided some variety - or (dare I say it), let authors know whats wrong with them.

And damn right, Ady1.

Regards - Sorry if I've gone a bit off-thread - just seemed like a good opportunity.

Where did he suggest this?

I have a stalled project which would be an ideal contender for the JS Cup, was it not for the fact that it's still a pile of parts...

Hopefully next year.

In an entirely related note, I could probably share workshop pictures if the workshop was visible under the thick layer of disorganisation I have going on right now.

Edited By Jelly on 24/09/2022 02:35:11

I totally understand there are many who just want to get on a build an engine.

But I wonder sometimes how many new people taking up our "hobby" with no experience in metal bashing actually realise what it takes to finish even a small project?

There must be hundreds of unfinished projects gathering dust where the budding but inexperienced model engineer has bitten off more than they could chew.

I think making simple tools that will be used regularly such as a gauge to set the height of a lathe tool for example, can be completed fairly quickly without having to invest in expensive tooling. This gives the inexperienced person valuable skills, inexpensive to make and gives the opportunity for them to assess is model engineering for them?

I am fortunate to be apprenticeship trained and having several decades of experience but when I am in the middle of a build, i dont decry the need to stop the project to make a special clamp for example. I would sooner do this than buy ready made tooling that may need to be modified anyway.

For example, I am 2/3 the way through building a Quorn, i have had to stop the build to make all those ball handles. The balls needed to be created by a tool that i made to a published design in the ME many years ago...

Regards

Derek

I was suggesting that Readers Tips had had it's day not the forum.

.

Quite frankly .. Readers Tips would appear to be an economically-priced way for Chester to get a full-page advertisement in the magazine.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: Quoting from Neil’s opening post:

… but I see so many good suggestions and ideas on the forum.

Q.E.D. ?

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/09/2022 07:24:57

Another thought:

Reading is, by its very nature, something that we do ‘in receive mode’

Participation in a forum is, by contrast, proactive/interactive behaviour

There is room in life for both channels but, in this day & age, it seems futile to try making a print magazine participatory. … Just keep making it a better read.

MichaelG.

Hi, I haven't got anything to offer as I'm in the process of improving and sorting my garage, which is a bit ongoing. As far as the Stevenson Trophy is concerned, I like the idea of it, but I wouldn't want the responsibility of it's safe keeping if I was a winner. I've always been reluctant to even borrow simple tools or other things from others, just in case I lost it or busted it, and I'd rather buy anything that I need, even if I only needed it once, and maybe sell something else that I no longer needed to help pay for it, although I have hired things that are beyond my pay grade, but they have been machines that I've used during my working years and are not the easiest things to lose or bust.

Regards Nick.

I agree with that Michael and it's right for me. I don't want to contribute to a magazine - just pay my money, read it, finished. If the magazine made a big thing about it, I probably wouldn't buy the magazine. Similarly with buying stuff and being expected to give feedback all the time.

That said, I am sure there would be plenty of others who would criticise Neil for not trying to make the magazine interactive - including his boss? It's an easy thing for people, when asked, to say they want it to be interactive - then they never contribute. A bit like club life e.g. many in a club may want to have a stand at MMEE2022 and moan if it wasn't there, but they have never contributed and never intend to.
I digress to grind an axe - perhaps I should send a picture of me doing it in the workshop, for inclusion in the magazine.

To answer the original question I don't think my fixtures, tooling and setups would merit being a readers tip. And the voucher would be of no interest as there is nothing I need from the supplier.

In general I don't make tools. Which brings me on to the point made above about criticism of Far Eastern machine tools. I have the opposite, snide remarks about those who run ex-industrial machines. One attribute of ex-industrial machine tools is that they are designed to take accessories that are not available for Far Eastern machines, so there is less need to upgrade.

I have had a cover picture on MEW and have published articles about some of my machine tools and a tour of my workshop; article written and I think it was published. I have also written some technical articles for ME and MEW in the past and had discussed a number of other topics that would be suitable for articles. But I never got around to finishing the articles, partly due to work pressures and partly because I felt they were too technical.

No doubt a few people are put off by the forum and stop posting. Each forum has it's own ethos and sometimes it just doesn't gel. I've stopped posting on another ME forum as the ethos and subject matter didn't really fit. I also suspect that quite a few people appear simply because they want the answer to a specific question, or want to look at an advert, and have no intention of continuing to participate.

Andrew

Neil. I sent you an Email on August 29th about the workshop photo Comp. As i have not had a reply i think either, you never received it, or you might have thought i was being sarcastic about the time it might take to publish it should it be OK.

If the latter is the case, then i apologise. It was never intended to be sarcastic, just a statement of facts as i am 82 years old and in very poor health.

Please let me know if you never received the Email and i will send it again.

Regards, Derek.

My views for what they are worth,

As regards competitions I do not bother entering, I have never won anything in my life, including arguments. As regards an English wheel, well for one thing I do not have the work for one. For another it would take up a lot of workshop floor space for only occasional use. I know Sam Lovegrove has a hankering for one.

I certainly do not think it would be appropriate for me to enter the JS Cup for several reasons.

As regards showing my workshop off, that is covered by Ady.

Readers tips are often given in my writing, but like all advice it can either be taken, ignored, or pulled to pieces.

Regards

Gray,

And of course don't forget if you don't take part in the magazine content there won't be one. Its a shame Andrew that you think that your articles are too technical, doesn't say much for the rest of us.