By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more
Forum sponsored by:
Forum sponsored by Forum House Ad Zone

Technical and engineering drawing.

All Topics | Latest Posts

Search for:  in Thread Title in  
1 2 3 4 5 6 Next > Last >>
Terryd17/04/2011 21:52:19
avatar
1946 forum posts
179 photos
Hi Guys,
 
Following the recent debacle about the drawings in the 'Beginners' series on the 'Countryman'sSteam' I made an offer to David to write an article or two on the basics of Technical and Engineering drawing for beginners as it is such a complex method of expressing ideas. I thought that it could perhaps be included in MEW. Unlike the recent CAD series, it would not have been about making drawings or designs but about interpreting and reading existing drawings - not easy if you are not familiar with the standard methods of representation.
 
Having taught the subjecti(including CAD and Graphic Design) when I was a teacher following my Engineering career I thought that I might have a bit of a contribution to make to those who haven't had the benefit of learning about BS 308 etc and thought that beginners might like to be able to interpret drawings properly. I know that BS308 has been superseded by ISO standards but many of the drawings we encounter were (and still are) drawn to those British Standards.
 
I am sad to say that I had a less than enthusiastic answer to my offer. i.e.
 
"Hi Terry

Readers don't like engineering drawing articles in ME or MEW, they want steam engines and tools.

I regards David"
 
I find this a bit of a personal insult given that over the last year or so we have had many articles about 3D and 2D CAD systems which were of little interest to myself, not to mention a (poorly designed) woodworkers bench and articles about woodworking tools etc etc. I would have thought that basic technical drawing interpretation was essential in our hobby to make those steam engines not just draw them which the CAD articles was all about.
 
Is it one law for one set of contributors and another for others if your face doesn't fit. Should I change my name perhaps to D Fenner the 2nd or something similar and then get any old article published.
 
I'm also sorry to say that David's reply inferred that we are only interested in (quote) "Steam Engines and Tools". How about clocks, i.c, engines, model machines, and all the other subjects we may model. Does David's comment reflect current editorial policy? If so I'm saddened after many years of reading both magazines the idea of Experimental Engineering etc seems to have been sacrificed to the God of the steam locomotive.
 
I would appreciate subscribers comments please. Am I really so wrong?
 
Best regards
 
Terry
 

Edited By Terryd on 17/04/2011 21:52:49

Les Jones 117/04/2011 22:49:50
2292 forum posts
159 photos
Hi Terry,
I also think it would be a good choice for a series of articles as it deals with the problem from both ends. It would help improve the standard of drawings presented for publication and it would help readers with understanding the conventions used. There could be no better evidence for this then the thread you mention where no one on this forum can work out what the drawing means.
 
Les.
Terryd17/04/2011 22:51:05
avatar
1946 forum posts
179 photos
Hi Gaham,
 
Thanks for that vote, I was beginning to think that I was some kind of a lonely dinosaur in these matters,
 
Best regards
 
Terry
Ramon Wilson17/04/2011 23:25:03
avatar
1655 forum posts
617 photos
Hi Terry,
 
I must admit I'm surprised at the reply as like Gray I would have thought there was, indeed should be, room for such information.
 
Gray's coment regarding the 'It will do' syndrome is I'm afraid growing apace at an exponential rate in all walks of life. I regret to say I have long given up trying to fight against it and just do the best I can to ignore it as it certainly isn't going to improve - well not in my life time I'm sure.
 
For years model engineering drawings have been produced - and accepted as such - to varying standards. My personal niggle is the double or multiple datums but thats another story and one for which someone leapt down my throat the last time it was raised but when the true beginner gets faced with such a drawing with no background with which to eliminate potential minor machining disasters caused by such misleading information it can, and indeed probably does, lead to uneccessary anguish and particularly to the novice (though not always so ).
That said however I appreciate only too well that many of our contributors have no background in drawing skills - I'm one myself - currently well into an article and spending a fair amount of time trying to produce a set of drawings using recently acquired CAD skills to accompany it rather than provide the pencil produced drafts that I originally worked from.
 
To my mind then such an article could do nothing else but help those in early days of machining so it seems to me that your offer, aimed at the audience you refer to, is a sensible one that perhaps will hopefully be reconsidered.
 
What is it about one volunteer and ten pressed men?
 
 
Regards - Ramon
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Edited By Ramon Wilson on 17/04/2011 23:27:36

Edited By Ramon Wilson on 17/04/2011 23:43:13

TSH17/04/2011 23:28:55
45 forum posts
11 photos
Terry,
 
What an excellent idea. The last formal teaching I've had on this was in "technical drawing" at school (which I enjoyed). I find it a bit of a struggle to follow even relatively simple published drawings and have all but given up trying to use a 2D CAD program—I simply don't know the terminology. I feel that learning about the standard conventions in use would help with both these.
Go for it! (If you can swing it.)
 
Regards,
 
Trevor
Steve Garnett17/04/2011 23:38:27
837 forum posts
27 photos
Interesting question, that. I can see plenty of beginners having a little difficulty with interpreting drawings, certainly at the outset of their modelling careers. And also, IIRC it's not something that MEW has ever covered before. Is it just because of a perception that it wouldn't go down well, or is there some real evidence?
 
Over the years there have been plenty of articles, certainly in MEW, that haven't purported to be about making anything in particular, and they have been extremely useful - there are all sorts of things that I now know rather more about than I did before because of them. And on that basis, I don't see why at least one article about drawings, and interpreting them, would go amiss at all. Especially as it would help to address the few complaints that keep cropping up about not enough articles aimed at beginners, wouldn't it?
 
So just as a matter of principle, it would get my vote too.
Nicholas Farr17/04/2011 23:38:39
avatar
3988 forum posts
1799 photos
Hi Terry, I first learnt TD at school and next to metelwork was my favarite subject, and while I understand TD's fairly well I believe, I couldn't tell you if it was BS 308 or not, as I've never really had to know that.
 
When I was at colege on my C&G welding courses we did TD at a more advanced level (as you would expect) and when into the technitions course even more intense. But this was when the ISO standards were becoming more of a standard in industry, and all before PC's let alone CAD existed. I do have a simple to use CAD programe, but I am not fully coversant with doing CAD in general.
 
While CAD has undoubtable advanced TD, you still need basic knowledge of drawings to undetrstand them, and I think the ability to do TD traditionally would go a long way to understand CAD drawings.
 
While learning at school and coledge, freehand sketching and the use of TD equipment to produce isometric views was also included in the subject. While on my C&G courses the geometry of sheet metal work was part of the subject also, as the need to develope things like cones and ducting interceptions needed to be understood.
 
Even now I don't pretend to know everything about TD and I sure those who know very little would be interested to learn some basic hands on knowledge of it, using such things as Tee and Set squares and the like. Model Engineering is not just about bulding models. How many people have though of taking it up, but dismissed it because they don't know what the drawings mean?
 
Regards Nick.

 

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 17/04/2011 23:48:50

Steve Garnett17/04/2011 23:41:14
837 forum posts
27 photos
7-0 so far...
AndyP17/04/2011 23:50:34
189 forum posts
30 photos
Terry,
 
Excellent idea that I would find very useful. I have only been at this for 5 years so count myself as a beginner, got as far as an air running Rob Roy, sometimes despite the "words and music".
First and third angle projection has never been intuitive to me having a background in civil engineering.
If the article covered the styles of some of the major contributors in the past that would be great.
 
Andy
Bob Lamb18/04/2011 00:44:28
avatar
140 forum posts
51 photos
Hi Terry - I also would be very interested in an article on drawings. It is many years since I did any seriously and I feel any help to make the drawings show what is actually there can only be helpful. I do hope David can find space as I'm sure it would help a lot of people.
 
Hope to see it soon,
 
Bob
Terryd18/04/2011 00:55:03
avatar
1946 forum posts
179 photos
Posted by Steve Garnett on 17/04/2011 23:41:14:
7-0 so far...
 
Thanks for the comment Steve,
 
I am quite surprised at the response within a couple of hours, it seems as though there might be a demand for such a useful series for many readers than some articles we have seen in the magazines recently,
 
Best regards
 
Terry
Sam Stones18/04/2011 01:38:52
avatar
922 forum posts
332 photos

Further to Terry's and other postings, how about a little test?
 
If you already know the answer, please keep it to yourself for a few days. If you don't know the answer and can't work it out either, then post a reply to that effect.
 
The test is simple, but is intended to help to determine if Terry's idea is a popular one.
 
The two views (FRONT and PLAN), are drawn in first angle (English) projection (not third angle). Tutt Tutt Sam!!!
 
There are no missing lines on either of the views shown, neither full lines nor dotted (dashed). With your knowledge of engineering drawing can you construct the side elevation (above the word `SIDE')?
 
By the way, although I worked out the answer at secondary school when I was thirteen, have also been `doing' engineering drawing since about 1948, and have taught various levels of engineering drawing (mainly applied to other subjects), I have no idea what BS 308 looks like. Another Tutt Tutt.
 
Regards to all,
 
Sam
_Paul_18/04/2011 02:04:39
avatar
543 forum posts
31 photos
"Hi Terry

Readers don't like engineering drawing articles in ME or MEW, they want steam engines and tools.

I regards David"

As a reader I would dispute the above...
 
I for one would welcome a series on drawing interpretation.
 
No matter how much one thinks one knows there is always something new to learn.
 
Regards
 
Paul

ady18/04/2011 03:39:49
612 forum posts
50 photos
There are no missing lines on either of the views shown, neither full lines nor dotted (dashed). With your knowledge of engineering drawing can you construct the side elevation (above the word `SIDE')?
 
Is it two box shapes with curvy sides between them kinda thing...the apex of the curve being the middle box...?
 
uh...I think my brain just melted....

Edited By ady on 18/04/2011 03:51:36

Richard Parsons18/04/2011 05:25:54
avatar
645 forum posts
33 photos
Oh not that hoary old chestnut.
 
I was shown that long ago.
It is a good laugh
Dick
JasonB18/04/2011 07:30:23
avatar
25215 forum posts
3105 photos
1 articles
As one who picks up these errors just casually reading through the articles let alone building the actual model I feel it is a very good idea. Most people comming into the hobby under the age of 40 will not have done technical drawing as a subject at school and maybe only TD rather than metalwork ( or "engineering theory & practice" the O level equivalent) and will not have been tought how to read a drawing.
 
On several occasions I have been PM'd by novice/beginners with queries on drawings, they often say they don't want to ask simple questions on the forum and look silly. Mostly its the drawing or just how things are shown that they don't understand rather than an outright error.
 
As for Davids comment, maybe he should have asked through this forum if it was felt this type of article was needed. He's a fine one to talk - regarding the Countrymans article when he was sure the odd item was the spokes and the amount of time it took for anyone to accept there were errors in the Northumbrian frame drawing.
 
The odd error or missed dimension is bound to slip through but to have so many on just one drawing is not really acceptable.
 
I'd rather see a drawing article than file handles, aeroplane weather vanes and even the trams are more railway modeling than ME.
 
Jason
Sam Stones18/04/2011 08:36:29
avatar
922 forum posts
332 photos
Frayed so, Dick.
 
Most of my nuts are old and hoary.
 
But, I'll bet it wasn't 1948 when you were shown it. You couldn't be that old!?
 
ady, You could be on to it !
 
Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 18/04/2011 08:41:44

Eric Cox18/04/2011 09:31:11
avatar
557 forum posts
38 photos
Judging by the number of incorrectly dimensioned component drawings in articles, I would have thought an article of this type would be most welcome.
 
It should be realised that TD is an engineering skill and not something done on the back of a fag packet.
KWIL18/04/2011 09:53:52
3681 forum posts
70 photos
As someone who was trained in the art, I agree that something has to be done to improve the standards of submitted work and also to aid those who have not had the benefit of training and/or experience. Go for it Terry (AND David)
Nicholas Farr18/04/2011 10:05:55
avatar
3988 forum posts
1799 photos
Posted by Eric Cox on 18/04/2011 09:31:11:
Judging by the number..........................
 
It should be realised that TD is an engineering skill and not something done on the back of a fag packet.
 
 
Wot!
 
Hi Eric, all the best ones were done on fag packets, it all depended on which brand the draugths-man smoked, and at least you could argue that it wasn't your fault if it went pear shaped.
 
Hi Sam, I haven't seen your test before. Is it a trick question?
 
Regards Nick.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Next > Last >>

All Topics | Latest Posts

Please login to post a reply.

Magazine Locator

Want the latest issue of Model Engineer or Model Engineers' Workshop? Use our magazine locator links to find your nearest stockist!

Find Model Engineer & Model Engineers' Workshop

Sign up to our Newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter and get a free digital issue.

You can unsubscribe at anytime. View our privacy policy at www.mortons.co.uk/privacy

Latest Forum Posts
Support Our Partners
cowells
Sarik
MERIDIENNE EXHIBITIONS LTD
Shopping Partners
Subscription Offer

Latest "For Sale" Ads
Latest "Wanted" Ads
Get In Touch!

Do you want to contact the Model Engineer and Model Engineers' Workshop team?

You can contact us by phone, mail or email about the magazines including becoming a contributor, submitting reader's letters or making queries about articles. You can also get in touch about this website, advertising or other general issues.

Click THIS LINK for full contact details.

For subscription issues please see THIS LINK.

Digital Back Issues

Social Media online

'Like' us on Facebook
Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter
 Twitter Logo

Pin us on Pinterest

 

Donate

donate