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In another thread on drill grinding jigs one Gray's posts began....

'There are believe it or not some peoples work I have seen at the exhibitions that put my work to shame, that however does not make me give up, only try harder to achieve a higher standard. It also does not give me the right to ridicule or poke fun in others work.

I'm not sure if I'm the only one that has taken the remarks out of context but to me it reads as if the writer regards his own workmanship as better than almost everyone else's.

Gray, your workmanship is truly excellent, and normally your writings are to the same standard so I have to think that the misunderstanding is on my part?

Ian P

(who sometimes misses the obvious, and othertimes sees things that are not there). I did SEE Grahams levitating plate though!

Well I'm afraid it doesn't read like that to me Ian.

Regards,

IanT

For me the quality of work should suit the job in hand, if I'm making a jig plate to hold something for a one off job, I turn it mill it MIG tig gas it or what ever in order to get the job done, I don't bother polishing or painting it, what's the point in that, on the other hand I've thrown parts in the bin that others have said are fine, but I just wasn't happy with them as part of the model, so for me its down to what its ultimately for, other peoples work I never criticise unless I know them well or am invited to do so, my mates workmanship I slag off as a matter of course, its your duty

Shaun

Gray

| "I had started to write the article up for Neil, but given the aforementioned comments this will no longer happen,"

That is very sad and you deprive us all of the benefit of your very worthwhile efforts and experience in this - I do wish that you would reconsider.

I should point out that, in one respect, you are quite wrong - I can assure you that your work is quite different from mine. Would that my own feeble efforts were 1/10th as good!

Best wishes

Norman

Gray,

It is a sad day that you decide not to contribute further to this forum, I have very much appreciated your contributions to this hobby, your insight and engineering expertise are an inspiration to us.o

As others have said, I do hope you re-consider your decision as you will have support from many I am sure however, if you do decide to end your contributions, let me wish you well and enjoy life to the full

Kind regards

Graeme

I don't wish to get involved in the "politics" of this ... and nor should I, because I suspect that there is "history" of which I am unaware.

.

Suffice it to say that, over the years, the writings in ME which gave me most enjoyment' and taught me most, were those by Geo. H. Thomas.

Personally; I don't want to read about other people's quick'n'dirty lash-ups, I want to see something aspirational ... a "stretch-target" that is some way beyond my current abilities.

MichaelG.

Re ME show. We have had talks at our club from judges about what they expect and how they judge. There have been articles in ME too I think. I found these very discouraging.

It seemed to be considered for a Gold nowadays you not only had to build an impeccable model you had to use works drawings to make your own design and make your own castings and document everything in the build to profesional standards too. That last is ironically way beyond most professional engineers I know let alone hobbyists.

The good thing about the ME way of using medals rather than 1st, second, third etc is that wuality can be recognised per se, not merely in relation to the other things that happen to be around that year.

I just assume the poster has been drinking heavily when they say something negative

Edited By Ady1 on 12/05/2014 18:28:31

I just don't understand what is happening here.

Gray - Many thanks for your article on making sparking plugs published some four years ago. I made full use of it and successfully made plugs after some dismal failures. I was looking forward to an article describing a good drill sharpening jig.

JA

I'm with JA here - I don't understand what is going on here either (but I have been off-line for a few days)

So I may have missed something but I was following Graham's line of thought on drill sharpening and found it most interesting and informative. I would have found any "published" summary of this work most useful, so I'm very sorry if something (someone?) has upset him in some way.

Regards,

IanT

I suspect like many I have looked at competition models and said "I couldn't do that". I believe the Gold Medal standard nowadays is so high that it might be putting people off of participating in the hobby. Because of this I think the club stands are probably more important in shows by displaying models made by lesser mortals.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not denigrating club members abilities, but by and large they are singing to a different song sheet, in that they build a model to suit themselves rather than to win a competition, but these models are probably more of an inspiration for someone to start the hobby.

I do remember that many years ago, my club Model Engineer show displayed a model on the stand made by person who's mechanical engineering abilities were a lot to be desired, but he was pleased with what he done. The model did raise a lot of comments we pointed to people that the hobby is open to people of all abilities and we are not always seeking perfection.

Regards Luigi

like graham i have avidly read everything that george thomas has ever written and perhaps a bit more as i have a collection of old SMEE journals, and his dissertation on why clocks go 'tick tock' instead of 'tock tick' is one of the most brilliant pieces of writing i have ever come across.

i dont know why quite why john stevenson decided to have ago at graham at every stage of the drilling jig saga, as i usually enjoy john's acerbic and pertinent comments.

i have never made anything that george thomas described as beyond my own capabilities. however if i had a lathe with all of graham's modifications i would be very happy but would have to stop building miniature locos for quite a few years to achieve same.

i also avidly read everything martin cleeve wrote. again none of it within my own capabilities but fascinating stuff to dream about!

(whatever happened to martin's lathe? is anyone on here lucky enough to own it?)

like john i have an odd talent to grind and hone drills freehand much to the consternation of my fellow club members and have often had to use an angle grinder at the club to sharpen drills for major construction jobs. i can do it from 1" dia drills down to 1/16" dia. however like graham i have been singularly unimpressed by the results of commercial drill grinding jigs. in my case ive avoided their use by grinding them by hand.

i can do lining out on locos and lettering by hand, so must have a good eye and touch, and this has been applied to drills and end mills etc. when my eyesight deteriorates i will need graham's designs!

i have also attended exhibitions and rather than be enthused have been depressed at the superlative standard of the exhibits and come away feeling no way can i achieve anything like this. and i knew the late Bill Carter and Jim Ewins!

on the other hand i have a capacity to make working miniature steam loco injectors and fine scale fittings, so perhaps one ought to set ones own level at what they feel comfortably with that gives the required degree of individual sense of achievement to continue at this daft hobby!

cheers,

julian

Why all this negative thought Graham. On several posts, you have wetted the readers appetite, only to pull out at some stage.

Have you been presented with the standard contract by MTM yet?...Do you accept it?...If so, then just proceed and write.

There are always going to be people challenging ones views, be it JS's technical based views in your case or commercial views in mine.

One should try and avoid using such points as reasons to stop ones own progress.

I am equally guilty of using negative points to justify my own actions, which at times achieves very little.

Ketan at ARC.

If you work a lot in the public domain and you're any good at what you do then I'm afraid that you're going to attract all sorts of strange folk Graham

Sightings of UFOs have dropped to zero since the start of the internet because all the loonies are now online

[Comment redacted on request]

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 15/05/2014 18:59:38

Ah well Graham,

I speak for myself. JS speaks for himself.

You do as you wish, and I will keep out of your way. Everyone is happy

Ketan at ARC.

Good heavens this has really been blown out of all proportion.

Firstly I asked "How do you measure 10 minutes on a bench grinder ?

Perfectly valid question for anyone who has to work to fine limits.

The question was not a slur on Graham as they were not his words anyway but taken from an article he was using.

Did I get an answer ? No it then kicked off into everyone saying I was rubbishing Grahams work but I didn't read that. I posted about generalities that I felt were my opinions, personal and not as a moderator.

As regards language not one word is not listed in any dictionary and I'll bet your grandson knows even better words than me. Rough as a bagers arse is not new it's been around for years. Did you know you can even buy toilet roll called Badgers arse ?

Photographs of work ?

Jesus H Christ on a Bridgeport I'm sick to the high teeth over this one. Please excuse the Bridgeport profanity.

Why does photos of work count that much,? if it does then perhaps those with only scanned images of text books ought to get a life ?

I have two photos to my name on this site, ironically scanned images out of text books but this was because at some point I had web problems and hosted these on this site.

Normally I host them on our own dedicated web servers, the same ones that run homeworkshop.org.uk in case anyone thinks I don't help and assist people.

I had just had a look and quick count which is hard to do as the server page I see doesn't tally the totals but there are somewhere between 1,100 and 1,200 photographs, short movie clips and pdf files.

Most of these have all been put there to assist someone with a problem be it CAD, CAM or just general engineering. All these photographs are easily seen by anyone, no passwords etc

Link to pictures http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/index.php

So if we can put aside the witch hunt for a moment can anyone answer why is crucial to have this jig accurate to 10 minutes. ?

Edit : Spellings corrected and link added

Edited By John Stevenson on 13/05/2014 14:26:24

I am sitting about 30m from the where the conveyor for RR bodies ran that were made in Cowley. Even these high volume bodies (8 a day) had a huge amount of lead applied to get the door fitting correct and to make the body look as if it was made of one piece. High volume cars are more accurately made because the investment in press tools and jigs is much greater and tolerances for automated assembly must be tighter.

The steel for the conveyor trucks to run on is still visible in the floor of the building where MINI's are made today.

Mike