Quote:
Originally Posted by CENTURION
...I usually make the student do it the hard way the first time (or the first couple times). And then, once they've done that, show them the easy way...
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This reminds me of a time, right out of school, when I was doing some simple machine design work. I would bring my half-baked shop drawings to an "old school" machinist who was trained shortly after WWII. He was very kind to me and spent time going over the drawing details and explaining why my tolerancing was poor. He'd make one beautiful hand drawing in seconds that contained more information than my 3 CAD drawings I'd spent hours on.
One day when he'd accepted my drawing with no corrections, he said:
"Craig- let me show you something"
He brought me into the back of the shop, pulled back a curtain revealing a part he was working on; an amazing steel object that looked more like art than machine. He said:
"My first task in machinist school was to take a file, vice and piece of steel and make a machine screw to spec tolerances. Now at the end of my career, I'm given a high-tech, super-computer design that has no geometries that can be mathematically derived. I'm roughing the shapes with the CNC and am finishing by hand filing. The young machinists want to skip the manual work and do everything by computer..."
This was one of the most enlightening experiences of my life.