Model engineering is going to survive for some time due to the internet and the supply of cheap machine tools and items from China. It's a shame about the name; 'model engineering' because that has come to mean 'old steam machines in small size' almost exclusively and there are people beavering away in sheds and basements making the most amazing things and they don't consider themselves to making models of any description and are not interested in steam machines….I know several people like this and I am one myself! I look at this site every day and consider it a valuable resource but I make clocks and have never been in the least tempted by scale engines etc.

As regards 'modern' technologies;……these have, on the one hand, inspired much creative thinking while so far remaining annoyingly illusive. for example, digital printing is 'out there' for the wealthy and knowldgeable but is hardly available for the shed or garage at real prices. The amateur digi-printers are still (after 20 or so years) crude and clumsy devices that sever no real practical purpose….this site has itself shown that you need to have a machine costing in the tens of £k to get useful definition and a workpiece that is resistant to unwravelling etc….perhaps one day! Likewise, CNC requires the user to be a computer 'nerd' before being an engineer, even a miniature one! Once these devices reach automatic washing machine status where the thing can be set to task and forgotten until the parts are complete, everything will change quickly.

We got spoilt

The post WW2 period was massive

The biggest conflict in human history, and when it ended… machine tools galore, skills galore

Millions had used and experienced machine tools, the 1950s ME publications are a delight to read, 3 columns a page sometimes

This all ended in the 1980s through political reasons

The ME world now is those who are drawn to it, like in the 1920s and 1930s

We're doing okay

always have, always will

I'm a BIG fan of this bloke & when I grow up . . . .

There was Numerical Control before microprocessors and personal computers, probably not many in home workshops though. Most of the NC programmers I knew were toolmakers by trade so programming was a new skill to learn. The PC has been around for nearly 40 years now and most of us will have had at least some exposure to them and if you get stuck just ask a 6 year old.

Mike

Excellent video, and I WANT that small shaper!

I used to be able to choose from 3x local high st shops in very modest towns nearby, each had it's own speciality yet had lots in common. I won't go into the reasons why they failed or closed but I assure you it was not for lack of demand.

My favourite now operates as an eBay & Amazon retailer from his garage but is more than happy if you pop round after ringing him.

I can now choose from at least 5x that now operate this way, either the garage / spare room or in one case a 24/7 storage container. There's a chap >5mls away with over £10k of bearings in stock & a near neighbour substitutes his pension by buying & selling anything Mamod.

They're still out there, just not on the high st.

My father was a clockmaker and he made clocks for a living usually skeleton clocks with escapements that you only saw in a book in his later years he made orrery clocks in batches of five.The drawings were very simple just a series of circles going up the plates and of course the maths to go with them. I could never have made one from his drawings. I work this way I don't do proper drawings but I am not a clockmaker but race tether cars that I build amongst other things I build.

Edited By Old School on 15/11/2018 09:57:32

I retired 2 years ago fom the MINI plant Oxford and they had built a new apprentice training school with conventional machine tools to give the apprentices a year of practical hands on training, it was good to see. I am sure that an apprentice should have a solid appreciation of how things are made even if the job they will do at the end will not require them to use a lathe or a mill or do any bench fitting. I was turned to the dark side by the electrical instructor but I always had a love of getting my hands dirty on mechanical jobs and feel the first year of general training was time well spent. Another generation of apprentice will have been exposed to the basics and it may spark an interest in making things.

Mike

I think we need to ask Arc, Warco, Chester et al whether home engineering is dying out. My guess is that more hobby machine tools than ever are being sold.

Rod

I don't believe that model engineering is dying out, it is changing. Some may think for the worse, some may not.

I know many younger people, mind you I'm nearly 65 so to me 'younger' carries a wide spectrum of ages, who are becoming interested in workshop activities, though they are not necessarily interested in making a steam based project.

My eldest son, now thirty, has become increasingly interested in workshop based, practical activities, though in his case he is interested in eventually building a traction engine. Mind you he works long hours and he has a young baby son so his spare time is limited, as was mine when I was his age.

Possibly model engineering should be 'renamed' amateur and model engineering (I hesitate to use the term miniature engineering on this website).

The internet is affecting model engineering as it is affecting every aspect of life. People are ordering materials etc. via the internet they are not reliant on waiting until they can get to an exhibition. We are seeing this reflected in the number of suppliers who now attend exhibitions, the disruption to their business (in terms of time away from base, not just exhibiting but the days preparing, travelling and then returning things to stock after the exhibition) and the subsequent delays on internet order processing is causing some to make the decision not to attend. Of course the cost of an exhibition stand are also part of the calculation.

There is much excellent internet content, though their is also a lot of dross mind.

The clickspring site is, at least to me an, example of an excellent site with good content and with good clear explanations. It is not model engineering but it is amateur clockmaker/small scale machine building. Check out the content on the replica Antikythera mechanism. Check out his workshop made tools etc..

As I say the hobby is changing, change happens, that's life.

Trefor