Using a lathe

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

It is a different world these days.

When I was young, I recognised risks on the farm – beware of cows (and even ewes) with new-born offspring, the bull, the fan rotating at full speed (and more!) right next to where my job was to replace the governor rod (when it came off the standard fordson and the engine over-speeded), not to get on or off a moving tractor, etc. These days many young ones only have experience of an X box console, where crashes occur while they race in their games, but a restart puts everything back with all the cars in perfect condition. No cost of failure.

I have encountered year 9 students who have never left the city limits in their lifetime and were not really aware of where milk came from – apart from in bottles or cartons!

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

SOD raises a good one " lack of imagination" this seem very prevalent these days. I deal with failure analysis and environmental / performance testing as part of my day job. Few engineers seem to be able to imagine what might go wrong or the consequences of the failure,. Some of it is down to experience, but they don't seem to be taught what my wife (an educator from the USA) calls "critical thinking". Many just accept any old rubbish on the net or even data/specification sheet. If a tolerance /rating/ performance figure isn't on the data sheet it's probably because it's not very good. A classic and repeated, electrical one is the metal clad "25 Watt" resistor which is only rated at about 7W unless it's on a foot square aluminium sheet or similar heatsink and even then gets to over 100 degrees C.

Curiosity starts at an early age and I think it's wrong to restrict it due to mis-placed safety worries.

It's also not just schools that restrict use of machine tools. As an "office worker" My employer says I can't use even a pillar drill because I don't have the correct "skill code" and enforces it by locking up the tools. This is despite being a qualified engineer (OK avionics, but the formal training did include machine tools) and using a fully equipped prototype machine shop at my previous employer.

Robert G8RPI.

 

Edited By Robert Atkinson 2 on 01/07/2019 12:53:17

[Andy CarruthersParticipant @andycarruthers33275]

A friend of mine is a Managing Director in an investment bank, he tells me his bonus is tied to the number and severity of outages in his domain. His simple answer is to tightly scrutinize all changes and reject all but the absolute minimum ie mandatory software upgrades, patches and functional changes his business users scream for

Risk management is more about perception than reality, as many risks cannot be quantified, no change does not equal no risk, but for some, it's close enough

It is impossible to impart a healthy respect for machinery unless one becomes hands-on familiar with its operation and potential dangers, we are not doing the next generations any favours by keeping them away from perceived dangers, much better they hang around the streets causing mischief…

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