No machining allowed (1 Viewer)

[olley]

@Enword
Just thought I would get my own back.
Three test pieces I had to make in my first year at Reavells apprentice training centre in 66

This is the first, and was fairly straightforward, file a lump of metal flat to dimension, shape and bend the bracket and bolt and rivet them together.

Second piece, shape it and then file the loose part to fit both ways around with no more than 1 1/2 thou tolerance all round.

Now this was the the hard one. You were given a block of steel, which had to be reduced in thickness by about a 1/4", thats across the face not the sides, only way is by hacksaw, this taught you to hacksaw straight, well after you had thrown a few in the bin you got the hang of it.

Next you drilled a hole and reamed it for the dowel pin, now you had to cut a piece off the block and form a crenellation, which again had to fit both ways with a 1 1/2 thou tolerance. Finally you chiseled the "X" on the front.

We weren't allowed emery paper, all finishes had to be done with a file and chalk. Could I make them today? 1 and 2 yes, 3 not a chance.

 

[Larrynwin]

You don't mention lump hammer

 

[funflair]

There is a military museum in one of the rooms at the place de Seville, they show some test pieces from the armourments college apprentices.

Well worth a visit.

Martin

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[Enword]

That is very impressive @olley skill & patience needed, some of my mates went into engineering & had to do similar, I was glad I went down the welding route lots easier for a dumb ass like me.

 

[olley]

That is very impressive @olley skill & patience needed, some of my mates went into engineering & had to do similar, I was glad I went down the welding route lots easier for a dumb ass like me.

It is, isn't.
Truthfully it isn't that impressive, anyone can do it, if they are trained properly, Reavells took in 10 apprentices a year, so theirs a whole stack of guys out there with the same test pieces.
I suppose a CNC machine could make the third one in 10 mins, to a 1/10 of a thou. Rather than the week or two I took.

 

[Gromett]

AFter the previous thread on apprentices I was wracking my brain where my test pieces went. I did an electrical apprenticeship, 1 year fulltime at college with a day release for my ONC in electronics. The 1 year course included, Bench fitting, machining, sheet metal fabrication, welding and the usual electricians stuff. At the time I thought it was pointless. But those basic skill we learned have proven to be useful over the years.

My test pieces were a plumb bob made on the lathe, a double headed spanner which had to be made with a hack saw, file and pillar drill nothing else and a really strange bracket thing which had case hardened parts, brazed and riveted parts and more that I honestly can't remember now.. The sheet metal fabrication section we had to make biscuit tin including the rolled lid etc. For the welding we had 6 mini projects, 2 for gas welding, 2 for arc and 2 for mig. I remember one of the gas ones becuase I was proud of it. We had to weld a pipe to another pipe in a T joint. Took me ages to get that right but boy was I proud of myself when I finally go it right.

Love your projects @olley

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[Ranger]

That brought back memories for me (not good ones). I had to go to head office in Sheffield every year for my filing and fitting exam 1966 on, passed but hated every second of it as they weren't friendly towards branch apprentices. I vowed to never go to Sheffield again and managed it for 22 years until a job change made visits a requirement again.

 

[olley]

After the test pieces we had to make our tools for the rest of the year gromett, a quick look in my tool box brings up a few I have left after 40 years, the tap wrenches and tool makers clamps were in sets of three, BA spanners I think about six. I also still have a scribing block and hacksaw.

 

[laird of Dunstan]

AFter the previous thread on apprentices I was wracking my brain where my test pieces went. I did an electrical apprenticeship, 1 year fulltime at college with a day release for my ONC in electronics. The 1 year course included, Bench fitting, machining, sheet metal fabrication, welding and the usual electricians stuff. At the time I thought it was pointless. But those basic skill we learned have proven to be useful over the years.

My test pieces were a plumb bob made on the lathe, a double headed spanner which had to be made with a hack saw, file and pillar drill nothing else and a really strange bracket thing which had case hardened parts, brazed and riveted parts and more that I honestly can't remember now.. The sheet metal fabrication section we had to make biscuit tin including the rolled lid etc. For the welding we had 6 mini projects, 2 for gas welding, 2 for arc and 2 for mig. I remember one of the gas ones becuase I was proud of it. We had to weld a pipe to another pipe in a T joint. Took me ages to get that right but boy was I proud of myself when I finally go it right.

Love your projects @olley

your Apprenticeship was almost the same as mine except i did the C+G technician

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[meanders]

I think @Gromett must have been to a similar company as me. I went to EMI, supposedly to do electronics, but the first year in the training school was nearly all mechanical engineering. We had to make the plum bob, the spanner, the rolled edged tin plus an 'toolmakers clamp' that still sits (unused) in my toolbox.

We didn't do welding though but did a whole load of chassis construction (affectionately known as chassis bashing!) despite that fact that most electronics by the late 60's had moved to circuit boards and semi-conductors.

Totally agree that the skills learned have served me well for life.

 

[Gromett]

your Apprenticeship was almost the same as mine except i did the C+G technician

Mine was a year long EITB course with a 3 year BTEC ONC in electronics on day release. What was yours?

 

[Stealaway]

How times change

They made compressore then and riveting was still thought to be a relevant skill in 1966? amazing

At that same time I was serving my apprenticeship as an electrician. We were made to practise 'cleat' wiring although you do still see it in the likes of India, it was no use to me. And using VIRCC cable although PVC was even at that time the only cable you could buy.
Old school teachers I guess.
My son wanted to be a draughts man and did his work experience in an architect's office. Six months later he had a job with them and arrived the first morning with his special pencils and drawing outfit only to be told they were moving over to CAD. He has never ever done a drawing on a drawing board to this day.

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[Gromett]

I think @Gromett must have been to a similar company as me. I went to EMI, supposedly to do electronics, but the first year in the training school was nearly all mechanical engineering.

I worked for the DoE as a Greenman. Basically we did all the electrics and electronics on site. This included domestic electrical for the staff quarters, Industrial electrics and electronics for the Generator/PowerStation/battery backup and sewerage works. Commercial work in the Kitchen, Cinema and Leisure centre (swimming pool etc). We also did vehicle electrics on diggers and dump trucks plus much much more. Oh and armoured cabling, pyro etc etc. Street lights plus more. I honestly couldn't imagine a better apprenticeship. I am just disappointed with myself that I didn't appreciate it at the time what I had.

 

[Stealaway]

I vowed to never go to Sheffield again and managed it for 22 years until a job change made visits a requirement again.

There's nowt wrong wi Sheff owd luv.

Who did you work for?

 

[andy63]

No pictures ,but the post reminds me of the workshop projects during my merchant navy apprenticeship. ..
The usual center punches and test pieces as above to test your filing accuracy..
I seem to remember that the most useful item we had to make was a scissor jack...
Andy.

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[Stealaway]

DoE as a Greenman

Wot wuz that?

Were did you finish up eventually?

I've always been amazed where your basic training leads during a life time.
I eventually had a company servicing the Dental profession - of all things

 

[Eddystone]

Old school teachers I guess.

Not necessarily, even in the 70's before the training boards were abolished, we, as young entrants to FE teaching, were trying to get C&G and TEC's to update the skills used in the, then, modern workplace.

 

[Gromett]

Wot wuz that?

Were did you finish up eventually?

I've always been amazed where your basic training leads during a life time.
I eventually had a company servicing the Dental profession - of all things

Greenman is the nickname given to the property management services and we worked for the PSA (property servicing agency) / DoE (Dept of the Environment as it was called previously) We did all the maintenance for Hospitals, Prisons, Air force bases etc. We had electricians, Pipefitters, Plumbers, Joiners etc etc. It is now all out sourced to private sector companies.

I then did various things, TV and Video servicing, Pig farm...... But finally moved my hobby into my career. Went to work at a Computer Games Dev House. Then onto a PC building company, then a Video conferencing company and finally set up my own hosting and network company. Now I am a freelance server admin and security consultant. Starting to get back into software development at the moment. Currently got a nice contract with a Canadian company writing a full business automation system Loving it.

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[Stealaway]

So not much point is that apprenticeship was there then?

But an experience you never forget. It sets you up for life simply by giving you the confidence to tackle any thing.
Many kids today would definitely benefit from it, instead of going to university to do a degree in sociology or some such

 

[Gromett]

PS: For all you mech/tech/elec types. There is a Candian Youtuber called AvE who does some fantastic videos.
He is funny, educational and entertaining. His mangling of multiple languages will either have you scratching your head or laughing your tits off.

He is a mining contractor from what I can make out. He goes all over the world fixing hyrdaulics and other mining gear.

In his home workshop he partakes in what he calls Bumblefuckery. He messes about, strips stuff down to see how it is made, experiments with stuff, lets the smoke out, blows stuff up, makes interesting projects. He does electrical, mechanical, electronics including arduino and much more.

Well worth spending a bit of time. Stick with him if your first vid or two doesn't catch your interest.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWv6Pn_zP0rI6lgGt3MyfA

 

[Gromett]

So not much point is that apprenticeship was there then?

But an experience you never forget. It sets you up for life simply by giving you the confidence to tackle any thing.
Many kids today would definitely benefit from it, instead of going to university to do a degree in sociology or some such

To be honest that apprenticeship set me for life. The electronics I learned included microprocessor theory, how transistor work down to the electron level etc. The mechanical stuff while not useful directly has given me a very useful fault finding mindset. The broadness of it meant I was never going to use all of it in my career but I loved it.

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[olley]

Been watching him for about a year now Grom, very interesting and entertaining, liked the friction drilling vid especially.

 

[Gromett]

Been watching him for about a year now Grom, very interesting and entertaining, liked the friction drilling vid especially.

Been following him for about 6 months. My favourite youtuber

 

[mitzimad]

That was probably the most demoralising part of my apprenticeship at least half the things we had to do at college were outdated or irrelevant to the trade as it was then. we had to make front and back gutters in four materials lead ,copper, aluminum and nuralite by this time roofing had really split of as a separate trade and i've used very little of that in my working career
where as we did no electrical and very basic gas at all which was really the thing to know at the time as the heating industry was booming
i think most training always lags behind unless its in house

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[olley]

Been following him for about 6 months. My favourite youtuber

This my favorite:
don't watch if you are easily offended.

 

[laird of Dunstan]

Mine was a year long EITB course with a 3 year BTEC ONC in electronics on day release. What was yours?

The first year was EITB ,then it was C+G tech 4 power distribution

 

[Ranger]

There's nowt wrong wi Sheff owd luv.

Who did you work for?

Granted it is better than it used to be and I now have family connections there, still don't like the place though.

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[WSandME]

There is a Candian Youtuber called AvE who does some fantastic videos.

I also have been watching him for ages. Absolutely excellent. If you appreciate his skills and knowledge, there are a couple of people I recommend:

Keith Fenner (Turn Wright Machine Works - not JUST lathe work, but watching him turn stuff is cathartic!)
https://www.youtube.com/user/KEF791/videos

SV Seeker - Doug Jackson has been building, from scratch, a 75' steel junk motor sailer. Building that and a Remotely Operated Vehicle to go along with it. He has previously built a submarine. He also seems to have built most of the tools and technology he uses as well. An absolute inspiration, all the more so because his day job is as an Oracle Engineer!
https://www.youtube.com/user/submarineboat/videos

 

[jdk62]

When I was doing my apprenticeship in an electrical engineering company in Glasgow in the late 70's, I remember being sent to the stores for 3 items:-
- a left handed screwdriver
- a glass hammer
- a long wait...

I was also told to strip out all the copper from the rotor of an electrical motor...I was quite pleased with the result until it was pointed out I had just stripped out the copper from a brand new rotor... Oops!

 

[Gromett]

SV Seeker - Doug Jackson has been building, from scratch, a 75' steel junk motor sailer. Building that and a Remotely Operated Vehicle to go along with it. He has previously built a submarine. He also seems to have built most of the tools and technology he uses as well. An absolute inspiration, all the more so because his day job is as an Oracle Engineer!
https://www.youtube.com/user/submarineboat/videos

I have been watching him as well. I am looking forward to seeing him getting that massive chunk of steel on to a truck and moving it to the sea....

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