Finished My First Assignment For My Engineering Apprenticeship

[sphinktar1988]

Well im 3 weeks in to my new job and ive finished my first two parts

first of which is a drill drift

and

second is a tap wrench

they were all fabricated by hand the only thing used not made by me are the 2 screws to hold them together

really enjoying it as i was in 2 minds about it before i started totally decided yet

early days still as its a 4 year course and im 3 weeks in haha

[Captain Weirdbeard]

Well im 3 weeks in to my new job and ive finished my first two parts

first of which is a drill drift

and

second is a tap wrench

they were all fabricated by hand the only thing used not made by me are the 2 screws to hold them together

really enjoying it as i was in 2 minds about it before i started totally decided yet

early days still as its a 4 year course and im 3 weeks in haha

Nice work.

Have you undertaken a Toolmaker's apprenticeship then?

[sphinktar1988]

cheers

yup :) im at a centre called south west durham training for year then i go in to my company for 3 years and they said there is a 98% chance ill get a job at the end of it

so basically long as im not !Removed! useless ive got a toolmaking job :)

[dave.m]

Well im 3 weeks in to my new job and ive finished my first two parts

first of which is a drill drift

and

second is a tap wrench

they were all fabricated by hand the only thing used not made by me are the 2 screws to hold them together

really enjoying it as i was in 2 minds about it before i started totally decided yet

early days still as its a 4 year course and im 3 weeks in haha

Nice work.

Have you undertaken a Toolmaker's apprenticeship then?

Good for you, this takes me back. I done the toolmaking apprenticeship, just wait to you start making gap

gauges. All that filing

Good to see that some people are still prepared to do the traditional crafts. I still work in the same place

I served my apprenticeship, we try to take on 2 apprentices a year. Current 2, well one has chucked it

allready because he does not like it. The other has his head up his a&*e,does not realise that there a plenty

of people who would love to get the oppertunity he has.

Dave. ;)

[sphinktar1988]

i love it tis unreal

yea i start a bevel (or is it bevil) gauge tomorrow

im sick of filing haha !

but still they say you need tradition handskills first to understand the more complex parts

the place im at takes 1 every other year so they got high expectations ........ scary haha

cant wait to get on the CNC machines think ill hopefully be good at it :)

dad was a toolmaker since he was 16 and is now 44

aint done him much wrong always had enough money and worked his way up to director at one point :)

hope im so lucky lol

[dave.m]

What route you taking ? level 3 NVQ & ONC/HNC, I am still involved in this stuff as I done the assessors licence

a few years back just to keep my hand in. If you need any questions answering or advice just ask. When my works

website is revamped I will PM you the adress and you can have a look, just to wet your appetite for the CNC

stuff etc.

Good luck.

Dave. ;)

[Captain Weirdbeard]

i love it tis unreal

yea i start a bevel (or is it bevil) gauge tomorrow

im sick of filing haha !

but still they say you need tradition handskills first to understand the more complex parts

the place im at takes 1 every other year so they got high expectations ........ scary haha

cant wait to get on the CNC machines think ill hopefully be good at it :)

dad was a toolmaker since he was 16 and is now 44

aint done him much wrong always had enough money and worked his way up to director at one point :)

hope im so lucky lol

Employers still LOVE to see that someone has had the strength of character to complete an apprenticeship. It should stay that way too, seeing as a lot of youth reckon they have the right to bum around forever playing gangsta. Oh boy, wait 'til their offspring are teenagers!

You were right first time with bevel.

Also, you should keep in mind that you can make tools that make tools too. When you get to CNC machines, you might get what I mean - when you've made the first you program it to make a fair bit of the next, and so-on. In fact, I know a chap based in Belper who manufactures them in Derby, then runs service contracts for the likes of Williams & Honda F1 racing teams in the home counties and just lately has been getting plump little CNC retrofit contracts in wealthy places like Dubai. He might be interested to track your progress once you've passed your first year assessments. Shout me when you've got some results and you know what you want to do long-term.

[yazburner]

not bad! 1 day a week for 8 months before id finished them. good going!

[sphinktar1988]

erm im doing the BTEC national and a level 3 nvq i think?

aye id be interested to see that dave dont forget to pm me it

the place im working for make a lot of brake disk presses and some stuff for british areospace

also we have started doing some work on parts for nuclear submarines and oil rigs

theres some fancy ***** metals used for that supposedly a pain in the behind to cut properly

wouldnt mind doing work for f1 teams be interesting like and get you some free tickets aswell :P

[dave.m]

erm im doing the BTEC national and a level 3 nvq i think?

theres some fancy ***** metals used for that supposedly a pain in the behind to cut properly

Its usually called Inconel and yes its a right pain to machine. We use a lot of the stuff as our

main customers are Oil and Gas, and Aerospace (engine parts). I occasionally visit customers

sites to see the stuff being built (though never made it to an oil rig yet :( ) great to see how it

all works. The Rolls Royce stuff is awesome because of its simplicity, when you get the tour and

they tell you how the jet engine works its really impressive. You have all this to look forward to

so as we say here "head down, a&*e up" and you will be ok.

Dave. ;)

[Captain Weirdbeard]

Royce's stuff is pretty impressive all right. The turbine assemblies and static components at the hot end of an RB211 are things of beauty in themselves. It is possible - although I've been out of touch with the industry for a while - that Royce's are still the only three spool jet engine manufacturer ever.

To think that they still can't be beaten by the American giants, Pratt & Whitney and GEC with the Trent series is proof that British engineering is still the best. We just have a problem supplying the high quality goods in large volumes.

Toyota in nearby Burnaston is a great boost to our area. It is a good partnership, the Japanese work ethic, combined with British pride in engineering generally. The train-makers, I forget what name they trade under now, Adtranz, Bomardier et al keep Derby more or less at the centre of engineering excellence for the whole globe. Not far away, the house builder John Bloor, has brought the name Triumph back into the world market in a fairly respectable way too. I am not smug but I am proud to live in the East Midlands.

As Dave.M correctly points out Inconel is a bugger. It is a very high spec steel alloy though and without it, the airline industry would not be a patch on what it is today. Titanium also, you will find is tricky. It cuts in a peculiar way, the cutting tool smears the surface as it goes, so you've got to inspect using specialist techniques to make sure that defects near the metal surface are not disguised.

He is especially right about keeping your head down. There will be times when you will question whether you've made the right choice, no doubt, but once you are past your early twenties you will never get a whiff of a chance to experience a proper apprenticeship again.

Are you the only apprentice at your works or have you got mates doing the same who you can knock about with during work-time? That's what I liked about my four years. It were like getting paid to go to school, lark about with me mates and do cool things with expensive toys, metal and really big aeroplanes.

[rpaterson]

Just wait until you get to making the toolmakers clamp, I assume that's still a staple of the BTEC / VQ level in Performing Engineering Operations which I assume that you're doing. There's nothing more soul-destroying than filing yet another piece of steel flat & square - it used to do my head in.

As previously stated, it's just a case of keeping your head down and getting on with learning the basics before you see the light at the end of the tunnel. When I went through my apprenticeship way back in '91, we did six weeks each in; bench fitting, machining, electrical and sheet metalwork with the remaing six months being spent specialising in your trade - mine was aircraft fitting.

The thing to remember about Modern Apprenticeships is that the practical element (BTEC / VQ 2 - VQ 3) and also the academic element (NC progressing to HNC if applicable) is designed to give you the tools and skills you'll need to really build a career in the industry. I myself have ended up becoming a bit of a poacher - turned gamekeeper!! I'm now responsible for the training department of the Scottish base of a multi-national aero company. Not bad for a wee lad from Maybole! I'm strongly of the opinion that the ex-shopfloor guys amke the best managers etc because they actually know what's going on. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to keep moving up the ladder, if you want to.

[Captain Weirdbeard]

Just wait until you get to making the toolmakers clamp, I assume that's still a staple of the BTEC / VQ level in Performing Engineering Operations which I assume that you're doing. There's nothing more soul-destroying than filing yet another piece of steel flat & square - it used to do my head in.

Really?

I found it tiresome sometimes but always loved it when I knew I'd got it looking & feeling right. You should try scraping a surface table or the bed-ways of a lathe - just for fun. I've kept most of my apprentice work and I still use my tool-maker's clamps to this day.

Regards

[dave.m]

RP, could not have put it better myself. I'm still with same company I started apprenticeship with (all of 29 years)

now Project Manager. Hated the filing, but had great laughs at the same time. I think I know your employer I had

visit there a few years back, also done a lean manufacturing course sponsored by ayshire enterprise/ aerospace

companies. If its the one I think it is, its a very impressive / clean /well laid out factory. Doing some impressive

work.

Captain, how right you are about scraping, god I hated it. Had micrometer blue permanently engrained in my

hands for years

Dave. ;)

[rpaterson]

Dave - if you were thinking Goodrich then you've named that company in one. About to get a lot bigger as we're almost finished the 120,000 odd sq ft extension, officially opening in January '08.

You'll have met our Lean guy Jim then? I'll say no more...

[rpaterson]

@ Captain Weirdbeard - too right, did my nut in. We got to the stage where we just couldn't wait to get out into the 'real' world and working on aircraft. We used to sprinkle more swarf around our vices to make ourselves look busier.

[Captain Weirdbeard]

Mmmmm. Prussian Blue. Boy oh boy, the memories are flooding back!

[Captain Weirdbeard]

...We used to sprinkle more swarf around our vices to make ourselves look busier.

We never had that problem. Aer Lingus was broadminded enough to realise that we'd learn just the same, if not better, by having our own car & motorcycle projects going "on the back burner" so we were never stuck for something interesting to do. As long as we weren't running a business off the back of the company, nixers (as they were called 'coz they were freebies) were tolerated.

I remember how the older tradesmen would help out with specialist stuff in machining, plating and heat treatment. There were some true craftsmen there. I fear those days are gone.

[rpaterson]

Very true about some crafts dying out. As the aero industry works out more ways to use carbon fibre / graphite rather than ally then even the proper tinsmiths will no longer be needed as much. If you take the 787 as an example, even the fuselage uses carbon fibre skins rather than ally.

The really scary thing is that it's mostly bonded together as solid rivets would tend to delaminate the carbon fibre. We've all tried to use superglue on stuff and see it fail miserably - and that's what Joe Public will be thinking to themselves.

[Captain Weirdbeard]

Very true about some crafts dying out. As the aero industry works out more ways to use carbon fibre / graphite rather than ally then even the proper tinsmiths will no longer be needed as much. If you take the 787 as an example, even the fuselage uses carbon fibre skins rather than ally.

The really scary thing is that it's mostly bonded together as solid rivets would tend to delaminate the carbon fibre. We've all tried to use superglue on stuff and see it fail miserably - and that's what Joe Public will be thinking to themselves.

I know what you mean by "scary". Composite materials like impregnated carbon weave, glass fibre and more exotic combinations are only as good as the process that controls the bonding process. In most cases (specifically, the aerospace industry) structures are designed with double and sometimes triple redundancy built in. The "metal basher's" skill is always involved albeit to a lesser degree these days.

However I have a great deal more faith in some of these technologies than you appear to have. For one thing, how many people actually follow the instructions to the letter when they are using Superglue? In fact, how many people choose the most appropriate bonding medium for the task in the first place? In the domestic environment, it is normally a case of grabbing what ever adhesive that is to hand.

All bonding materials in aerospace are controlled in their use as regards storage, preparation, application, application and curing temperatures, curing time, finishing etc. Destructive testing is always performed to prove that these composites are up to the job in every new application.

Note: The following clip contains images that might cause upset to those of a sensitive nature:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2OS2pwrZTI

The owner of that particular clip seems to be a bit ghoulish in intent but the clip serves well to illustrate my point that modern engines have a higher survival rate with bird strikes (imagine a Vulture going into an engine on take-off or landing) as a direct result of new composite materials. I have good confidence in the application of this technology to the 787 fuselage.

[rpaterson]

Sorry - I could have worded that post better! I'm not lacking faith in composite techniques / technologies I actually teach the composite course at work! I was coming from the perspective of Joe Public that has seen superglue fail due to a lack of preparation / cleanliness.

Anyway, this is all starting to detract from the fact that sphinktar is doing well with his apprenticship B)

[sphinktar1988]

haha dont worry lads glad to have your input on what ive got myself in too :)

been at college doing my BTEC today 9till8 :( hard graft but back in the workshop tomoz doing my bevel gauge :D

really cant wait to get up for work tomoz this is weird :S never looked forward to going to work yet lol

seems ive got myself in to a fairly good trade from what peeps have to say on ere

you all have your confusing banter about somposite techniques and such and such as i will be able to look back up on this in 4 years and hopefully understand every word of it :P

cheers for the responces dudes

[Captain Weirdbeard]

you all have your confusing banter about somposite techniques and such and such as i will be able to look back up on this in 4 years and hopefully understand every word of it :P

cheers for the responces dudes

No probs.

RP is correct though. You are embarking on a career which will overtake both of ours with every new advance in materials and techniques. I should not "hog" this thread. Rather, you should keep us up to date from time to time, or if you have questions ask us here on this thread.

Cheers youth! I wish you every success.

[rpaterson]

LOL, I was looking through old threads that I had posted in and I came across this one from three years ago.

Would it be tempting fate to ask if sphinkhtar1988 is still around and what he's up to?