A Great Online Math & Science Resource

Who needs to spend a king's ransom to go to college when stuff like this is available!

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. They have 900+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

Be sure to check out the "What People Are Saying" column on the right margin of the Khan home page.

I'm using Khan Academy videos to make myself into a serious homebrewed shop engineer. In future posts I will be spending time focusing on alternative educational resources and plans to make it easier for anyone to do the same. So subscribe to this blog now so you won't miss any of the fun! -- Mitrik Spanner your host for the Shop Kulture blog

Math For the Shop Engineer

As an aspiring independent engineer I have to face the fact that I need to improve my math skills. I can work with fractions and decimals. Maybe I could pass a pre-algebra test. This probably places me right in the mainstream with most Americans, but it's not nearly good enough for someone who wants to be a competent shop engineer. How much math does a shop engineer need? That's what I am in the process of discovering.

I discovered this book, Engineering Mathematics, which seems to fit my needs perfectly. Part of the book's description particularly grabs my attention:

"Whether you're an engineer looking for a useful on-the-job reference or want to improve your mathematical skills, or you are a student who needs an in-depth self-study guide, Engineering Mathematics is sure to come in handy time and time again." (emphasis mine)

The customer reviews for this book are almost all five stars and filled with praise. I recently purchased the book and can say that it looks very well organized and full of good content for self-teaching.

An Opportunity to Learn Machining Pops Up!

There I was, in welding class, minding my own business, when in walks an instructor from one of the other industrial classes looking to get some welding done on a fixture he's making. Something to do with hydraulic principals for the Automated Manufacturing class he's teaching. While he's in the welding shop he mentions that he has a field trip coming up to visit a manufacturer with robotic welding facilities. I say I'm interested in the trip, so he invites me over to his classroom to sign up. While I'm there I mention to him that I'm interested in learning basic machining and that it's too bad that the school doesn't have an entry level machining class.  He says, "But we do!" I didn't see anything like that in the course catalog, but he assures me that the class "Automated Manufacturing Concepts/Intro" has what I'm looking for. The class description is as follows.

Automated Manufacturing Concepts/Intro

An introduction to manufacturing processes with emphasis on manual machining to prepare students for further study in the Automated Manufacturing fields. Covers shop safety practices in a machine shop, the use of manual milling machines, lathes and drill presses to manufacture parts to print, and the use of basic metrology instruments to determine if the parts are to print. Calculation and application of correct cutting parameters of selected materials and tools is practiced.

I saw the lathe and the milling machine that are used for the class. The milling machine is a Bridgeport like I have seen in many small old-school machine shops. The lathe though, is some kind of modern CNC machine, however the instructor tells me that it can be used in a manual mode. I know what I'll be doing (if the gods of metal-working are willing) come next January!

Day Six of TIG Welding

Below is a picture of my latest welding sample alongside last week's atrocity. In these exercises I'm welding with the metal in the vertical position and welding from bottom to top (vertical up). The weld on the left is horrible. The weld on the right, my latest, looks a lot better. It's amazing what changing to a thicker metal can do to help a novice welding student. It's still not nearly good enough, but it looks like I'm making progress. The first sample was done on thinner aluminum (0.0625"= 1/16" = 1.5875mm). The instructor recommended trying to weld on thicker stock. The new weld is on 0.125"(1/8" = 3.175mm) aluminum. I think it's easier, in this case, to TIG weld on the thicker aluminum because you have more time to get your heat (amperage) right before you melt a hole in your work. I'm also getting more used to doing several important things at once. Like using the foot control for the amperage, feeding the filler rod with my left hand and moving the torch with my right hand. I hope someday I'll have something really smart to say about welding, but that's it for now.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

If you're a gearhead and tool enthusiast like I am you will be happy to know that there is now solid intellectual support for our passions. Matthew Crawford has a PHD in philosophy from the University of Chicago, but he's also been a Porsche mechanic and a motorcycle repairman. He quit a prestigious job at a Washington DC think tank to start an unassuming motorcycle repair shop on the seedy side of Richmond, Virginia.


By all means get your hands on a copy of this book.  I'm in the middle of reading the book right now and couldn't wait to blog about it. I'll do a more extensive review in the coming days. Buy the book using this link to help support the Shop Kulture blog.

"It's appropriate that [Shop Class as Soulcraft] arrives in May, the month when college seniors commence real life. Skip Dr. Seuss, or a tie from Vineyard Vines, and give them a copy for graduation.... It's not an insult to say that Shop Class is the best self-help book that I've ever read. Almost all works in the genre skip the "self" part and jump straight to the "help." Crawford rightly asks whether today's cubicle dweller even has a respectable self....It's kind of like Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
-Slate

TechShop: A Fully Tooled Out Shop Open to the Public!

TechShop: Coming to a community near you!

Well not yet. But, if you live near San Francisco, Portland or Durham, North Carolina, and you can afford to pay the monthly fee, you can have access to a shop fully stocked with welders, machine tools, sewing machines, printing equipment, fiberglass works and about 50 other shop tools. Worried that you don't have the skills to run a lathe, a mill or a welder? Don't be! Reasonably priced classes are available to get you up to speed on the tool of your choice. TechShop is also looking to find partners who want to expand the idea to other communities.

What a great idea! I know where I'd be spending a lot of my time if one of these was near me. -- Mitrik Spanner

TechShop, Inc.
120 Independence Dr
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Toll Free: 1(800) 640-1975
Local Phone: 1(650) 521-9027
info@techshop.ws

Welding School: How About On the Job Training With Pay?

Even in this rotten economy, where there are 5 people looking for work for every job opening, heavy construction firms that build bridges, power plants and refineries are looking for welding and pipefitter trainees. Many of these companies will hire people with little or no experience and put them through their own private training programs. Trade Unions, like the Pipefitters, are also eager to get new recruits. Many of these jobs offer pay while training and lots of overtime pay. Jobs like this are not for everyone. The have lots of discipline and the work can be repetitive. They can also expose workers to the rigors of working outdoors in heat and freezing cold. Of course Walmart is also hiring parking lot technicians, but if you want to get skills that you can use to earn a family supporting wage and build some serious stuff this may be something to look into.

As a guy who has lived through this kind of stuff I'd say the most important thing is to...

Do Something, and Do it Sooner Rather Than Later.

... If you get skills earlier in life you can pick a better job later, or even better, start your own business.

Check out the recruiting video for Cianbro Corp (link near the bottom of their page) . I don't have any connection to this company, but the list of positions they have to fill looks pretty impressive! It looks like they are doing public infrastructure work and utilities, where there is no slowdown in the economy yet.