The Machines!

So, second week of classes down, about to go into the third week, and I am still not certain how I feel. The Shop Math/Blueprints class has only improved marginally and that's because we stopped looking at the math book entirely and focused on the blueprint book on Thursday. That one was interesting and the first time I felt that I was learning something. From the sound of things, we will be focusing on that book almost exclusively for the time being.

Things we touched on Thursday included isometric views, orthographic drawing, Third Angle vs First Angle symbols (which I am still not clear on, as the differences between the two are both subtle and glaringly obvious), Detail Drawings, how to read things, tolerances and their meanings...Maximum Material Condition and Least Material Condition (which were actually pretty cool to talk about)...
It was kind of a lot to cover in a single class, and nothing went into real detail. Especially the First Angle/Third Angle bit. I will have to study up on that on my own.

The Intro class was a lot more exciting on Thursday, because we got the Detail Drawings and instructions for our first hands on project! We will be making a Spring Center, which is intended to help center an object on a lathe or mill so that you can more accurately cut it. Though the one I am making doesn't look the one at the website.

Here is a picture of the piece of steel I am working on. All we managed to do in three hours on Thursday was cut our pieces of steel, face one end, and drill a center hole so that we can cut the piece down to the proper diameter next week.