Author Topic: Do you have the Knack ? (Read 4722 times)

Old F · « **on:** December 20, 2007, 07:24:44 PM »

Do you have the Knack ?

Hi my name is old F and I am Ham and cursed with the knack

Boy I feel better getting that out : )

Do you have the Knack

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KaHm1ecBCgw&feature=related

2dumb2kwit · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2007, 03:08:46 PM »

Well, I've got the mechanical part, but the elec....not so much.

So, I guess I have half the knack.............which explains my working half-fast!

dinges · « **Reply #2 on:** December 20, 2007, 03:52:52 PM »

"Can he lead a normal life ? "

"No, he'll be an engineer."

LMAO. Dilbert is a hero.

And so true. Here's a picture of my first 3m transmitter ('test oscillator') to broadcast audio on FM. It was made from electronic components taken out of old TVs. I got my first soldering iron at age 8; I remember I was taking old stuff and TVs apart at least 2 years before that. And I started building a boat at age 5...

I must have been about 10 or 11 when I built that. Found it in an old box a few weeks ago, with some of my other first electronic projects. That brought back memories.

Regards,

Peter (PE1VCC). And (surprize) mechanical engineer...

windstuffnow · « **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2007, 04:12:48 PM »

Nope, I don't have the "knack"... the knack has me! It won't leave me alone, I have to know how things work - everything!!!! ... books, the internet, the universe... it's not enough! I want more!!!

.

Old F · « **Reply #4 on:** December 20, 2007, 04:27:34 PM »

Ed I know how feel and I don't think there is a cure.

Peter PE1VCC DE N8QJU hw copy OM ..--..

fungus · « **Reply #5 on:** December 20, 2007, 04:35:39 PM »

I think the presence of this comment at age 15 , starting at 13, proves the presence of 'the knack' ... I'll admit it ... I HAVE THE KNACK!

hmm. That does feel better, you're right ..

TheCasualTraveler · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2007, 04:37:53 PM »

Wow, that FM transmitter takes me back to the one I built in '72 only it was an AM transmitter. My Dad got me started in electronics with his TV repair job. He would take all the junk sets that the shop he worked for threw out and bring them home. At 12 years old a typical chore when I came home from school was, "take the chassis out of the RCA set with the blonde cabinet, replace the high voltage transformer with the new one in the box on the kitchen counter. Then take all the guts out of the set with the two speakers and put in the 21" picture tube sitting beside it and the chassis with the new HV transformer. Get it all set up and working, hook up the color bar generator and get the color convergance close. Leave it hooked up and I will finish it when I get home. Memories, thanks Dad.

bob g · « **Reply #7 on:** December 20, 2007, 05:36:12 PM »

with me it started with a bobby pin and a ivory colored wall socket

at the tender age of about 2.... ask me how i remember it being ivory colored!

and i ain't been right since!

bob g

richhagen · « **Reply #8 on:** December 20, 2007, 07:24:04 PM »

I had a small DC motor or something, it let out a lot of sparks and magic smoke when I was small. Added the fact that low voltage dc motors don't work so well on mains AC. Fortunately it was in an age before smoke detectors. Rich

richhagen · « **Reply #9 on:** December 20, 2007, 07:25:24 PM »

Forgot to mention that the outlet and cover were ivory colored also. Rich

Warrior · « **Reply #10 on:** December 20, 2007, 07:47:42 PM »

LMAO!!!

Well I guess I have the knack too! I have this uncontrollable urge know how things work or how they're made! Of course this involves taking things apart (mischief smile on my face)...

I've been attending mechanics engineering for the past 10 years! Just don't have the time to dedicate myself 100%. The cold truth about this world is that if you don't have money (aka job) you're nobody.

I think most of us here on this board have some degree of knack, some more than others...

spinningmagnets · « **Reply #11 on:** December 20, 2007, 08:20:42 PM »

I once needed a book to kill time when I had to wait somewhere, so I went to the library. I grabbed "The Dilbert Principle" assuming it was just many pages of the Dilbert strip (which I knew I liked). (Title paraphrasing the very famous business book "The Peter Principle")

I was suprised to find it was only 1/3rd "comic strips" and the remainder was Scott (the Dilbert creator) writing his philosophy on business. Based on him working at Pacific Bell as an engineer for 10 years during a time of great change.

By far one of the funniest and most insightful books I've ever read on human nature. Very like the cult movie "Office Space".

"There is nothing quite like a total company re-organization to create the fragile illusion of progress" -Scott Adams

AbyssUnderground · « **Reply #12 on:** December 21, 2007, 01:33:55 AM »

I think we've provided each other with the knack over the last year or so too :-) I probably wouldn't have my 18w panels if I didn't know you.

wooferhound · « **Reply #13 on:** December 21, 2007, 03:10:40 AM »

I have The Knack

does My Sharona count . . .

One of my first projects 'ever' was a crystal Radio made with a diode

I had just learned to solder at about age 8

didn't have a chassis or breadboard so after every connection I wrapped masking tape around it. When I was finished it was a masking tape ball with an antenna and an earphone hanging out of it. The tuning capacitor was embedded on the tape and was adjusted with a screwdriver.

Worked great though.

Sometime after that I got the brilliant Idea to feed a transformer DC Voltage so I would have DC volts on all the Outputs. I kept wondering why it was'nt working. Then I got to see the Magic Smoke for the First Time.

I was a Believer after that . . .

Volvo farmer · « **Reply #14 on:** December 21, 2007, 06:08:04 AM »

This brings up an interesting topic.

Do today's engineers really have the Knack? My Dad was an engineer. When he went to school in the sixties, he had to take classes like foundry and machine shop. He had to learn to make things with lathes and mills before they would set him loose in the world with pencil paper and slide rule. This no longer seems to be the way engineers are trained. I looked into engineering school in the mid 80's and didn't see much hands-on in the way of course work.

I spend my workaday life taking things apart and putting them back together. Maybe I just get to see more engineering nightmares than the normal person, but I swear, some of this stuff I fix is not designed with any regard for being taken apart, repaired, or put back together. Parts are no longer available individually but must be purchased as assemblies. Worn clutch pads? The clutch and motor are an assembly, $160 please.

Who is designing these things? It seems to me that pencil and paper people are. The ones with the Knack are out in the field putting things right again when they break.

Just my morning rant for the day :-)

disaray1 · « **Reply #15 on:** December 21, 2007, 06:11:12 AM »

My Mom called it "The Curse".. crude homemade light bulbs at seven (6V), crystal radio at 8, almost killed my Dad with the nearly invisible antenna wire strung around trees throughout the yard (clothes-lined him when he rode his bike in one afternoon, cut his neck pretty good) and at 9, mom found the lawnmower engine completely disassembled in the bathtub. Got punished for that one. But I did get it back together and it ran!

Magic smoke will stunt a kids growth. I'm only 4'7". Kidding.

Bruce S · « **Reply #16 on:** December 21, 2007, 09:04:07 AM »

Old F;

That was a perfect link :-) got the whole IT department here asking the question.

The young ones just don't get it :-(

The Knack reached out and Paddy Wwhacked me on the back of the head at a late age of 8.

The ole man figured out my young fingers could reach back into the '56 283 V8 Chevy Belair and put the spark plugs in much much easier that his fat hands could:-)

Been gapping spark plugs ever since:-)

Great Memories

Bruce S

finnsawyer · « **Reply #17 on:** December 21, 2007, 09:18:55 AM »

Actually they are designed by high school students. I bought a toy dog for my Grand Daughter for Christmas. You shake it and it barks, plays music and runs along the floor. Well, every time I went around a bend in the road the thing would turn on. So, before shipping it I figured I had to remove the batteries. Removed it from its wrapping and there on the bottom out of reach was an on-off switch. Yep, designed by high school students. The engineers must have something better to do. Hey, don't put down the pencil pushers. Now they push electrons around in a computer. The simulation has become God. At least when you do your own analysis with paper and pencil (and yes I use a calculator) you know how you got there. There's something satisfying about solving that tough integral in closed form which gives you all the possibilities rather than running a series of numerical integrations. But I'm not adverse to writing my own computer programs when it helps the process.

Warrior · « **Reply #18 on:** December 21, 2007, 09:50:24 AM »

Volvo farmer, your absolutely right. Engineers today have zero hands on experience.

My college has a shop with a coupe of machines here and there, but very few guys use them. Most student's concern is finishing the career ASAP. Turns out when they're done they don't have the slightest idea of what a bolt or washer looks like!!

Part of my problem is that I spend my weekends doing stuff in my workshop instead of studying for my next exam. Shame on me but it's something I can't control...

ghurd · « **Reply #19 on:** December 21, 2007, 11:28:28 AM »

A college EE student told me my dump controller circuit could NOT work like I said, because he ran it through a Computer Program, and it didn't work right.

I sent him Real parts, but he never bothered to built it because it didn't work.

I got the knack when I was 5. My parents must be proud, because they still display a photo of the following day, and always tell the story if someone walks past the photo.

The story starts "You would never believe what that kid did..."

Grandma gave me a non functioning electric razor.

I fixed it.

Went to the mirror to shave. The only facial hair I could locate were my eyebrows. Which were efficiently and completely removed. The day before "The Family Portrait" at Olan-Mills. Mom painted on new ones with mascara. She kept repeating "I can't believe you did that."

They grew back. Eventually.

G-

Old F · « **Reply #20 on:** December 21, 2007, 01:39:29 PM »

Maybe they dont get it becase they dont have it

TheCasualTraveler · « **Reply #21 on:** December 21, 2007, 03:40:04 PM »

I can't stop laughing. I think about the masking tape crystal radio or the eyebrowless kid and it starts again. This is funny stuff.

12AX7 · « **Reply #22 on:** December 21, 2007, 09:46:51 PM »

I worked field service for close to twenty years. General Mills,General Foods,Kraft,Hershey,Brock,Brach,Frito-Lay,Frito Canada,Kellogs, Cargil,Dole,Stella dora,Planters,Folgers,Peerless,Fisher Guide,Hyponex and many many others.

Worked with their "papered people" and I don't recall ever meeting one that really had "the knack" My dad had the knack and I have met others, not many though and it seems like that breed are dying out.

I'm sure that there are some "with the knack" that have their paper, but remember that "the knack" isn't offered in college. No classes.... no credits... no manuals. nada.

Too many high paid people are "Knackless".

I agree with Volvo Farmer.

Years ago I was under a machine when a newly hired Eng. asked to borrow "a wrench" she wasn't sure what size she needed.... I handed her a 7/16 (it's what I had in my hand) she returned a few moments later and said "it's too small, do you have a 8/16?".

That, and no "creativity". it's one thing to take it apart.. and put it back together, but to see it's faults and improve it.

My vote goes to the "jack of all trades". I understand that he's the master of none, but many of the "masters" of one are "at best" just ONE.

I've seen the duct tape and wire tie theory at work. A machine "breaks down" the Eng.says a new part will take a week, the low paid maintenance man fixes it with a door spring and a wooden dowel. Took us 8 minutes.

I guess the bottom line is.. it doesn't matter, it's all made in China now.

finnsawyer · « **Reply #23 on:** December 22, 2007, 08:19:03 AM »

I guess I would have told him there was an error in the program. But your experience does point out that one needs to be careful reading too much into simulations. The fact that he wasn't willing to build it doesn't say much for what kind of an engineer he will become.

As far as the knack is concerned I liked to mess with vacuum tube radios as a kid. I blew up a selenium rectifier once. Nice fire works. Ever try hooking up two transformers to greatly step up ac voltage. Got to see glowing bakelite with that one. Have a nice day.

wdyasq · « **Reply #24 on:** December 24, 2007, 12:25:04 PM »

My father had the two male children fixing machinery by the time we were 12 ...

A few years ago I was machining an adapter to to take a 1/4" tool to use a 1/8" shank tool. I had machined the OD, drilled and reamed the ID when a tool salesman came in. He related how he could get one to me 'tomorrow' for less than $10. including shipping.

I informed him that by the time tomorrow got there I would have the machine fixed and its' owner would have it back making $100/hr and that we had ordered the part I was fixing but it would be in for a week.

Most mechanics today would just order the part and wait for it show up. The owner or company would loose the revenue for that time and the operator would probably loose the work time.

Ron

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Author Topic: Do you have the Knack ? (Read 4722 times)