- Joined
- Nov 24, 2014
- Messages
- 3,154
Asking better questions will get you better replies.
By asking a question, you're asking others to do some work for your benefit. Please put in the effort to ask a better question so the replies can be more focused, useful to your issue and show respect for the contributors.
A good question should include:
What are you trying to accomplish, what is the ultimate goal?
What exactly is the problem? What are you having trouble with or what specifically do you need to know?
Include dimensions, units of measure, tolerances, and quantities, as applicable.
Post pictures, drawings, sketches and/or schematics, or any supporting media, as applicable.
What material is your workpiece? What condition is it in e.g., hardened, annealed, or you don’t know?
What environment will the project be subjected too?
What machines and tools do you have at your disposal, as applicable?
Have you tried and failed, If so, what happened?
Also, include your experience level, budget for the project, etc., as applicable.
Are there any other factors that contributors should know about?
And please, always be polite and courteous.
There may be additional significant factors, but those above are a good start.
Example:
A one liner, like “How do I drill a ½” hole?” is a poor question as it does not contain much description and leaves the reader with more questions than answers.
A better question would be:
Hi,
I am a total beginner, I am modifying a motor mount for an outdoor piece of equipment and need to drill a ½” hole in it. It is ¼” thick steel but I’m not sure what kind of steel. I can get the workpiece on my drill press, but when I try to drill the hole, it starts okay but then the bit catches and binds. Then the metal seems very hard and impossible to drill through. I burnt/dulled one ½” drill already. I don’t have a milling machine. I have some money for more tools but I don’t know what to buy.
Please help.
That’s a good question as it includes most of the points listed above and gives the reader a pretty clear picture of the problem and makes it much easier to offer you an applicable solution.
Sometimes being diligent about formulating a good question makes one more fully understand the issue and you may even solve the problem by yourself!
Asking a better question is particularly important for newbies and infrequent poster's because they haven't been visible enough on H-M for the other contributors to know them. Long standing frequent contributors have established a reputation (to some degree) that helps other frequent contributors "know where they're coming from".
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: This thread seems to be well received in a short time. That has reminded me that I need to give credit where credit is due. @Eddyde contributed a re-write that resulted substantially in what is posted above. Thank You Eddyde.
By asking a question, you're asking others to do some work for your benefit. Please put in the effort to ask a better question so the replies can be more focused, useful to your issue and show respect for the contributors.
A good question should include:
What are you trying to accomplish, what is the ultimate goal?
What exactly is the problem? What are you having trouble with or what specifically do you need to know?
Include dimensions, units of measure, tolerances, and quantities, as applicable.
Post pictures, drawings, sketches and/or schematics, or any supporting media, as applicable.
What material is your workpiece? What condition is it in e.g., hardened, annealed, or you don’t know?
What environment will the project be subjected too?
What machines and tools do you have at your disposal, as applicable?
Have you tried and failed, If so, what happened?
Also, include your experience level, budget for the project, etc., as applicable.
Are there any other factors that contributors should know about?
And please, always be polite and courteous.
There may be additional significant factors, but those above are a good start.
Example:
A one liner, like “How do I drill a ½” hole?” is a poor question as it does not contain much description and leaves the reader with more questions than answers.
A better question would be:
Hi,
I am a total beginner, I am modifying a motor mount for an outdoor piece of equipment and need to drill a ½” hole in it. It is ¼” thick steel but I’m not sure what kind of steel. I can get the workpiece on my drill press, but when I try to drill the hole, it starts okay but then the bit catches and binds. Then the metal seems very hard and impossible to drill through. I burnt/dulled one ½” drill already. I don’t have a milling machine. I have some money for more tools but I don’t know what to buy.
Please help.
That’s a good question as it includes most of the points listed above and gives the reader a pretty clear picture of the problem and makes it much easier to offer you an applicable solution.
Sometimes being diligent about formulating a good question makes one more fully understand the issue and you may even solve the problem by yourself!
Asking a better question is particularly important for newbies and infrequent poster's because they haven't been visible enough on H-M for the other contributors to know them. Long standing frequent contributors have established a reputation (to some degree) that helps other frequent contributors "know where they're coming from".
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: This thread seems to be well received in a short time. That has reminded me that I need to give credit where credit is due. @Eddyde contributed a re-write that resulted substantially in what is posted above. Thank You Eddyde.
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