What Is A ==========

[Bill Gruby]

Try this one. It's head and shoulders above the rest.

"INSTINCT"


"Billy G"

 

[brav65]

Try this one. It's head and shoulders above the rest.

"INSTINCT"


"Billy G"

I would have to agree with you Bill. I was just speaking with a young guy working on the same project with me. He asked me how I could be so calm when the plans, specs and details wer so bad and I had to make a decision that could cost a million dollars. I told him that the correct answer always feels right to spite what all the paperwork says. I have seen guys who do not have the feel/instinct for the job. In fact I have to give aanither guy the option to get with the program and make better decisions or find somewhere else to work today.

 

[Billh50]

As a retired special machine builder I always needed instinct in order to trouble shoot the machines as they were run. 98% of the time if you had trouble at a station on the machine it was caused by 1 or 2 stations prior to that one. But I have seen other builders not even look at the ones before and then say they can't figure out what is happening. I have also had many an argument with engineers as to why something will not work. Most of which I won in the end. Something may look good on paper but it does always mean it will work.

 

[Bill Gruby]

Think of it like this:

You are called to a repair. Is the first person you talk to the supervisor? No it's not, what does he know. How about the set up person? Again no, they only know the repair is out of their job description. You go to the operator, why you ask, because he or she was the last one to see things in motion. You ask them what happened. Now you listen to them. They say there was a plinking sound then a loud bang and the machine stopped dead. You ask where in general the plinking, not the bang came from. They say from the gear end of the machine. You concentrate your efforts there. You see nothing so you go deeper into the machine. You take the first gear off and low and behold a tooth or two is missing from the gear behind it. Some machinists would stop here and change the gear to get the machine running again. OK done deal we have the machine running again. Everyone is happy.

Wrong ---The seat of the pants machinist know something else broke the gear. What was it. Instinct takes over here. Let the machine run or go deeper. He listens, something does not sound correct. He has heard this before. He remembers what it was and instinctively goes there. Found it he says. We fix this and we are good to go.

The broken gear was the end of the problem, not the root of it. Get to the root and the problem now has the correct solution. Instinct is not taught. It's either there or it's not. Brooks you can come work for me anytime.

The title Seat of the Pants Machinist", is earned. Your peers give it to you. They know the difference. Too many give titles to themselves.

"Billy G"

 

[T Bredehoft]

I hadn't thought it out, but yeah, it's gotta be instinct, or natural suspicion, or something like that. You know something else is wrong, gotta work it out. Good question, Bill, its what separates the genius from the hacker. (not software hacker, but ax hacker.)

 

[brav65]

I often lay in bed at night and simultaneously discover a problem and a solution at the same time. I will look at something during the day and know there is an issue, and when I am finally relaxed and not destracted I realize my subconscious identified the problem and resolved it without actually putting conscious thought to it.

 

[Bill Gruby]

That's pure instinct Brooks. No doubt about it. Some have it some never will. Don't read anything into this folks, I take nothing away from any Machinists here. They are all good in their own right.

"Billy G"

 

[REdington]

I often lay in bed at night and simultaneously discover a problem and a solution at the same time. I will look at something during the day and know there is an issue, and when I am finally relaxed and not destracted I realize my subconscious identified the problem and resolved it without actually putting conscious thought to it.

I'm a over the road truck driver and while driving down the road, I have a lot of time to just think about how to make things and how it will work.
I'm one of those who can draw everything up in my mind and never draw anything on paper and when I make it, it works most of the time.

Rodney

 

[kvt]

some times the paper get in the way, you have to have the instincts to look at it with out looking at what was on the paper. or it will just mess you up. Another thing is that if you cannot visualize what it is that you are making how can you truly understand what it is you are making. I have often though that the engineers that draw some of this stuff up need to spend a few years building, nd working on the things then they can start designing and drawing things. Then they might do a better job at some of it and make things that can more easily be done, and worked on. Like when I was a mechanic why would a engineer design a car that you had to remove the battery, take out the engine mount, just to change the spark plugs.

 

[JPigg55]

Try this one. It's head and shoulders above the rest.
"INSTINCT"
"Billy G"

I was thinking,
"COMMON/HORSE SENSE"
I think of "INSTINCT" as a sub catagory of good old common sense.
Although coarse common sense says a square peg won't fit a round hole.......unless you have a lathe and know how to use it.