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

[rmack898]

Instinct, common sense, natural gift, or whatever you want to call it is when you are working on step one of a project and your mind is already working out the details of step three or four.

Like someone else mentioned, you go to sleep at night thinking about a problem and wake in the morning with a solution.

 

[vtcnc]

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.

If it were common sense, it would be more common. All really good responses, but I feel common sense is a tricky way of saying: "I don't know how to teach you my deep profound knowledge and experience."

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[JimDawson]

I’m a little late getting to this thread, but sometimes life (and work) gets in the way.

Who is this SOTPM guy? While it may not be PC, I say guy because I have never worked with a lady in the shop, however I have met some ladies in the office that are the equivalent in their world.

A number of years ago I had the pleasure of being a maintenance supervisor in a manufacturing operation, primarily metal stamping. Eight of my crew of ten all had traits that made them SOTPM, all of them were machinists / tool&die makers. Any of them could repair the machines, including electrical. Not one of them had a formal education or apprenticeship in machining. I never had to tell them how to do a job, all I had to do was ask that it be done. Made my life there pretty easy. The other two required a babysitter and weren't SOTPMs.

So what are these traits?

As said above they were intuitive. But maybe more importantly, they all took ownership of a problem and solved it. If they didn’t know how to do something right off, they figured it out. I never heard the words ’’I don’t know how to do that’’. If one of them came to me with a problem, they also normally had a solution for it also. I encouraged all of them to think on their own. It was very common the hear ‘’what do you think about this, or what if we….’’ 95% of the time their ideas and solutions were better than anything I could have come up with quickly because they had thought it through. All of them had confidence in themselves, were not afraid to try something new, and not afraid of failure. You learn something from your failures; you learn what doesn’t work!

If you are listening, machines ‘’talk’’ to you. They will tell you when they are happy and when they are not. The machine could be a small lathe or a large production line in a factory. Most people can learn to listen to the machines; some people just have the natural ability to interpret what the machines are saying, others can learn. Some will never get it. It’s all about actually caring enough to listen.

The above is true whether you are operating a machine tool, driving a car, or flying an airplane. One of my most interesting experiences in an airplane was flying with a guy in his C182. He had no idea what the airplane was doing. He could takeoff, cruise, and land, but could not feel the airplane. IMHO, scan your instruments, but in VFR conditions you fly a light airplane by feel. He had memorized all of the checklists and tables and was flying the airplane by-the-book. There were no natural movements on his part. I never went up with him again. The machine should become an extension of your body.

The average non-mechanical person looks under the hood of a car and sees a mass of stuff and their mind can’t break it down into the components, and has no idea what anything does. (and I’m not talking about modern cars where you can’t even see the engine under all of the plastic). The mechanic looks under the hood, and sees a number of interconnected systems and (hopefully) understands how it all works and can mentally break it down into the individual components. This is the result of experience, training, and a desire to actually learn what is going on. Most times when you break everything down, it’s really pretty simple.

One of the simplest and also maybe most difficult thing to understand is that all machines are the same. Shafts turn in bearings, gears mesh, things are bolted together, screws have mating nuts, if it slides it needs grease. Every mechanical machine is no matter how complex is composed of only three simple devices, the wheel, the lever, and the incline plane. Every mechanical device is a derivative of these three simple items.

If you’re not one already, how do you become a SOTPM?

• Look at the problem, and then think it through. Take the negative view, what could possibly go wrong, and then plan for that.

• Break down a problem into its smallest parts; solve each piece of the puzzle as needed. Things become simple once broken down.

• Don’t be afraid to try new ideas. As long as it’s not going to damage the machine or you, then go for it.

• Don’t be afraid to fail, if it doesn’t work then you learned what doesn’t work. That will set you on a new thought process.

• Have confidence in yourself. See above

Most people can get there if they want to.
.
.

 

[scicior]

A former boss of mine once described someone as "Educated beyond his intelligence". He asked this newly minted PHD to do some calculations on what it would take to make a pre-placed crack in an aluminum grow when fatigued. He came up with something like 10,000 cycles at 300 pounds. I made the comment "So if I jump up and down on this 3/4" thick aluminum plate, with a 1/4" wide by 1/8" deep crack in it for a couple of hours, the crack will grow?" which made no sense to me. But he ran the numbers again and insisted it was right. Educated beyond his intelligence.

I'm an electrical engineer. I was born one. Yes, I went to college and have a piece of paper, but that doesn't mean much especially after the first job. For a while I went to work for the phone company, who tried to re-invent itself by bringing in new blood in the form of college hires. Previously an "outside plant engineer" was someone who worked themselves up through the ranks and knew how things operated, but now new engineers had to have a degree (which usually meant they had no experience in the field). And the engineers hired were the kind that got engineering degrees because they were good at math and science, not because they were passionate about engineering. If they were passionate about engineering this job wouldn't have been a good fit anyway, as I found out. But it's situations like these that help create the bad reputation that engineers sometimes have.

I hope this isn't interpreted as bashing. It's just my observations from being on both sides of the desk. Maybe it might help some people see/understand the other side of the job title.

- Steve

 

[kevinpg]

Now that I have you undivided attention, here is the whole question.

What is a Seat Of The Pants Machinist and why is it important to have at least one at hand??? No Machinist starts his career as one but many end up with this title.. Then there are many that never will get to this point.There are many on this Forum.

Go for it boys and girls. This should be fun as there is almost no wrong answer for this question. Keep ic clean please.

"Billy G" Seat of the Pants Machinist.

I am going to toss in my two cents. I understand what Bill is getting at with instinct but having that mechanical inclination goes far beyond knowledge and experience to assimilation. When you have actually assimilated a discipline, the tools and instinct you have developed allow you to have insight to other issues. What I learned as a pipefitter in oil and gas really helped me when I was doing setups and stamping parts in a boat trailer plant and all of that helped understand cardiopulmonary systems and the human body when I was a practicing respiratory therapist which made computers easy to handle.

I have known folks who worked an entire career in a technical field and somehow instead of 20 to 30 years experience, they seem to have 1 year experience 20-30 times over. They never understand the root cause of an issue and therefore only perform superficial and often temporary repairs to whatever system they are working on.

Can instinct be learned? I am not certain, but I will offer this. When I started as a respiratory therapist, I had to maintain some lab equipment, namely a corning ABG analyzer that had to be calibrated and electrodes cleaned on my shift. At first, I followed the instructions for the ideal gas laws (PV=nRT -think that is correct - been thirty years ago). then one night, I had an epiphany and it all just fell into place and I did not need all the aids, I could do the calculations in my head although I still checked my work. Something instinctual happened and what was a drudgery before became a fun part of the day as I felt I fully understood the system. Nowadays, all those machines calibrate themselves and I think that causes a loss of knowledge overall. It makes the technical skill required to operate less and therefore a dumbing down of the process. I would imagine the same thing happens when a machinist only has experience on CNC and never did a manual process like learning how to manually make an accurate bold pattern that matches.

My 2 cents anyway and a rambler at that.

 

[catskinner]

I for one don't believe that anybody can learn anything. You are born with gifts endowed from on high. You must develop them. Beethoven received the gift of music. My father was a great musician who spent years trying to teach his son music and regardless of how hard he tried it wasn't gelling yet my sons picked it up lickety split. I on the other hand I can fix mechanical things without effort. It just comes natural. I would drive dad crazy tearing down his transmission or whatever and throw all the parts in the solvent tank without labels on them. He wanted each piece to have its own envelope with a description of where it came from. I would say "dad, if you know what the part does then where it goes is easy." Just as dad honed his gift of music and others throughout his life, I have honed my several gifts which don't include music though I still have my guitars and play a little for myself.

I fully agree, as a trainer at an underground mine, there are those that just don't get it, and then there are others who after a short time are suggesting or demonstrating a different method that saves time or material with the same end result. And as a former "gypo" logger as far as instinct goes you have to have it in order to survive in the business. When you are 30 miles from town and something breaks down you have to be a "seat of the pants" fixer. And I'm not talking hay wire fixer but someone carries a few of the most common parts that you happen to need the most frequently and know how to replace them. Also know how to adjust various parts of different machines and be able to dismantle and reassemble. This can also be referred to as mechanical aptitude.

 

[Chiptosser]

It's an accumulation of all past Experiences.

 

[ki4byz]

Creative
If we had more people in THIS country that would create (create as a trade)we would not have lost as many jobs across the water

 

[The Liberal Arts Garage]

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

"INSTINCT"


"Billy G"

An easy term to use; a hard term to explain. In my years of restoring " difficult"
cars, most of my parts were one or few. Some were simply non- existent, some
were alright for function, but designed " out of period " , some were too heavy,
some too light, some " deleted" (what were those holes for)? Some were hack.
saw, file and chisel; some from unlikely bits from odd catalogues.
I grew up under a father who thought safety was taught by example, short
stories, and a warning that it was up to me. He also was sure he could make
or fix any thing . His course in Capitalism : Hardware Clerk -- "we don ' t have
those anymore, we couldn't keep them in stock.
So, I never did learn machining , but inferred it from everything else.
Perhaps swimming neck- deep in knowledge leads to " INSTINCT". T hanks
Billy G. ..........BLJHB.

 

[JimSimmons]

A neophyte amateur machinist has an idea for a difficult project he wants to build. He posts his idea on a machinist forum. All the "experts" tell him that his idea is impossible and will never work. (Some will give answers that read like a thesis of a P.H.D.). But, in his ignorance, he goes ahead and machines the project and - IT WORKS! That, my friends, is a SOTPM.