Originally Posted by Geof  ...having a degree in Chemistry in no way puts you close to engineer territory |
And apparently having a mechanical engineering degree in no way puts me close to practical territory.
I will say that I've tried to never design anything that I couldn't at least theoretically fabricate myself. Thus nothing that depends on welding.
Certainly the moment I first applied endmill to raw material educated me on what was practical vs. what was theoretically possible...
A former boss of mine, who had worked for IBM in the Thomas Watson era (and I think, was an MIT graduate), was fond of a supposed quote from Watson--"New engineers are useless for a year after graduation, except for MIT graduates--they're useless for two years."
Though not an MIT grad, I can look back and see the validity of that concept, at least in my own case.
Randy