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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/02/2022 17:06, Oren Leavitt via
Synth-diy wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:869ead0f-a9bd-e64c-7537-1fbc72c3dee4@ix.netcom.com">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/12/22 10:35 AM, Mike Bryant
wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:f8cae8f0842c419dbcb0aa7bfbde35c2@futurehorizons.com">
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</xml><![endif]--><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p>
</o:p></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">As
an 11 year old at my school a long time ago one of the things
we had to make in metalworking class was a screwdriver. Put a
rod of metal in the lathe and slowly turn it down to the
required shape, then grind the end to a flat blade.<o:p></o:p></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Never
did find a use for it !<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The
other thing we had to make was to beat a circle of copper
to form an ash-tray. Things were definitely different in
those days :-)</span></p>
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<p>My "useless" screwdriver I made in metalworking class consisted
of steel or iron rod that I heated in a forge. While hot, I
hammered one end flat and then ground it into final shape. This
was then reheated and then quenched in water to temper it. For
the handle, I placed the rod with the finished blade in a sand
mold with a space to pour molten aluminum to fill out the
handle. Finally I ground the rough edges of the mold seam off
the handle.<br>
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<p>Viola! A pry bar that thinks it is a screwdriver :)</p>
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<p>Happy memories! At my middle school in the mid-80s we did exactly
the same thing as Oren, though we went a step further by turning
the cast handle down in a lathe then knurling it. The results were
actually quite attractive and I still have mine somewhere.
Metalwork was proper hands-on in those days, training us (you
might say) for jobs which no longer existed.<br>
</p>
<p>Going well OT, the pinnacle of metalwork classes at that school
was the building of a Mamod-style steam engine from scratch. As I
went up through the school, I watched the final-year students
running their engines up and down the corridor outside the
metalwork room and yearned to build my own.</p>
<p>(Only recently, I discovered that the engine design almost
certainly came from this 1972 book:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.camdenmin.co.uk/collections/engineering-practice-skills/products/step-by-step-metalwork-3">https://www.camdenmin.co.uk/collections/engineering-practice-skills/products/step-by-step-metalwork-3</a><br>
)</p>
<p>Of course, just as I reached my penultimate year, the
powers-that-be realised that nobody needed hands-on metalwork
skills any more and totally rejigged the curriculum to concentrate
on design skills. No more steam engines. I was gutted, and it
still rankles nearly forty years later ;-) Perhaps I should buy
that book...<br>
</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>Steve L.<br>
Benden Sound Technology<br>
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