Metal Workshop- Tremmel & Fireworks

After a nice weekend at home, with a bonfire and fireworks, today marked my first workshop of the year in the Materials with Workshops module. As the last group to get to the workshops, my colleagues and I started with the metal workshop today, where the objective of the ~5 days (2 1/2 days each week) is to make a tool called a tremmel. A tremmel is, to the best of my knowledge, a measuring tool, consisting of a series of adjustable points on a metal bar. So today, after an introduction to the workshop and a demonstration of the metal working lathes we would be using. Then after lunch we began working on our own.

 Over the course of the next three hours (the whole day is 9-5 with 2hrs of breaks) I managed to get relatively far, finishing the lathe work for the main bar, and creating the base work for 5 of the 6 thumb screws required. Using the lathe (shown below) was interesting as, having used a wood working lathe, I thought it would be similar, but it was very different, much more precise, and potentially dangerous. So more lathe work to do, before moving onto using the milling machine.

Also tonight was the Brunel Fireworks, which was very cheesy, having lots of audio to do with the Olympics, but also good fun.