Thursday, August 02, 2007

The lathe machine and a delicious buffet dinner

With Yongxi being summoned by his dad (Level 20 spell, yx failed his save throw) for his engineering expertise, went to buy 4130 rod at Joo Keng Circle with Kaixin instead. Bought the metal, and it was back to workshop for more machining for the spacers.

Unfortunately, my skill level with the lathe machine is still rather low, so had quite a few mistakes while machining my first spacer resulting in a failed piece. However, through my mistakes, i learn quite a few stuff, such as on how to spot that my cutting tool is not aligned properly, when the work piece is rotating too fast (these 2 count as blessing #1 for today) and when the work piece is too slow + shattering of cutting tool (learn this from vince as his cutting blade shattered, luckily no injuries so is blessing #2). After the first piece, the rest of the pieces were not exactly in the correct dimensions as they were off by 0.1~0.2mm and thus i have to think of a better procedure to machine them tomorrow and as i was writing, i just thought of it.. heh heh .. can try for tomorrow and chances are they will come out good. =P

As for the dinner, went to Tanglin Club, of which i nearly lost my way as it is in Orchard and the map at the MRT station didnt cover that area so i based on memory of the map i read last night. Reached the place in time and when into the function room, also known as Raffles Room for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Singapore Branch) annual awards night. Thank goodness i saw Li Kuang there (blessing #3), which meant that at least i have someone i know to talk to. He had to do a presentation though, as he was awarded the Best Project Prize from NTU. heh heh. I received the Best Project Certificate from NTU.

After his presentation, there were 2 more on postgraduate research which also won prizes before the buffet dinner commenced. Glad to have the chance to chat with li kuang and not to mention the wonderful food. yum yum... thank goodness my gastric flu is over (#4). Met a few profs there, Alastair, John Heng, Graham, Ang Hock Eng etc. and made new friends. 'Networked' in a sense as we (LK and i) chatted with Desmond, an MAE alumni in Rolls Royce, and it seems rather exciting there, especially if they would be expanding here in sg. Too bad didnt ask about the pay, but 18 months training in UK sounds good though. =P Since i have until Jan to decide, might as well explore all options.

Well... gtg sleep liao. So fast a week has passed... must be that 2 days in bed recovering made the week so short. =P

P.S. Pictures on the way.

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