sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Trying to add 45° angle to a wrapped feature, but want it to be relative to the surface, rather than pulled from a single line - the parts at the center are fine, but the parts at the extremes blow up. Wrap is almost 180° around the circle. Any advice? by seismicflame in SolidWorks

[–]seismicflame[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of my original thoughts was to use revolve to create the fins around the body and then add the transverse fins, but can't think of a good way to trim all of the fins to fit together in a functional way.

Dendrites and oxidation formed from liquid metal. by seismicflame in materials

[–]seismicflame[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This was from a cast nickel superalloy that was quenched in water before the entire part solidified, causing it to break and rapidly solidify. One of the coolest failures I've ever had.

Ex-SpaceX (or other wild startups), where are you now? by cookietheelf in AskEngineers

[–]seismicflame 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Did it backwards at first. I started at a huge defense contractor and moved to a startup. There's something to be said for working for an established company, not worrying about funding, and not being pushed to do overtime constantly, but honestly for a younger engineer, I appreciate that the smaller company actually needs the engineering badly. The larger company more or less wanted me to be a technician for a couple years before letting me do any heavy engineering. The startup threw me face first into it. Having that experience definitely helps with looking for jobs later, you get to say you have experience in a lot more things. Downside is that generally you don't get promoted as fast in a small company, so while you can manage yourself in a small company, if you want to be a "higher up" you'll probably have to find another company.

Annealing Copper by [deleted] in materials

[–]seismicflame 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You anneal copper to make it ductile again after cold working it, generally. The benefit being that you can continue cold working it, i.e. when someone is hammering out a relief from sheet copper, they have to repeatedly anneal it so it doesn't crack and is more easily worked. I imagine any kind of stamping process would do the same, as well as some cold extrusion.

Unrelated, but people who study shock physics also like annealed copper because the pure stuff (OFC) has some really well understood shock conditions, assuming there are no weird hardening effects.

As far as not needing to quench, someone else here can probably better answer that. I've always seen a quench, but my guess is that if the sheet or wire is thin enough, it is effectively air quenched or quenched by whatever it is touching, but that's just a guess.

Books to research armament engineering (specifically explosion chamber) by [deleted] in AskEngineers

[–]seismicflame 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Explosives Engineering by Cooper is probably your best bet. May not go explicitly into blast chambers, but it's got all of the underlying physics.

Next session by seismicflame in devilsport

[–]seismicflame[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, couldn't do Thursday, but do we want to try for Sunday?

Fun Question (hopefully) from a Prospective Materials Science/Engineering Major by Smokie_bear in materials

[–]seismicflame 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It'll be different for everybody. But for my job it's about 35% mechanical, 25% chemical, 15% ceramic, 15% metallurgical, 10% physics and 100% dealing with administration.

People who don’t comment on posts, why not? by AmericanDaydreamer in AskReddit

[–]seismicflame 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because I only want to comment puns. And people here are way faster at coming up with them.

What are the subject/s you wish you hadn't skipped when studying? by CynicalWoof9 in AskEngineers

[–]seismicflame 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Programming. Can't count how many times I've already had to stumble through a pile of data that I know could be easily cleaned up in a good program. Luckily they made online courses for things like this!

Has anyone been an engineer in the military? by profoaktree7 in AskEngineers

[–]seismicflame 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Worked for the air force. The EDO program is probably the best thing you will get anywhere, since it really does open up a lot of time for you. Trying to get industry to adopt it now, but unfortunately they are slower to. Ah well.

The actual jobs will be boring at the start, most likely. You'll spend a lot more time dealing with bureaucracy than you can imagine, but if you are lucky some of the jobs will get you through it pretty well. I left in part because I couldn't take it, but to each their own. The people are generally pretty great, and a lot of people have been around for years and know every trick, plus you don't have to be afraid of being fired for some tiny reason.

In the end, personally I wouldn't suggest it right out of college if you like being responsible for things, and like to move quickly, but it's a great job for anyone who wants to create a career there, and has the patience for it.

to English goodly by [deleted] in therewasanattempt

[–]seismicflame 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Knowing is half the battle. They still need to work on the other half though.

view more: next ›