"I'm a mechanical engineer." Well there's your problem. (thelemmy.club)

submitted 6 days ago by Posadas@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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https://xcancel.com/i/status/2030200475199717696

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[-] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 77 points 6 days ago

Isn't brass a soft, mostly decorative metal that's used in places where it needs to not corrode but won't ever be under any sort of stress? Also that's clearly abraded away from the combined weight and friction of whatever it was resting on, looks like a harder metal bar from the shape.

How does a supposed mechanical engineer not know even basic things about metal or what different types of mechanical stress look like?

[-] PKMKII@hexbear.net 59 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

How does a supposed mechanical engineer not know even basic things about metal or what different types of mechanical stress look like?

There’s this old engineering joke: a physicist, a chemist, and an engineer are asked to find the volume of a red ball. The physicist uses a piece of string and a ruler to measure the circumference and then does the appropriate calculations. The chemist puts the red ball into a measuring cup filled halfway with water and compares the before and after of the high water mark. The engineer consults chapter five, subsection b, table iii of the industrial guide of red balls.

Because it’s a field where you can get by, especially at the middling level, on just brute force memorization, engineers sometimes don’t think about first causes. Fundamental measurements aren’t necessary if you can just consult the specs and plug in the calculations. Same reason for the old trope of “scientists” who say they don’t believe in evolution are almost always engineers.

[-] D61@hexbear.net 48 points 6 days ago

Same reason for the old trope of “scientists” who say they don’t believe in evolution are almost always engineers.

oh.... oh wow... I'm never going to be able to unsee this.

[-] T34_69@hexbear.net 33 points 6 days ago

Climate change too, seems like it's always some know it all who worked at boeing for thirty years

[-] Posadas@hexbear.net 41 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Engineering in Amerikkka revolves around either the MIC, automotive industry, or petrochemical industry.

It is a cursed field that corrodes the soul.

[-] PKMKII@hexbear.net 2 points 5 days ago

Oh don’t forget the ones who get an engineering degree purely as a launch pad to get into a prestigious MBA program and then become finance bros.

[-] peeonyou@hexbear.net 13 points 6 days ago

describes my uncle perfectly

he's also an evangelical

[-] john_browns_beard@hexbear.net 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

As a chemist, I immediately thought of the proposed chemist solution when posed with that question.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 8 points 6 days ago

Ironically I have a professional background in structural and mechanical design and it was my first thought too

[-] purpleworm@hexbear.net 8 points 6 days ago

rat-salute

[-] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 15 points 6 days ago

Because it’s a field where you can get by, especially at the middling level, on just brute force memorization, engineers sometimes don’t think about first causes. Fundamental measurements aren’t necessary if you can just consult the specs and plug in the calculations.

Me half-assing the lesson on PNP transistors when getting my Bachelor's in Computer Engineering

[-] himeneko@hexbear.net 7 points 6 days ago

to be fair you cant quite do something that easy for complex electronics design :>

[-] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 37 points 6 days ago

Yes

You know what they call a material engineer that gets all Cs through college?

A material engineer.

It almost reads like a bit, like it's just too perfect

[-] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 16 points 6 days ago

ElectroBOOM but it's not a bit

[-] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 37 points 6 days ago

Bullet casings are brass. It's actually because of their pliability.

[-] miz@hexbear.net 24 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

marx-guns-blazing

[-] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 35 points 6 days ago

The replies are all about this

It's pretty funny

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 8 points 6 days ago

A lot of the replies are congratulating this dipshit on his "in depth analysis", relatively few are pointing out that he's the problem. He's going to get people killed, either members of his family by doing shit like this or members of the public by doing, well, shit like this except at work.

[-] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 18 points 6 days ago

definitely couldn't be ME confusing brass and bronze and being like "what??" and having to look it up

[-] microfiche@hexbear.net 71 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

That brass hook didn't fracture. It was abraded away to nothing by whatever it was hooked around.

Brass is very soft, and malleable. How a mechanical engineer could not figure this out before hand, I am unsure. I own a brass hammer because it is softer than the metal I strike it against as well as being non sparking. The soft metal ensures the item I hit is less likely to mar or get damaged.

What a shitty engineer.

Don’t buy critical hardware like hooks, swing hangers, or load-bearing fittings from random shops just because they look solid. Material choice and manufacturing quality matter. Buy from reliable suppliers and rated hardware stores.

And at the end of it all, he still blames the place he purchased from instead of a poor material choice to begin with. I wouldn't ask this person to engineer shit.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 18 points 6 days ago

Don’t buy critical hardware like hooks, swing hangers, or load-bearing fittings from random shops just because they look solid.

So infuriating. It didn't "look solid", it looked like fucking brass, which it is, which is why it broke. It's terrifying to think this guy may be out there designing tanks or pressure vessels. Not normally in favour of it but potentially his employer needs to be informed, this guy desperately needs retraining and not doing so could well be a serious safety issue.

[-] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 17 points 6 days ago

This guy must work for Boeing.

[-] Krem@hexbear.net 7 points 6 days ago

These sheets of plywood look solid, and you can glue them together with a hot glue gun real quick into a sturdy box! Imagine how quickly and efficiently we could build hot water tanks this way instead of wasting time, money and space making cylindrical tanks out of welded metal!

[-] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

These days, those kinds of jobs go to chemical engineers.

Mechanical engineers usually are the kind of 'jack of all trades, master of none.' engineers, which unfortunately means that they fall right into the Dunning-Kruger gap for alot of specific complex technical issues. For me, it is incredible to watch them make a design in Solidworks and yet completely neglect to leave space for hoses and cables. If it isn't simple, they want no part of it. lol

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

See, I was a structural/mechanical designer up until not that many years ago, and the overwhelming majority of mech engineers I worked with were very competent. Also are you suggesting that a mech. Eng wouldn't specify a bracket off the shelf, it would go to a Chem eng for material selection? Because that's buck wild.

I'm just glad the office I worked for never handed drafting work over to engineers, we had one young guy who came in boasting that he could do the engineering AND the drafting and he didn't last long. Why would the business want to pay him an engineer's salary when I'm in the next chair, being paid half as much and able to do he job faster and better because it's What I Do?! And the crazy thing is I DO think engineers should be better paid than designers/drafters all else being equal. They carry a lot more responsibility and need a lot more education and that should be rewarded! But I still don't want to have to fix up some engineer's gross drawing to look like a professional drew it:p

[-] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

They usually don't make the same mistake twice, I will give them that, but I have seen younger mechanical engineers do some pretty silly shit.

I was specifically talking about tanks and stuff like that, not like a standard bracket material selection. Most piping and tanks and stuff is either a team of mechanical and chemical or purely chemical, sometimes with a process or controls engineer thrown in depending on how much money is floating around.

That said, my father tells me all of that stuff used to fall within mechanical engineering, with chemical engineering really being limited to Petro, pharma and agriculture.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 1 points 5 days ago

Still seems weird to have just chemical engineers involved in tank design. I wouldn't expect them to get any real education relevant to tank design, although I never worked with chemical engineers so I could just be unclear on what they do! Guess how much it matters also depends on the tank and application, the tanks I worked on were, for example, multiple gigalitre recycled oil tanks at a port, built on reclaimed swamp (:/) so chemical engineers weren't really relevant at all, but mechanical and structural engineers were vital.

[-] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 14 points 6 days ago

couldn't you say that it abraded way to nothing and then fractured, though or is this me being confused because fracturing is a specific metallurgical phenomenon or something that didn't happen here

[-] Runcible@hexbear.net 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yes, fracturing is a specific term not used for just any failure. There's several terms to describe material failure modes that I'm loosely aware of but at this point wouldn't use without looking them up.

edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_mechanics reference for the curious

[-] microfiche@hexbear.net 10 points 6 days ago

I'm going to have to look up how fracture is used here because it doesn't meet a layman's term but maybe it meets some technical definition and we all know about a being technically right.

I would think how you described it is exactly what happened.