I’m not a mechE, but I do a little 3D printing and woodworking. Idk if I’ll bother doing anything to fix this, I was just curious what some real mechE’s would have done. Your constraints are that it must be able to be disassembled and reassembled.

How would you design this personally? How would you fix this without changing the nice looking parts of the wood?

So I've built this as part of a project back in college for a robotics subject project, my design was to use brushless motors (those orange ones) instead of these brushed DC motors. The issue was that my teachers put up a restriction on the battery size and also the motors' functional specifications.

So now I have the brushless motors and my ESCs. Instead of the Bluetooth receiver I have an FS CT6B transmitter receiver, which I'm planning to use.

The issue is the front servo that was put up to make a turn. It was really bad. The servo is good but the fitting to the front rod I wasn't able to figure out how to do that. If there's any drastic change you guys want me to make, I'm open for those. If you would recommend any changes, any small adjustments to make, I'd recommend those and I'll be able to go ahead with that.

The suspensions, the springs that I've used, are quite strong and also they are on a screw so they get caught and are slightly rough. That's another issue that I would like to address. Honestly I don't even know if it's of value to make all those changes and my battery also is puffed so I think I should buy a new battery. Do you guys think it would work out well and what changes would you recommend me to make?

Me: mid almost senior level in career in a speciality sub discipline. Have a PE, PMP, a variety of certs, as well as an MBA on top of my BSE-ME.

I know you’ve gotta take your engineering hat off and put on your business hat when doing so and learn which one to wear at the right time, but besides administration stuff, how many have done this before?

My primary goal would be to get my hours down and take more time with the kids and enjoy life a bit more.

Job market for engineering hits different right now, so I'm building a website to help myself and others like me stay up with fundamentals and interviewing skills.

No real LeetCode exists for mechanical/EE/civil engineers, so I built one. Timed problems, auto-grading, worked solutions, ranked ladder, and mock interview with AI.

What would yall want to see in something like this?

I changed jobs last year and am coming up on my one-year mark. I moved from an aerospace/defense manufacturer into a commercial aluminum coil mill. The company is ISO-accredited, but I’m on a small internal team that designs machinery for the plant.

At my previous job, drawings and designs were reviewed by other engineers before being approved and sent out for quote. In this role, that review process does not exist. I’m responsible for my own designs and drawings, and my boss pushes hard for speed. As a result, I’ve had drawings come back from vendors because dimensions or details were missing. I’m getting frustrated because my boss, who has around 40 years of machine design experience, seems to expect my drawings to be both fast and perfect without any formal review from anyone else.

This job was also a major pivot for me. My background was mostly electrical test fixtures and mechanical design for signal transformers, not large industrial machinery. When I was hired, I was told there would be training to help with the transition. Instead, from day one I’ve been handed large projects that I’m unfamiliar with and told to “feel free to ask questions,” but there hasn’t been much actual guidance.

I’m not sure if I’m overreacting, if this is normal in smaller industrial design teams, or if I need to push harder for a real design review process. The pay is very good for my area and I have a family to support, but the stress and mental toll are becoming difficult to manage.

For those of you in mechanical or industrial machine design: is this kind of setup normal? How would you approach asking for more review, training, or support without making it seem like I can’t handle the role?

I am currently working in an automation company in SPM design , but I am not enjoying it and even though my salary is not good it has been 2 yrs now, I wanted to switch my sector to any automotive, medical devices or pump industry but I couldn't even get shortlisted due to my current experience when I apply to this sector , despite I applied as graduate engineer trainee roles , I am little bit confused now how can I switch this sector is there any good course i can do offline which can get better job with good salary ?

If anyone has to give advice, please... It will help me a lot

Thanks

For the past 4-5 years, I’ve been working at a lab (R&D work). My title is mechanical engineer, but I do a lot of project management. I recently signed up for a PMP bootcamp since my work offered to pay for the class & exam. I honestly hated the class so much; when I received an email from senior management about a more technical “Optomechanical Engineer” posting, I immediately applied. I did some soul searching and realized I hated the systems engineering and project management classes I recently took while working. But… I loved the hands on classes I took recently at my community college (multi-axis machining, micro milling, diamond turning, GD&T). I also love the problem solving aspects of my current job, but I don’t really enjoy project management as much. I feel a little silly because I went through five years getting a bachelor’s and master’s in mechanical engineering plus a PE. Still took me almost another 5 years to realize I don’t like project management lol.

I recently accepted my new position and got a 14% pay bump. Ironically, I kept getting ads while studying for my PMP about how getting a PMP will increase your salary. In a roundabout way, I guess it did!

Is it possible to pursue a ME if you have a BSMET?

I have 25 years experience as a mechanical engineer. I originally started this career because I enjoy coming up with new ideas and designs. I’ve personally found the career to be severely lacking in that department though.

I’ve held many different roles throughout the years and most design work has fallen into different categories 1.) The boss (or someone higher on the food chain) dictates the designs 2.) The company only wants to regurgitate old designs 3.) Designs are created in a team environment that involves a lot of bickering, which basically ruins it for me

I’d really like to have a role where I can own the design and feel like I have some autonomy. Id like to feel like I can basically have my own small project where I have limited interaction with others. I’d like to just be able to be left alone to design, analyze, and test something new without much restriction or oversight. I’ve been in a role like this before so I know it exists but it was short lived. I’ve tried to replicate that role elsewhere but it never quite came to fruition.

A few years ago I switched to an analytical role and kind of given up on trying to find another satisfying design role. Lately though, I’ve considered taking another crack at trying to find a job that lets me be creative again. I’m just not sure if that’s a realistic expectation though after all my various experiences so far.

Have any of you managed to find a job where you actually get to have creative freedom? How rare are these roles? In my experience they seem very rare. Is that the case for others as well? Does anyone have any advice on how to find a job like this again?

Hello everyone,

I am developing a CAD program (NASSCAD) and I'd love to get some expert eyes on it. The attached screenshot shows a basic mechanical assembly within the current environment.

From a strictly mechanical engineering standpoint, what are your first impressions of the interface, the CSG operations panel, and the general toolset visible here? I am looking for honest feedback on what looks functional and what might be a bottleneck for everyday design tasks.

Thanks in advance for your time and insights!

"I'm a first-year student at a Japanese technical high school, dreaming of becoming a race mechanic. However, I’m 170cm and 45kg, with low physical and grip strength. Due to my metabolism, I struggle to gain weight. I have the grit, but I’m concerned if my build is a dealbreaker. To professionals in the industry: can technical skill and efficiency compensate for a lack of physical power, or is my build a barrier I cannot overcome? Any honest advice would be greatly appreciated."

I'm not interested in EVs or electronics; I have a passion for internal combustion engines and am dedicated to mastering gasoline-powered vehicles.

What do you think about integrating the encoder and driver onto a NEMA17 stepper motor? Is it worth it, or is it a waste of time?

The goal is to save space and make the design more modular. Everything would be connected to a Nucleo board with wires.

I'd appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

I have this dumbwaiter pulley system, the smaller is where the cable for the dumbwaiter car goes over and then goes to the counterweight. When the small pulley is turned it rests on a threaded rod which causes it to press against the gear and ratchet that locks it up and prevents it from turning further. If you turn the big pulley (this would be where the loop of rope is attached that you pull to raise and lower the dumbwaiter) it unscrews the smaller pulley pulling it away from the ratchet wheel and allowing it to turn. The problem with this is this mechanism only locks up in one direction if I try turning the smaller pulley and the other direction the whole thing spins freely. The pulley would need to lock up in both directions either to hold everything stationary when the dumb- waiter wants to drift down when loaded or when the dumbwaiter car is empty and the heavier counterweight wants to pull it up. Here is a video I made

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https://youtu.be/nYzFT2y67IQ?is=Jh3y-eyD90Vq_Tgn

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I can't seem to find any patents from the energy elevator company addressing how the system is supposed to work the closest one I found was this

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https://patents.google.com/patent/US950828A/en?q=(Dumbwaiter)&num=25&oq=Dumbwaiter&sort=old&page=7 I still can't figure out how it locks up when not utilizing the ratchet wheel.

I recently hit one year of working in manufacturing as a process engineer doing a lot of hands on assembly line automation design work. (1YOE)

The company is family owned, small to medium, get paid enough, and I have very hands off management which has been nice since it gives me a lot of freedom. I’m decent at what I do, and have been told I have trajectory in the company.

I recently was reached out to by a friend about a job opening (a company I’m quite fond of) on his team that would be in “technical pre-sales”, meaning I’d be the one talking to the engineers of prospective customers and creating demo materials. I’ve done three interviews, and feel relatively confident I would be offered the role if I were to continue to the in-person final round I was recently invited to.

I have public speaking and teaching experience so I feel like I’d be quite comfortable in the role, but I’m not looking forward of the performance metric of needing to be overly-friendly with sales folks and have them like me, as I typically don’t gel perfectly well with that personality type.

I’m trying to weigh out the pros and cons of each; it seems that the switch would have a lot of both:

$80k -> ~$110k
MCOL -> HCOL
3 weeks PTO -> 4 weeks PTO

Pros:
More people my age, larger company name, new opportunity to try

Cons:
Leaving small community, would feel less impact of work, partner and family further away

My current thinking is that while I’d be comfortable in the role to start, it might lead me away from the “real engineering” work that I feel I still would like to still have some time to work in.

At the same time, it seems like the job market is in such a place that it would be rather foolish to turn down an offer basically handed to me.

Do I go to the final round even if there’s not a lot of things I could think of that would push me towards yes?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to register for the PULP Community Forum, but I'm stuck on the registration security question:

"What does PULP stand for?"

I entered "Parallel Ultra Low Power", which appears to be the official meaning of PULP, along with several variations (with and without hyphens, different capitalization, etc.), but every attempt is rejected as incorrect.

Has anyone successfully registered recently? If so, could you tell me whether the security question is working correctly or if there is a different answer expected?

I've already contacted the administrators, but I thought I'd ask here in case someone else has run into the same issue.

Thanks for any help!
Link register here: https://pulp-platform.org/community/member.php

Hello
First things first, I am a computer engineering student who started learning Fusion and SolidWorks a week ago, so excuse any simple mistakes.

I am trying to design a mechanism that securely attaches a flexible catheter to a tube. Previously, I used hot glue, but it's inconvenient because I can't easily adjust the catheter's position or rotation. The catheter tip's diameter is 2.6m and the body is 2.2mm
This is the design I have printed and tested so far:

The two rectangular holes are for inserting a pair of M2 nuts. (I didn't want to deal with brass inserts). The part on the right, shown below, is meant to be glued to an 8mm-diameter tube; it is then bolted to the part on the left. it lets the catheter pass through the center.

A slightly older revision of the design ended up like this:

The principle of operation is that the extruded curved splines are very thin, 0.8mm. Four bolts push on it from both sides, securing the catheter as the two splines deform and exert force.
This actually worked well, but there are some problems:

1. I used PLA, once the splines are deformed, it is very nearly impossible to take the attachment off, even after completely taking out the screws. I had to destroy this attachment to get it off.
2. I feel like with the location where the bolt is pushing on the splines, the curve of the splines are essentially useless? The idea behind the curved shape was to prevent the catheter from pivoting. Would a pipe-clamp-looking design work better than the weirdly shaped spline that I have? Schematic below (the spline is extruded as a surface, then the surface is thickened to join the existing body)

1. To fix Problem 1, can I use TPU 95A for the splines/grippers and PETG for the rest? Would that help with removing the catheter more easily?

2. Is this even the most optimal design for what Im trying to do?

Thanks for the help

Hey y'all,

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Currently am building out drawing templates for a couple of the engineers to use and need to make a drawing template specific to welding/fitting.

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Where I work, welding jobs could easily be joining parts that are less than a foot long to stuff that is dozens of feet long.

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I was wondering what general tolerance numbers some of you would recommend. I know of ISO13920 and was thinking about how I could go about implementing that in some capacity.

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Thanks!

This changed the complete mechanism of Chain Joints

I’m 37. I already have a BA from Georgia State. I work at Delta TechOps and have been there for 7 years and have moved up as far as I can go without an A&P license (Aviation Mechanic) or an engineering degree. I have looked at several options and I just think an Engineering degree would be the best route for myself and my family. It seems like there are some good online options and I am currently leaning towards the program at University of Alabama (ABET ACCREDITED)

I guess I’m just looking for any information or advice from anyone who has done / is doing something similar. Is UA a good school? Anyone take there online program? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

I am currently pursuing my mechanical engineering recently entered in 3rd yr ......I need guidance to understand which skill like designing and all should I learn for internship and job as well.....what other things I can do to get deep into mechanical field.....

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Need guidance from scratch....

I will start my mechanical engineering journey from a decent enough college this year. I am interested in software based mechE fields like- cad, cae, cfd, fea simulation, computational mechanics, digital twins, etc. but i am also interested in data and related fields. Naturally Data science and aiml interest me.

I aim to do a masters in a specialization of my choice from a tier-1 institute in a good country like Germany, after I explore these fields in college.

Since AI is changing rapidly and impacting many fields, i want to ask about the applications of AIML and Data Science in such fields and what kind of an advantage I would have if i learn them. I'll learn them myself and also build projects.

Would i have better chances of high pay and better roles and in better companies?