Thread: MEW magazine heading > downhill

Well, David's cry about a lack of good articles suitable for MEW seems a little hollow.

Picked up a copy of Model Engineer in the newsagent today and it had part 2 of an interesting article on Shapers in it, to be continued.

Exactly the sort of article we would expect to see in MEW, yet here it is being published in its' sister magazine, which normally devotes itself to articles on model engineering, ie locos, steam engines etc, rather than the machine side.

Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of MEW?

Re MEW.
I have issues 12 to 208 of MEW and also subscribe to Machinists Workshop and Home Shop Machinist. They all have more and less interesting issues. I for one know a bit more now than I did back then and find it harder to get a magazine with all interesting articles that I read cover to cover. Sometimes I think "that was a dud issue" but then find the next issue to be good. Issue 208 has mostly interesting articles for me especially "Making a Lantern Chuck" by Des Bromilow. The cnc and Stepperhead articles don't interest me much but others will like them. I will keep up my subscription as I still find value in it.
John

P S I would like to find issues 1 through 11 to complete my collection.

Originally Posted by rascal

Re MEW.
I have issues 12 to 208 of MEW and also subscribe to Machinists Workshop and Home Shop Machinist. They all have more and less interesting issues. I for one know a bit more now than I did back then and find it harder to get a magazine with all interesting articles that I read cover to cover. Sometimes I think "that was a dud issue" but then find the next issue to be good. Issue 208 has mostly interesting articles for me especially "Making a Lantern Chuck" by Des Bromilow. The cnc and Stepperhead articles don't interest me much but others will like them. I will keep up my subscription as I still find value in it.
John

P S I would like to find issues 1 through 11 to complete my collection.

I just got my hands on issue 208

I like the article re: using truck gudgeon pins as cylindrical squares . The aluminium casting article , I thought is a bit lacking in detail - a drawing of his furnace would have been more use, rather than describing it in words . The other articles didn't interest me that much .

I don't know why they bother with the brief plastic scale model reviews .. just waste of space .

The panel beating stuff ..... there are lots of specific books on that topic around , no need to take up space in MEW .Mike

Originally Posted by morrisman

I just got my hands on issue 208

I like the article re: using truck gudgeon pins as cylindrical squares . The aluminium casting article , I thought is a bit lacking in detail - a drawing of his furnace would have been more use, rather than describing it in words . The other articles didn't interest me that much .

I don't know why they bother with the brief plastic scale model reviews .. just waste of space .

The panel beating stuff ..... there are lots of specific books on that topic around , no need to take up space in MEW .Mike

This is what I admire about this forum the open mind and honest opinions,rarely scorned or frowned upon.The sharing and the generosity of the members is beyond question.As the famous 1 liner from the movies'' opinions are like a...holes every one has 1''.
The ''brains trust ''here is to be given accolades as it represents hundreds of years of aquired knowledge,skills,heartaches,near misses and ''stung wallets'' and pride.
The superior attitude of our British cousins perhaps is a hidden jealousy of our abilities at solving problems and time taken to share ideas and knowledge selflessly.This could be read as ''its only from a group of woodworkers forum ''down under'' what would they know.Well Mr Clark news for you,you are horribly mistaken.
From a child,fortunate to see transition from steam on rail to diesel, I have always had a passion for mechanical things animate or inanimate.
On viewing this group and calibre of its members,we all seem to have a passion for reclaiming old machine tools put them to use and share our uses of them.
Always one for improvising to get a job done has been has been my lifelong challenges some what improved with better and bigger machines.It is heartening to see others that do the same and have similar views.This solidarity of the members just grows and improves.with that will jump down of the ''soap box'.Approaching non subscription of MEW.J.

In a nutshell, the reason specialist publications like MEW will eventually cease to exist is because of forums like ours.

The flow of information on a forum like this is conversational with everyone able to contribute, it is immediate and self-correcting in terms of content and can cover a wide range of interests and link to other sources of information. The forum is a means of pooling the collective knowledge and experience of all of us and each of us uses that information to our benefit.

A magazine like MEW and it's ilk is primarily a one-way conversation, not a discussion, and can realistically only cover a narrow range of interests. It is one publisher or editor's idea of what he or she hopes will sell a product, no more and no less.

This has been coming for many years and the change is inevitable, it's just the practicality of operating in the new information age.

That article was written a long time ago - November last year, and was one of the lost articles. It was only because of trying to find out about it thatI found out so much about the missing articles, and some of the comments I made regarding David Clark. - now I guess i need to see how long it takes for the money to come in for the article. Thing is I re-read my submitted article, and found a couple of minor ommissions - but when i mentioned them it had already gone to print - i'll have to amend the article and throw it up on my webpage.

I won't see #208 for a while - my local newsagent can get them via the airmail service, but they arrive plastered with neon orange stickers on the cover - painful if you're trying to collect and maintain a library

Rascal - I can't help you with hardcopies of your missing issues, but I did stumble across a digital archive some time ago - all issues 1- 160-something in PDF format - can set you up with digital versions if you need the material

Regarding the comments about forums versus magazines - yes it is totaly different - I want a world with them both, and will try and write articles which reflect the one-way conversation - but present the material and style in a way which invites people to participate. I wrote another artcile recently regarding the fabrication of veteran motorcycle parts - the original article talks about what worked for us, what didn't, and the emphasis on the finished product, not jigs which look as though they were built for exhibitions and museums - the implied invitation is "look what we did, and how we did it.... what can you do?"

Once I get #208 and compare the edited article with my original submission, I will see if I need to alter my style for publication - but in the meanwhile any comments are most certainly welcome

Des

Originally Posted by rascal

Re MEW.
I have issues 12 to 208 of MEW and also subscribe to Machinists Workshop and Home Shop Machinist. They all have more and less interesting issues. I for one know a bit more now than I did back then and find it harder to get a magazine with all interesting articles that I read cover to cover. Sometimes I think "that was a dud issue" but then find the next issue to be good. Issue 208 has mostly interesting articles for me especially "Making a Lantern Chuck" by Des Bromilow. The cnc and Stepperhead articles don't interest me much but others will like them. I will keep up my subscription as I still find value in it.
John

P S I would like to find issues 1 through 11 to complete my collection.

Originally Posted by desbromilow

............

I won't see #208 for a while - my local newsagent can get them via the airmail service, but they arrive plastered with neon orange stickers on the cover - painful if you're trying to collect and maintain a library

..........

Des

Des, I have a subscription that gets airmailed to me direct from the publisher in the UK, not only is it fast but it works out considerably cheaper as well.
No orange neon stickers either, I used to buy the airmail version in our local newsagent and that was one of the reasons I went to a direct subscription.

I have found similar changes occurring to magazines on other subjects. One that really stands out is computing. I used to subscribe to 2 computer mags. They kept changing with the times. I got them to keep up with computing. They became mags which focussed more and more on phones, tablets etc. They also became more model specific. Another issue was how to use a software program. In all of these situations it was necessary to have the item / program in order to make any sense of what was written. There was too much stuff that I had to pass over. It simply got to the point that there was very little info left that I was interested in.

The marketplace for magazines of this type is shrinking. They use all sorts of gimmicks to sell their product. Free stuff, go into the draw to win. A bit like the free holiday that is given away with all sorts of deals. I am sure they get away with it because lots of people don't bother to use the free holiday. My point of view is that if you can afford to give away free holidays you can afford to sell it cheaper. Give me a discount or shove it. I guess most people still fall for it.

Dean

AME is no better. 1 small article of interest in 2 editions.

I "used" to have my copy reserved at the newsagent along with another hobby magazine. It also constantly has no items of interest so on my next trip to town both publications will be cancelled.

Ken

I just noticed the ad for good old Australian, Eccentric Engineering's inverted parting tool holder in issue number 206 of the Model Engineers Workshop.
It's almost having a real go at us colonials from down under.
I would post a pic but I am not sure if it contravenes any copyright laws.

Phil

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

I just noticed the ad for good old Australian, Eccentric Engineering's inverted parting tool holder in issue number 206 of the Model Engineers Workshop.
It's almost having a real go at us colonials from down under.
I would post a pic but I am not sure if it contravenes any copyright laws.

Phil

Phil, Eccentric have been advertising in MEW for quite some time.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Phil, Eccentric have been advertising in MEW for quite some time.

Hi Fred,
I understand they even have a distributor there as well.
The whole ad is upside down except for one line.
I just had a bit of a giggle about it after all the kerfuffle.

Phil

I've seen issues 150 - 160 and thought they were great.

I was considering signing up for the electronic version, but following the concerns expressed above, mainly for online access to the older archived articles.

However I noted one of the posts above saying you cannot print the archived articles but can only read them on line.

I can print web pages to pdf files on my computer with a little printer program call "Do PDF" it is easily found with google. There are a number of these sorts of programs around. The downside is that you might have to print them a page at a time depending upon how the MEW web page presents the articles.

There is another little gadget buried in windows called the "snipping tool" thats quite handy for snatching and pasting stuff from any open window, including web pages - its found in the accessories folder on your computer.

............. has anybody used that archive recently and what is it like ?

I was particularly interested in the electronic archive after somebody pointed out above that the Harold Hall web site has a searchable index of the various issues and articles IndexIntro



Regards

Bill