Notes by Eric
HOUSEKEEPING
- 29 parts went to the powder coater
- Professor Littman will bring the parts to the chromer in Philadelphia
- What everyone did:
o Sarah: Washed parts on Tuesday
o Hannah: made nut to cover threads on the front hub, began to assemble back hub
o Noelle: Gathered frame parts, found missing parts, there is one pin that is missing, the carburetor worked on the ’58 motorcycle
o Eric: assembled rear hub
o Charlie: Cleaned and sanded parts; going to clean out the valves today
o Connor: continued cleaning the bottom engine and reassembled the engine using old covers
o Jake: Need to determine if the speedometer gearbox is working
o Brendan: getting stuff ready to go to the powder coater; tack welded the lower nacelle, welded two pieces of medal together
o Alex: dismantled the carburetor, which was not working well
o David: went over the small parts of the clutch and transmission; ordered missing parts
o Alex K.: helped bottom end team sand blast engine case; putting together demo transmission
o Jordan: cleaned parts for wheel group, polished exhaust; professor Littman got some useful tools
o Grace: worked with Connor to clean bottom engine and tape it up
o Julianne: exhaust valve had stuff on the inside that needed to be chiseled out
o Ricky: sandblasted battery casing; started taking horn apart
- Review of Professor Martinelli:
o Two strokes vs. four strokes; fins; carburation (lowering pressure—Bernoulli’s equation); thermodynamic relationships
o One student’s reaction: our motorcycle had not been designed with the principles in mind, especially with respect to form
- Tuesday’s reading: next three chapters in Zen—11, 12, 13; we will go directly to the shop, then we will transition from 3-4—meet directly in the shop on Tuesday!
- Reading discussion:
o INTRODUCTION
o Starts off more intellectually than Zen; values shop class
o In terms of motorcycles, he enjoys their simplicity
o Alex thinks that his approach is self-indulgent—how the job is self-gratifying. He has the Marxist, worker attitude
o Mentions dipstick, carpenter’s level
o CHAPTER 1
o P. 24 motorcycle reference—solvents used to clean different parts of the motorcycle; the author’s wife can use different; ignition backfire p. 35 “often this sense making entails not so much problem solving as problem solving” are good questions better than good answers?
o White collar jobs vs. blue collar jobs (more meaningful?). he believes in learning by doing
o Economic pressure—can’t outsource the trades
o Washing machine reference: a washing machine exists to serve you, but when it is broken you have to ask what it needs—a change of perspective.
o He likes objective measures—how do you know when you are doing a good job? He HATES management consultants!
o We must get outside of out head and looking for something; we are all problem solvers. If you notice dripping oil, it might be nice
o Page 32: “my purpose of this book is to elaborate the potential for human flourishing in the manual trades—their rich cogitative challenges and psychic nourishment—rather than stake out policy positions or make factual claims about the economy”
o Blinder (outsourced) vs. MIT economist (rule based)