Situation

B ME 345, an introductory machining course taken in spring 2026. Students qualified on each machine through a checkout, then produced parts to dimensioned engineering drawings.

Actions

• Completed equipment checkouts on the lathe, the vertical mill, and the drill press.
• Turned a plumb bob from 12L14 steel on the lathe to a dimensioned drawing, including a conical point, a hex section, and a 3/8-16 tapped hole.
• Milled an aluminium 1-2-3 block with added tool features: pockets and a slot, a built-in bubble level vial, a nylon thumbscrew, and a pencil holder.
• Produced Charpy V-notch specimens.

Outcome

Finished parts made to drawing, including a plumb bob that matches its dimension sheet — conical point, hex body, and a threaded hole taking a bolt that anchors the string — and a 1-2-3 block extended into a small multi-tool.

Skills demonstrated

• lathe turning
• vertical milling
• drill press operation and tapping
• working from engineering drawings with stated tolerances
• machine shop safety

Evidence

Omar supplied the course's project list and two photographs in conversation: the finished plumb bob on its B ME 345 dimension sheet (12L14 steel, fractional tolerance ±1/32, 3/8-16 tapped hole), and the milled 1-2-3 block with its level vial, thumbscrew, and pencil holder. Further course material is at C:\Users\Omar\Documents\UW\2026\machining. Photographs are not on disk in this repository.