Inspired by a thread I just replied to, I figured i'd ask what technically inspires those of you on this board (mostly since we have alot of engineers here also).

For me, it was a particular machine we use at work, the Universal HSP 4797 chipshooter. It places Surface Mount components on pcbs, and it does it really f'n fast. Now there are probably faster machines out there now, but these things are damn impressive. This machine is almost solely responsible for me to go back to school into a Mechanical Engineering major.

what fascinates me about it:

I'm flabbergasted at the engineering behind this thing, and how it can spit out parts small parts at such high accuracy on a small film of solder paste (and that the parts do not fly off/or even skew). its great stuff. I can watch one of these machines run all day long and not get tired of it (most of the time you really try to make sense of the "blur" the machine moves so fast

The first time i've seen this machine, i realized that if i had to design such a machine, i would NEVER have came up with the idea of using a rotary turret to do so many things as once, its like a machine gun of parts (its not like its placing the same part over and over, many different parts in different locations for those of you unfamiliar with the process).

http://www.uic.com/wcms/WCMS2.nsf/index/Pr...roducts_15.html the video on thier site is pretty pathetic and does not do this machine justice, it places with a max tact time of .075 seconds between placements, that translates to about 13 parts PER SECOND (in perfect conditions that really don't happen in the real world often).

now, there are machines that are impressive due to numbers or power, but this one, to me out for its combination of precision/speed/data processing (component recognition and part realignment on the fly).

five axis mills and lathes. sure its fairly simple, but i dig it. i have a machining background and have used manual lathes and mills. i love those to. pretty much the idea of taking a chunk of metal and cutting it into a shape or product or tool or..... use your imagination and skill and you could make almost anything with a mill and a lathe. five axis mills just can do so much without having to stop the machine.

While I appreciate the engineering and macinery that makes things, it is the finished product that inspires me. Since my youth a running engine just makes me pause and ponder. Why? How? And then - Can I make that beter?
I am not so much the creater as the improver type.
Good God I love engines!

Mechanical watches.

Like this...

Hot Chicks!!!

The ABI DNA Synthesizer.

Karen

Yea, what redbird said!!

Man, some of you guys are advanced! I get excited just staring at good quality welds sometimes

Heck, I'm easily entertained. A good weld, a mechanical watch, milling machines, it's ALL good. Curiously, ALL of those relevant tools are available at Harbor Freight (not that I look regularly or anything ). I keep wondering how many watchmakers really buy the crappy tools from HF.

I'm not particularly fascinated by computers and such any more - they are just a tool. I know how to design everything inside them (which is still fun ....), but a good self-winding watch is a work of wizardry. Collecting them would cut into my mod budget, though.

Ok, i finally have time to reply,

good things that everyone mentioned.

and yes, the women thing is very fascinating also, at the same time confusing also, but i'll agree fascinating none the less.

as of the other day, in calculus, we are doing integration by substitution/tables and now in parts. in a way its fascinating to me that before computers and calculators, that a bunch of people were able to derive these crazy integral formulas. The back of my book has 503 of them, and my instructor says he bought a book that has over 700 Integration formulas. At the same time, those guys probably had a much better understanding of math than your average technology assisted student of today? I bet in some ways, that using a slide rule increased your understanding of math by being able to apply a visible measure or quantity to math concepts that cannot be achieved by a graphing calculator?

so math, what a subject, in 30 minutes time can go from intriging to fun to frustrating to whatever other state of mind.

reminds me of that movie where the dude put a drill through his head, called PI. has anyone seen it?

One word.....Driving :drive:

I can do this all day(i think) kinda like that guy that drove 23 1/2hrs of Le Mans! :drive:

LOL