Welcome to the forum. You are not the only one that is intersted in steam engines.
Thor

I'm a recently "semi" retired machinist/toolmaker. 50+years making chips of perfectly good metal, just to shovel them up at the end of the day and get paid for it. Bought a PM 1340GT and a PM 833T and lots of fixins. It's been 2 years and the list of projects keeps getting longer. Building a model steam engine is getting closer to the top. Thanks for having me.

I accept that a professional needing to derive an income would need to subscribe to all your views and I have no need to argue otherwise. Computers can be a means of producing marvellous things evidenced by the videos on you tube at  “1825steam”. However beyond making money and demands for speed and efficiency, manual methods can be very satisfying pursuits in themselves. I am sure that an artisanal blacksmith, potter, calligrapher, woodworker, sculptor and a myriad of other manual oriented craftspeople both professional and amateur are adherents of older less efficient methods. In some practices hand made is much more highly valued and not just monetarily. A hand hewn mechanism can have tremendous attraction and many people aspire to recreating some beautiful mechanisms such as those that appear in the “Scientific Instrument Society” bulletin. Indeed that master craftsman  Chris Budiselic or “clickspring” as he is mostly known by, is one such person, also a mechanical engineer and an educator so cognisant of industry requirements. This does not stop him pursuing manual methods in his hobby. To end, the context of my questions and any conclusions drawn from my comments are only applicable to those who enjoy old ways and would like to pursue them. Regards, Paul Gough.

This looks neatly and nicely produced. Quite a nice bonus not to be tackling that crankshaft from scratch, unless one was specifically wanting the challenge!
Is what appears to be a pre-cut and drilled lagging sheet made of the fabled "Russian Iron" that Stuart Turner used to supply , instead of just anodised aluminium? Dave

I seem to remember using a Parker towards the end of primary school so when I was 10 or 11. so mid 70s. Biro and Berol ball pens are what I remember from secondary school.

No being very good at English which I always struggled with I tended to keep writing to the minimum needed so have never been much of a letter writer. The advent of the computer has changed things for people like me that may struggle. It is relatively easy to check spelling and also grammar these days rather than having to cross out or use correction fluid. So I'm far happier bashing away on a keyboard and will go into far more detail than I would have if trying to put pen to paper.

Cost does come into it these days as a stamp is not cheap and if the conversation is going to go back and forth a few times can be quite dragged out compared with what can be done in a couple of hours by the internet with the bonus that you can include images etc.

As for drawing I was quite capable with pen or pencil on paper but CAD has made things quicker and easier as I can make alterations and check assemblies with ease. Also if work related it is far easier for my clients who may not be able to follow traditional plans and elevations to have a rendered image that they can move about on their screen and get a better understanding of what I propose to make for them. I can also do CAD work for people around the world without having to get drawings printed and posted, any corrections or alterations can be done almost instantly rather than wait for a reply then send out again.

As for CNC there is thought that goes into that, from the initial design stage so that the part can be made, to learning CAM and then thinking how to use it. As for slide rules for general calculations I prefer to get on with making things so use the best method for the job in hand and would certainly not earn such a good living if using more time consuming methods for work related items.

Interestingly I posted my latest build on ME forum as well as here as I usually do but asked there for people to guess how long it took me to build. All I can say is most other people seem to work less efficiently than me.