Niponwave

Ask me which is my favourite class…without any delay my answer will be–engineering workshop. Ya, this is one class that I really look forward to do.

I have my workshop sessional every monday from 3 to 5.15 p.m. We work in the Blue Earth Workshop, located at the centre of our 58-acre university campus. So it is a 5-minute walk from my department which is at one extreme end of the campus.

In the above map, #4 is my department building while #18 is the Blue earth Workshop.
The workshop is a large one. As we enter the workshop a cacophony greets us…a combination of the loud clatter of metals and the droning of the many machines arranged in long rows.
We work in groups of five students. My groupmates are Subhra, Nirnab, Teemir and Sujoy. We make a great team. Currently we are busy working on the lathe machine, cutting a solid steel cylinder into a specified shape. At first, one member from our group fetches all the required tools which are issued against his workshop id card and a tool issuance slip that he has to sign on behalf of his group.
The tools comprise side cutting tool, job spanner, etc. It takes some 15 minutes to fit the job into the machine–some adjustments need to be done. Though the machine does the job, we have to control the operation and must be careful of certain things say for example the depth of cutting should be uniform. Some calculations also come into play e.g. determining the taper angle. I enjoy the whole part of it.
Teachers are very helpful and offer help unasked. Same goes with the workshop assistants.
At the end of the class, our hands are smeared with grease that takes quite some time to be washed off.
Our first job is almost finished. Let’s see what project comes next.