Dissertation ideas!

[Jacob]

What I'd really like to do if I had the chance would be to compare and contrast woodwork techniques as taught and/or described in mags and books, against woodwork techniques found in common practice.
For the last part you'd have to be able to pull apart old furniture/joinery - but you could get left-over stuff from auctions for next to nothing, or freecycle, skips, begging adverts, etc. Or you could just look at stuff without dismantling it.

Two very different worlds!

NB the "common" practice would be as for normal production items - not fancy followings of fashion.

 

[Droogs]

Why not come to this from a completely different dirrection. Fairly recently a disable user of this forum was looking for help to enable him to use handtools. Why not look a tcoming up with something to help disabled people enjoy woodworking in a more manageable way. You could tie in with the help for heroes woodworking workshop charity at Catterick

 

[Jelly]

I've PM'ed you, but will add more detail here, the gist is that within the wood machining world there are quite a few bleeding edge mechanical engineering problems, mainly focused on how you reliably make a non-standard board of wood into a standard part, without significant human input.

As hobbyists we're kind of closeted away from the timber industry proper, but I suspect that you will find more interesting and relevant challenges there, albeit more of an incremental improvement type than a new invention or product.

Depending on your modules, preferences and degree track you'll find problems related to control systems, SCADA, mechanical reliability, precision measurement, LEV/HVAC, tooling design and tool holding...



To give an example, running a 4-side planer moulder to make PSE, an operator sets the pressure shoes to a happy medium which will straighten most pieces of timber in the pack to process, and then runs any really bowed ones last, changing the settings for each piece. With appropriate sensing, the machine can determine the deformation, and dynamically adjust the feed speed, pressure and feed roller height to suit each piece, much in the way a skilled joiner would using a Surface Planer.

We know this is possible, as primary sawmilling uses advanced computer analysis to pick the best orientation to saw a log, minimising waste and automatically adjusting a whole line of band-resaws and feed carriages... But because a plank is more easily bent, the tolerances tighter, and the number of pieces to assess in a given time to match current throughput rates higher, the whole system needs to be more advanced.

Inside the planer there are thus multiple engineering challenges:

• Sensing the shape of the board on the infeed.
• Rapid adjustment of 4-8 cutter blocks, 3-4 feed tables, 2-3 fences, 6-10 feed rollers and 4-12 pressure shoes all in motion.
• Maintaining positional accuracy of those adjustments.
• Sensing the shape change in the board after each cutter head.
• Doing that all in under ½ a second.

There is a of wealth of information available on the existing knowledge in wood machining, with the IWSc/IoM³, the US Forest Service, BM Trada, BRE, the (now defunct) TTTA, FIRA and countless manufacturers of machines and large sawmilling concerns taking a keen interest for nigh on 150 years now.

I'm not 100% where you'd be able to access these resources, but the library holdings of institutions which delivered the old IWSc Certificate (now paused for restructuring under the wood technology society), along with universities with a strong wood science / forestry background (Bangor and Aberdeen being foremost, with Edinburgh Napier, Aberystwyth and Herriot-Watt also having strong departments).

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Most woodworking hand-held power tools and machines are f****** noisy. If you could research why and find some ways to quieten them down, that would be a great service to mankind. And mankind's neighbours.

 

[billymose]

Wow thank you for all your detailed replies and the pm Jelly.
After Novocaines comment I briefly started looking at H&S statistics. The problem I found was there is no way of finding the exact machines causing injuries for me to then be able to analyse and improve without contacting people (i'm sure with greater research this would be possible).
so, at this stage i'm thinking I would like to apply technology from industrial scale wood machinery (as you mentioned) to smaller commercial woodworking businesses(in order to keep it relevant to potential employers yet still similar to my hobby).
Do you think it would be better to base this around H&S or improving performance and efficiency?


Thank you so much for your help! And of course im still reading and considering all your suggestions

Bill.

 

[dickm]

Dont forget the research and analysis element, which is what will get you a good mark!

+1 for that. Having spent much of my academic career producing unambiguous marking schemes for dissertations and the like (and trying hard to persuade others to do the same!!) it's mainly the PROCESS that is being rewarded. The particular topic needs to be chosen so as to be able to demonstrate the skills that are outlined in the course outcomes statement. Relevance of the topic is important, but much less so.

 

[Jelly]

Wow thank you for all your detailed replies and the pm Jelly.
After Novocaines comment I briefly started looking at H&S statistics. The problem I found was there is no way of finding the exact machines causing injuries for me to then be able to analyse and improve without contacting people (i'm sure with greater research this would be possible)

The HSE has a lot of data on this from RIDDOR reporting, how much they're able/willing to share I'm unsure, but they're generally pretty diligent and helpful when you contact them (if glacially slow); it's analyses of this data that use to develop the Woodworking Information Sheets and Woodworking Machines Approved Code of Practice (both available on their website).

so, at this stage i'm thinking I would like to apply technology from industrial scale wood machinery (as you mentioned) to smaller commercial woodworking businesses(in order to keep it relevant to potential employers yet still similar to my hobby).

There is a dichotomy to consider there, as small commercial concerns which operate a workshop will be necciarily labour intensive and (usually) lack investment capital and financing options so would most likely want to upgrade/retrofit their existing hand-fed machines with easy adjustment between tasks remaining key, the SME sector with slightly larger more manufacturing focused operations will be looking for increased throughput and decreased labour on specific operations, but with a keen eye on upfront capital costs (and associated financing costs).

A great example of the latter would be Weinig's "Cube" 4 side planer, and the much earlier Wadkin PAR planing machine, I'm not sure of good examples of the former, but I suspect that track-saws might fit that mould.


The Timber Framing industry might offer some interesting problems, as they need to move the machines to the timbers in many cases, though I'm not quite sure what parts of their operations remain labour intensive.


My advice would be to find a simple operation/machine where a effective improvement presents an engineering problem which is difficult to elegantly solve, that gives minimum time worrying about the practicalities and maximum scope for the analysis element which is important for your grades... to some extent it matters little if you solve the initial problem, as long as you explore an original area with appropriate thoroughness.