This section has been created as a vehicle for keeping our members informed of association news and by reporting current events etc. related to the wide spectrum of engineering. Contributions by members will always be welcome, but no politics or religion please.
Andrew Kibler kindly forwarded another link of Graham Sykes’s Rocket Bike performing a run at Santa Pod Raceway in Bedfordshire. Hold onto your seats as you watch Graham blast up the drag racing strip…. The ‘Festival of Power‘ will be held at Santa Pod on 3rd – 5th April 2026 and Graham will be demonstrating his ‘Force of Nature‘ … Continue reading “Rocket Bike – A Fast Run at Santa Pod Raceway”
Cameron Pinder – LAE Council Member & World Skills Competitor No doubt you will have been following the progress of our council member young engineer Cameron Pinder. In further pursuit of developing his skills he has secured the use of the 5-axis Haas machine tool at Leeds City College, using tooling and toolholders supplied by LAE corporate member M.A. Ford, … Continue reading “An Update from Cameron Pinder….”
World Skills Practice Pieces by Cameron Pinder Cameron sent some photographs and videos of his work, practising his CAD/CAM skills for the World Skills competition. Click the photos and zoom in to see the amazing details. The milling cutters he used were courtesy of our corporate member M.A. Ford Click on the videos below to view…..
‘Force of Nature’ ‘Force of Nature’ is a Steam Powered ‘Rocket’ Motorcycle built by Graham Sykes for drag racing, record breaking, exhibitions and events. Four years ago Graham brought along this amazing bike and told members about the project. Graham, a precision engineer from North Yorkshire, designed his rocket bike in his garden shed with his wife, Diane, over the … Continue reading “Steam Rocket Bike – Big Update…..”
Report on Ben King’s Talk – January 2026 John Aldersley attended the talk by Ben King on Thursday 29th January 2026 and kindly produced a report on the meeting. Here are John’s words….. Ben presented his talk using a Power Point presentation. It started with a little family history, which I found fascinating. He said the seed was set … Continue reading “Report on Ben King’s talk – 29th January 2026…..”
Results of the World Skills Competition Following on from the previous post, here are the results of the competition. Our council member Martins Golubevs won the Silver Medal. Well done Martins ! Martins’ colleague at Kirkstall Precision Engineering, Ben King (pictured below), won the Gold Medal. The photograph below was taken at the premises of Kirkstall Precision Engineering. Left to … Continue reading “Update on the World Skills Competition – Results…..”
Iron Ore from Western Australia Vas Dziombak, long time friend of John Aldersley, is our association member based in Western Australia. Vas is the Senior Reliability Engineer – Mechanical at the BHP Billiton mining site at Pilbara in Western Australia. He has put together a short PowerPoint type presentation (as a PDF link) for our members. Here is the link … Continue reading “Vas Dziombak – Our member in Australia…..”
John Aldersley has been following closely the progress of some of our young engineers and he reports here with some excellent news….. “I received a message from Cameron Pinder today. It appears that Martins Golubevs has done really well in the World Skills competition. He and Ben King have been taking part in the CAM and CNC milling competition possibly … Continue reading “World Skills – News of our Young Engineers…..”
Please note all those who have booked to attend the visit on Thursday 27th November… You are requested to read the PDF Induction Instructions prior to the visit. Visit the event page to download and read these instructions. Also note: Mr. Crabtree has requested that you reverse park cars on site….
