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 from his Grandad who worked with wood and this interest came through for Ben at school. Ben was lucky to attend a secondary school that realised that engineering was important; I believe this was Leeds Grammar School and he produced a CNC turned part in brass which he had a picture to show. Along with some wooden furniture he had created was a very nice desk. Ben also has a passion for cars, which is not uncommon.
He should have been taking his A-levels but this was during Covid and the exams did not take place and so Ben applied for a university position which he got on predicted results. This was then demoted by the government , losing his university place, only to be then reinstated, so university was back on but he lost his ‘digs’. The only interaction he had with the university was to pick up a Chrome Book. Ben said he dropped out and didn’t know what to do.
All was not lost as he decided that working and learning was the way forward as he still wanted to learn, (but like myself felt university wasn’t the ‘be all and end all’ with around 48% of young people going, that figure would have been in the low single figures 50 years ago). Ben visited with his step-mum the apprentice fair at Leeds and had a good look around and was drawn to a table with some metal parts on it and a sign with the company name ‘Kirkstall Precision’. Ben got talking to one of the owners and noticed there was a young chap with them. The talk went well and Ben and step-mum went off. As they did the young chap tapped Ben on the shoulder and presented a business card (for one of the owners) if he wanted to get in touch later.
This was like a lot of things in life ‘an opening’ and Ben returned a little later and was offered a visit to the company, which led to Ben being offered a position as an apprentice machinist. When he started he got to know the young chap (as I did when meeting him along with Martins, Isaac and on one occasion Harvey at Leeds City College) it was Cameron Pinder.
Ben started on CNC turning, but the younger members of Kirkstall were so keen that they had been drawn to World Skills. One of them had taken part in milling while I believe he was living abroad and come to the UK to sharpen his skills. This appeal of World Skills, with Cameron having already taken part, led to Ben learning a CAD/CAM system called Fusion 360 (for those who need more info please look online ‘CNC and CAM’ there is plenty to see both for novices and the curious). With help from Cameron and others, he started making CNC milling programs using Fusion 360. This led to milling parts with all of this being done in his own time.
An opportunity was had when the 5-axis Brother machine that the company had bought needed a person to run it. That sounds like a button presser, but no, we are talking about a person to run the machine, set the machine and more over program the machine. For an apprentice to be offered this is exceptional and most companies would require a skilled person with several years of experience. Ben said it took a few weeks to get to know the machine, being shown by a skilled colleague. After getting to know what the machine can do and how to set the machine using the probe to establish datums, Ben then started to program the machine and cut metal.
Now I have spent a lot of my time around CNC machines and I have to say how I am impressed with the skill level of Ben (and Cameron, Martins, Isaac and Harvey). It is quite remarkable how Ben has learned to do all of this in a very short time. Ben brought (wrapped up in clean socks, some parts both from work and World Skills). Some parts could have only been produced on a 5-axis machine and were very complex. Ben casually said he had spent a couple of hours doing the program, like it was a piece of cake to do that.
We have covered the World Skills event in previous posts so please have a look on the website to see how Ben and Martins went on.
My conclusion following Ben’s talk was that engineering is in safe hands. The Leeds Association of Engineers has a very bright future with Ben and friends leading the way. I also must mention M.A. Ford, who have helped Cameron and then Ben and Martins by supplying expertise, tools and more over full backing from the directors, just exactly why the association was formed in 1865.
Afterwards, talking with Sam Wilkinson (of WDS), Harvey and Ben mentioned they attend college with two apprentices from WDS and these friendships can last throughout your working lives. I hope that we can have regular updates on what our younger members are doing as the association is extremely proud to have these young engineers as active members. It is going to be great to see what the future holds for them all.
I must also mention that Isaac Auty has ‘come out of his time’ and is now skilled, Martins Golubevs is the same and has chosen to move on and is now at ‘Claro Precision’ in Harrogate. Cameron Pinder has chosen to concentrate on World Skills and will succeed at that (hopefully with some financial support from sponsors). Harry Soutar is in his final year on his robotics course at the University of Leeds and is planning to do his masters. A talk will be happening in the future.
John Aldersley – January 2026
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