Budding mechanical engineer ideas needed

[badabec]

Hello, my granddaughter (Lilli) is 13. Her father (my son) is a chemical engineer for Schlumberger, the oil industry services giant. Her other grandfather also worked for Schlumberger. And her aunt.
Lilli fancies a career in mechanical engineering.
Lilli would like a kit or some sort of build or repair to check her 'engineering' abilities.
I'm not quite sure what to recommend. Lego Technic? Or too easy?
She is at boarding school so doesn't have the space for a Triumph 2000 lathe and a Bridgeport.
Any ideas?

 

[Wildefalcon]

Lego technic + mind storms. It's mechanical, but also programming, which is a good mix to have.

 

[Wildefalcon]

Plus a Landrover to rebuild over the holidays.

 

[keithski122]

I bought the mindstorms robot kit a year ago for the kids, fantastic kit that I would of killed for when I was a child, unfortunately mine showed no interest in it so I sold it again before xmas.

 

[stuvy]

A project at home would be good to understand how things work with other associated parts

Would be good as a family build too

 

[Robbie260]

RC Lego technic or mindstorms, though I always just had lego. Older mechano. Rebuild a quad or motor bike. I never got to do any of these things growing up. Though I always picked up stuff anything and started making or fidiling if it was broken. Fixed the dryer when I was 14, put plugs on things, maybe call it a natural pre disposition too it etc. It depends on her as a person too. Is she the hands on type of mechanical engineer who likes to get down and dirty or dose she wish to do more of the office based research and design. I'd ask her where she sees herself. Then maybe get go more in the direction she thinks interests her the most maybe getting a 3d printer and cad may be more appropriate.

Though as a hands on mechanical engineer encourage her to be hands on even if she just wants to do research or design. My grandpa who was many kinds of hands on and then eventually design engineer over his life told me the most important thing of all. No one should be allowed to design anything till they have had too work on it or similar. Truest statement ever said in my humble opinion.

Also there is no such thing as a purely mechanical engineer any more it's more a blend of mechanical, electrical and electronics.

The best skill for her to try to develop is how to visualise how a machine or system is working, just by looking at it or a drawing. I have always found this pretty easy and it makes life an awful lot easier in the long run in comparison to mates who really struggled/couldn't do it.

Best of luck to her some of the best engineers I know are girls.

 

[Screwdriver]

Buy her a tool. I thoroughly recommend Bosch 12v drill/driver or somesuch. They're a really decent size.

Take it completely apart and send her the bits.

 

[badabec]

I'd not heard of Mindstorms so thanks for the idea, I knew of Technic.
An old Landy or similar old nail wouldn't be bad, except the price of old nails keeps going up.
Maybe a crabby motorbike. Or knackered ride-on mower.
I'm assuming now she wants to do this at home.

 

[addjunkie]

I'd not heard of Mindstorms so thanks for the idea, I knew of Technic.
An old Landy or similar old nail wouldn't be bad, except the price of old nails keeps going up.
Maybe a crabby motorbike. Or knackered ride-on mower.
I'm assuming now she wants to do this at home.

Old bike if its for a home, as there is the big buzz at the end of riding it when finished.
Depending which school she goes to, do they not have such groups for the free time fillers. Both my kids boarded for a while and their free time was usually filled with activities, there was always the “non sporty options”. One being a go cart build.

 

[rtcosic]

Plus a Landrover to rebuild over the holidays.

Exactly what the eldest got for his 13th birthday!

The rule in our house has been: before learning to drive, first build your car.

Eldest had it hardest as the Land Rover was a typical ex-farmer's Series dragged out from under a tree. But he had his 2 younger brothers to help.
The middle one got away with using Mum's car as we were overseas but had to maintain our old Rover 800 to use whilst at university and then 'refresh' a typical ancient MX-5 for his first car.
Youngest had to 'refresh' the then very well used Rover 800 for his driving lessons.

Or as @addjunkie suggests buy a non-running Chinese scooter for pennies and rebuild that in the bedroom.

 

[JMS1972]

Not sure if it's suitable but a 3D printer and tinkercad could get her designing and making things pretty quickly.

 

[Red'n'Black]

Another +1 for Meccano, that was how I learned a lot of my mechanical skills as a kid. I just sold all mine recently, fetched a lot more than I was expecting.

Neither of mine have much interest in engineering but the youngest is definitely the more practical of the two, she got a cordless drill for her 12th and is quite happy assembling flat-pack furniture etc.

 

[Cuthy246]

My childhood consisted of lego, lego technic and mindstorms, meccano and after a birthday present of a socket set (I think to stop me pinching my dads) anything I could get my hands on to take apart

 

[bourbon]

Buy her a tool. I thoroughly recommend Bosch 12v drill/driver or somesuch. They're a really decent size.

Take it completely apart and send her the bits.

That's a good call.

 

[Kayos]

Bought this for my lad (9)

Instructions were terrible and needed a bit of fettling, good fun once running so could be ideal?

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[ChrisBailey]

The lego stuff is good for teaching a broader range of skills.
Theres the actaul mechanical bit if building a lego object, but then there is all the control bits with the electronic control packs they come with.
They have bluetooth and motors etc, so teaches more of the other aspects of engineering.

 

[gaz1]

@optima21 has proven that his hobbymat

lathe and milling machine can do everything on a small scale something which she can learn on and also build things with

 

[julianthegypsy]

Plus a Landrover to rebuild over the holidays.

She's only fourteen, that's far too young to make a lifelong commitment!

 

[willie.macleod]

@optima21 has proven that his hobbymat

lathe and milling machine can do everything on a small scale something which she can learn on and also build things with

And there's a Hobbymat lathe up in the for sale section just now that needs a little tlc!