TAPE, Your explanation 'convinced me' that you were some sort of mechanical engineer genius.
Thanks for clarifying me that you 'ain't one'.
I've always wanted to go to college and learn how to design and construct those long manufacturing lines that create automobiles or insert food in cans with no need of human intervention ..... but I didn't know what to call that course of study.
But I still watch "How Things are Made" once in a while on TV.
Robotics is cool stuff from what I've seen. I haven't really studied it but it's amazing what can get done with pneumatics & hydraulics for grunt, electric for actuation, and computer control. I've been boning up more on fluid management, valving, pumps, and hydraulics, so guess I'm guilty of 'projection' when it comes to the leg press.
Just the machining processes and all the nifty ways people have figured out to shape durable materials like different steels really interests me. Wish I had more time to get informed but a true machinist is someone with a lifetime in his trade. Those guys get all my respect...especially when I want something expensive cut after scratching my head for a week and they just show me a better way right there on the spot.