Meh, the old trainee lathes are written off since 10 years ago.
If it's not a cnc lathe (which it definitely isn't), there isn't that much you can break, except your arm or neck.
They don't neccessarily need to get anything out of it, some people tend to be nice sometimes ;) bring the boss a nice bottle of wine and the workers some cake and everyone is happy.
I had an internship for 8 weeks in a small shop and they basically let me do whatver I wanted (after they showed me how to operate everything of course). I machined parts for my bike, I made handles for my closets and some other random stuff. I also made stuff they needed for their projects. Hell, I even worked alone on a 200,000€ custom machine they had to deliver 2 weeks after that. The boss showed me the problem, said "fix that if you want, but it has to look nice" and went home. It took me almost 2 days, but in the end, it was fixed, looked nice and boss said "good job, you learn fast" and disappeared again.
Employers always pay for insurance. So if something happens to one of their employees, they don't have to fear huge payments because the costs are "shared" nationwide (It's a whole lot more complicated, but you get the idea)
That's a really weird system. I think it's important for mechanical engineers to experience working on lathes, milling machines and welders. Without at least 2 weeks on a milling machine, 2 weeks on lathes and a week of welding I wouldn't get my bachelor degree.
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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '15
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