How did you get into engineering?
I’m just the latest iteration in a line of engineers, but I’m the first one that sits in an office. My dad owns and operates AJ Engineering, a well-known jobbing workshop in Timaru, which he bought off his dad when I was a wee tot. So I grew up playing around the workshop with my brother, and before I left primary school I had begun helping out in the weekends with sweeping floors and making parts from roughly scribbled drawings in a notebook for his ute decks and for other jobs.
What do you enjoy most about mechanical engineering?
Mechanical engineering is basically a more complicated version of the old lego and k-nex assemblies I used to have fun building as a kid, but now I’m the one creating the designs and instructions. I definitely enjoy any opportunity to help out on the floor and get hands-on with my designs, which is always the best way to find things I can improve. I like the essentially infinite scope of the mechanical profession and being able to combine many different specialist fields into a unique assembly, and the satisfaction of seeing a working product at the end.
Where and what did you study?
I did the honours Mechanical Engineering degree at Canterbury University
What engineering experience did you have before you came to Caliber?
Besides the practical experience at my Dad’s business, and other work during uni holidays such as a stint at Scotts Engineering—a boiler makers outfit that had barely changed since the 60s—I did my first ~3.5 years out of university at Angus Robertson Mechanical. They design and manufacture bespoke rollforming and coil processing machines. Here, among many other things, I became the lead designer on their popular dual level roofing lines and was also in charge of the regular batches of trailer mountable gutter machines.
What makes working for Caliber different from the other engineering companies you’ve worked for?
First off of course is the variety of work, the seconded model is unique and I like the ability to job-hop and meet new people, learn new processes and about new areas of engineering on an accelerated scale. I am already learning a lot and can see it naturally shaping me into a more well-rounded engineer.
Is there a particular project that’s been a highlight of your career?
Maybe a highlight but also the most stressful project, my first ever rollform tooling design. This was an industrial roofing profile with 4 tall ribs, for not one but two brand new machines. With much of the initial design done working from home with a broken collarbone. No pressure, hey? Best feeling was after many late nights in the factory when I managed to tune the profile into spec reliably for the first time.
What would your dream project be?
Something I’ve had in my head for a good while now, pending the budget, is to design and build an electric downhill bike that has at least the same power to weight ratio as my XR200R. But more generally I want to be part of any project that will have a lessening effect on the climate crisis and mass extinction event that I was born into.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
If I’m not plonked on the deck with a beer and my mates, I might be out adventuring, mountainbiking, skiing, or thrashing one of my motorbikes.