This great little poem showed up on alt.metalworking I thought it might be appreciated here...
The Designer
The designer sat at his drafting board, A wealth of knowledge in his head was stored. Like "What can be done on a radial drill, Or a turret lathe or a vertical mill?" But above all things a knack he had, For driving gentle machinists mad. So he mused as he thoughtfully scratched his bean, Just how can I make this thing hard to machine? If I make this perfect body straight, The job had ought to come out first rate. But it would be so easy to turn and bore, That it would never make the machinist sore. So I'll put a compound taper there, And a couple of angles to make them swear. And brass would work for this little gear, But it's too damned easy to work I fear. So just to make the machinist squeal, I'll have him mill it from tungsten steel. And I'll put these holes that hold the cap, Down underneath where they can't be tapped. Now if they can make this, it'll just be luck, Cause it can't be held by dog or chuck, And it can't be planed and it can't be ground, So I feel my design is unusually sound. Then he shouted with glee, "Success at last! This goddam thing can't even be cast!"