It's been almost two years since I started working as an engineer, 6 months since I started in the aerospatial industry as a materials&processes eng. And there's this thing I noticed: 80% of the things I deal are not easy-access.
I mean, I always end up wasting time, stuck into finding what hell of an ASTM standard is out there for nickel alloy welding, or where I can find the density of the Whateverflom-Butidontnyl polymer or similar stuff.
It is not that I haven't got resources, we have handbooks, manuals, catalogues, access to standard-downloading pay websites and whatnot...
...but it happens more than usually that the component I'm searching for is highly marginal and with so few data available, and I have to look endlessly until I find the property I want into an obscure reference hidden into the darkest place of the archive or into a link in the internet, just before I was about to retreat.
I use this site a lot, and it helps, but sometimes it isn't enough.
Do you, senior engineers, have the same problem or is it that I haven't mastered the art of search or something?