Will they let you go without going for a degree. I have been out of school over 30 years and have no desire to do all the other stuff to get the degree? Just want to do old school hobby machine work at home. I am in Vincennes everyday so I think I will stop by and talk to them.
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Machinist Classes
- Thread starter hrearden
- Start date
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Will they let you go without going for a degree. I have been out of school over 30 years and have no desire to do all the other stuff to get the degree? Just want to do old school hobby machine work at home. I am in Vincennes everyday so I think I will stop by and talk to them.
heres the reality.......
when the cnc opererator is done reading the paper sipping on his coffee or BSing with his his buddy and realizes that he was to lazy to ck and change inserts, he has how may pieces that need to to b what we called REWORK which had to b done where?
on a manual machine.
kinda ironic....
Well I'm not sure if you will only be able to take just a few classes because most of the classes are very long. All of my mold and die classes were 4-5 hours a day m-friday and that was just one class. Some of the other were only 2-3 hours long. Also the teachers DO NOT screw around with any of the punk kids like everyone has seen in tech classes in high school. VU has one of the most prestigious manufacturing courses in the US and have placed people all over. By the way i am in no way involved with VU I just really enjoyed my classes there and have a great job building parts for NHRA race cars now, so you could say its a dream come true!
It's quite easy to get a job in a machine shop. Everybody is hiring. But they all want to pay $11/hr. and have you start on the night shift. One week paid vacation after a year and 2 weeks after 5 years. Try supporting your family on that. If machine shops started paying a wage a guy could support a family on, soon you would have plenty of guys with skills wanting the jobs. But somebody who has invested years of their life in training, schooling and work experiences doesn't want an $11/hr. job.
Last 25 years I've been a CNC machinist in the automotive industry. As someone said in an earlier post it is definitely a plus if you've had some old-school machining experience. I started out on the Bridgeport but a lot of the new guys we see today have done nothing except CNC. You can definitely tell about how they troubleshoot things.
That being said I don't see much use for gunsmith to know too much CNC unless you plan on building custom guns exclusively in high production. If you're in goal is to work for a firearms manufactured I suggest going out and getting a machinist job anywhere. Gain the experience and then go find the job you really want.
You can find me at CNC ZONE forum under the same username.
That being said I don't see much use for gunsmith to know too much CNC unless you plan on building custom guns exclusively in high production. If you're in goal is to work for a firearms manufactured I suggest going out and getting a machinist job anywhere. Gain the experience and then go find the job you really want.
You can find me at CNC ZONE forum under the same username.
Not sure where you are located, but the Walker Career Center at Warren Cental High School on the east side of Indy has adult classes that include machining. I received something back in the late summer in the mail and I believe the class was like $1500 with a certificate. Couldn't find the direct link to the actual class, but here is the Walker link. Might try any of the Career Centers associated with a high scholl near you.
ae
Almost forgot but if you purchase any of the new General Motors (government motors) 2014 trucks that have the 5.3L, 4.3L, or 6.2L engines in them. Then you are driving something that I've worked on for the last year. Machining those pistons for the new engines. And I'm happy to say we can do each one in less than 12 seconds each and we do it 24 hours a day right here in the USA (INDIANA).
I am a journeyman toolmaker who has done just about everything you can do to a piece-o-metal. I currently design and program NCs to build large injection molds. I am a far better designer/programmer for having done it the old fashioned way. I served an apprenticeship under off the boat German toolmakers who could build just about anything with a 6 inch scale and a file. When I tinker on my personal firearms, I don't go anywhere near an NC machine. Manual lathes, Bridgeports, or good old fashioned hand work are the most important skills you can have to be a good gunsmith.
All the above advice about getting a job in a machine shop is spot on. Better yet, but nearly impossible, find a shop where you can serve a four year apprenticeship as a mold maker, tool and die maker, or whatever. It's a tough road but IMHO, it's better investment than any 4 year degree. You don't just learn to machine parts, you will learn to think. Think about how the parts you are making work. How they interact, what's important and what's not. There are very few old school toolmakers left. Find a shop that still has some, and absorb all the knowledge you can from them. The wonderful world of CNCs isn't going anywhere, you can learn that anytime. But the skills of the old timers are disappearing by the day.
All the above advice about getting a job in a machine shop is spot on. Better yet, but nearly impossible, find a shop where you can serve a four year apprenticeship as a mold maker, tool and die maker, or whatever. It's a tough road but IMHO, it's better investment than any 4 year degree. You don't just learn to machine parts, you will learn to think. Think about how the parts you are making work. How they interact, what's important and what's not. There are very few old school toolmakers left. Find a shop that still has some, and absorb all the knowledge you can from them. The wonderful world of CNCs isn't going anywhere, you can learn that anytime. But the skills of the old timers are disappearing by the day.
CathyInBlue
Grandmaster
I don't supposed there is anyone here with knowledge of the IVYTech Terre Haute ADMF core who could direct me who to talk to there about learning ye olde timey milling machines. I'm a smart girl, but getting a bunch of old timer guys on the job to recognize my ability to absorb their wisdom and then teach it to me, well, that would be a part of my education I dread most.
CathyInBlue
Grandmaster
I'm a steampunk who wants to open a museum of deadtech. Who better to perpetuate it than me?
First, don't try to explain to them what a steampunk is. Second, don't refer to their skills and methods as "deadtech".
The best guys I ever worked for were hard for most people to get along with. They were demanding and impatient. You just have to do it their way and accept that there is a method to their madness. As you progress, they may share that method, or they may leave it up to you to figure out. While they will try to hide it, they just want to be appreciated like anyone else. Where they differ from many younger people is that they see their self worth as being tied directly to the skills they possess. They were not brought up in a time where everyone got a trophy and high self esteem was a birthright. Acknowledgement and respect for their skills, plus some very selective arse-kissing goes a long ways.
OK, I'll ask. What's a steampunk? Also, I'm an old timer who started out in a shop machining one offs for the space shuttle. One part that we did took 20 10 hr shifts on a Bridgeport mill to do and that's after we had done a couple. If you're smart you can learn the basics of milling in a couple of weeks but that won't make you a wizard, just a rank beginner. I worked in a number of different tool & die/machine shops in Indianapolis and each had their niche or specialty. Without experience like that you will always be a beginner. I mean no offense, I'm just stating truth. Feel free to contact me with any questions that you have, it does depress me at times that what I've learned may die with me and I do love to teach.
CathyInBlue
Grandmaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
And just because I call it "deadtech" does not mean I do not respect it. For crying out loud, I want to fill an entire massive museum full of it to show it off and preserve its skills and knowledge forever.
The Victorian Age, 1840-1900, was really the last time a person could graduate from compulsory schooling and possibly know everything there was to know about science and technology of the day. From high school graduate, nearly anyone could go on to be what we today would call a "garage tinkerer" and build an industrial empire on the basis of one's own inventiveness alone. Today, with the exceptions of very few (Apple, Facebook, etc.), it's not nearly as easy to build such an enterprise on the vision of one or a small group of individuals. If you do not go to work for a massive international mega-conglomerate, the tools and techniques of high technology is now out of reach of the individual. Show me an individual that can manufacture an HD touchscreen in their garage.
The character of the inventions are distinct as well. A Victorian Era machine was open by design. You could literally look into the machine and see all of its gear works. The materials were timeless: brass, glass, steel, porcelain, stone, wood. Compare a player piano, ca. 1880 with an iPod. In aesthetic terms, the modern epoxied-shut plastic technology has no soul. It may be highly functional and highly convenient and highly portable, but it's also highly ugly. Why do you think there's such a market for cell phone cases? No one wants to see the soulless plastic monstrosities.
I want to recapture the craftsmanship of days gone by. Gunsmithing may be the last bastion of high technology sole proprietorship industry, but there's no reason for it. There are still massive machines that modern technologic life depends on that if the ability to maintain them were lost, all the robots in the world would not be able to restore such functionality. There is no reason an individual should not be technicly capable of designing and building a highly efficient and highly powerful turbine engine in his garage that will drink anything that will burn and do so cleanly. Once we're talking about tolerances in the sub-1/1000th of an inch range, even devices seemingly belonging only to the modern era, like fuel cells, become doable on century-old machines. I've seen in this thread alone, multiple references to building parts destined for space vehicles.
My museum concept would require that nothing can be exhibitted save for that for which all of the technology which lead up to it and which is necessary for the exhibit's maintenance and manufacture from truly raw materials was not itself also an exhibit somewhere in the complex. To that end, there would be a lot of metallurgy and smelting exhibits to get the raw alloys that could then represent the machine tools themselves which could then be used to manufacture any other device, including electrical and automotive devices. An automotive collection would have to start, not from the Model A, but with the horse itself, following on to chariots, carts, wagons, carriages, and then automobiles of all manner of propulsion systems, electric, steam, compressed air, etc. It would have to include things like synthetic chemistry and rubber to make the upholstery, belts, hoses, and tires. All of that on-site manufacturing acumen created and maintained by the machine tool exhibits. Preserved and practiced in perpetuity.
For that matter, I'm pretty hard to get along with myself.
:P
And just because I call it "deadtech" does not mean I do not respect it. For crying out loud, I want to fill an entire massive museum full of it to show it off and preserve its skills and knowledge forever.
The Victorian Age, 1840-1900, was really the last time a person could graduate from compulsory schooling and possibly know everything there was to know about science and technology of the day. From high school graduate, nearly anyone could go on to be what we today would call a "garage tinkerer" and build an industrial empire on the basis of one's own inventiveness alone. Today, with the exceptions of very few (Apple, Facebook, etc.), it's not nearly as easy to build such an enterprise on the vision of one or a small group of individuals. If you do not go to work for a massive international mega-conglomerate, the tools and techniques of high technology is now out of reach of the individual. Show me an individual that can manufacture an HD touchscreen in their garage.
The character of the inventions are distinct as well. A Victorian Era machine was open by design. You could literally look into the machine and see all of its gear works. The materials were timeless: brass, glass, steel, porcelain, stone, wood. Compare a player piano, ca. 1880 with an iPod. In aesthetic terms, the modern epoxied-shut plastic technology has no soul. It may be highly functional and highly convenient and highly portable, but it's also highly ugly. Why do you think there's such a market for cell phone cases? No one wants to see the soulless plastic monstrosities.
I want to recapture the craftsmanship of days gone by. Gunsmithing may be the last bastion of high technology sole proprietorship industry, but there's no reason for it. There are still massive machines that modern technologic life depends on that if the ability to maintain them were lost, all the robots in the world would not be able to restore such functionality. There is no reason an individual should not be technicly capable of designing and building a highly efficient and highly powerful turbine engine in his garage that will drink anything that will burn and do so cleanly. Once we're talking about tolerances in the sub-1/1000th of an inch range, even devices seemingly belonging only to the modern era, like fuel cells, become doable on century-old machines. I've seen in this thread alone, multiple references to building parts destined for space vehicles.
My museum concept would require that nothing can be exhibitted save for that for which all of the technology which lead up to it and which is necessary for the exhibit's maintenance and manufacture from truly raw materials was not itself also an exhibit somewhere in the complex. To that end, there would be a lot of metallurgy and smelting exhibits to get the raw alloys that could then represent the machine tools themselves which could then be used to manufacture any other device, including electrical and automotive devices. An automotive collection would have to start, not from the Model A, but with the horse itself, following on to chariots, carts, wagons, carriages, and then automobiles of all manner of propulsion systems, electric, steam, compressed air, etc. It would have to include things like synthetic chemistry and rubber to make the upholstery, belts, hoses, and tires. All of that on-site manufacturing acumen created and maintained by the machine tool exhibits. Preserved and practiced in perpetuity.
For that matter, I'm pretty hard to get along with myself.
:P
pinshooter45
Master
I love Steampunk! I'll visit your museum when you get is open, good luck!
