Class / Projects for Beginners

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ivusi

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Hello All
I have been looking for information on classes / projects for beginners like myself on the forum with little success on what I am specifically looking for.

There is such a wealth of knowledge on this wonderful forum and I would like to propose a place where beginners can get information in a more structured way.
What I mean is that there should be come sort of curriculum that one can progress through without fear of missing a step within the learning process.
For example, we could start off with a section, "Purchasing the lathe, milling machine or whatever, with what to look for in new, old etc" followed by another section "Its in my shop, now what" which could discuss things like balancing and leveling the machines etc.

What I am trying to say is that it would be nice for beginners to have a "road map" that we could build up our knowledge on without worrying if there is a step we might have missed or even one of those moments "jeez I didn't even know the machine could do that" type of thing :)

Within this road map there could be small exercises / projects at each stage we could do to build on the knowledge learned thus giving the right foundation to go onto the intermediate / advanced stuff.
I realise that the subject matter would have to come from the more senior and experienced members who have most probably done this all their lives and would want to do this like they need another hole in their head :)

I am still waiting for my Optimum lathe to arrive, but am awaiting with a bit of trepidation with a "have I bitten off more than I can chew" thought lurking at the back of my mind. I keep thinking I wish there was a road map for me to follow.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure everyone will say "do some formal training somewhere etc" however I have a 8-5 job and time is limited what with family commitments during the weekends, house DIY etc that leaves me the evenings sort of free once the kids are in bed.

Anyway it just my 2c worth, and wondered what thoughts you guys/girls might have? If you tell me to **** off - I understand :)
Cheers
Wallis
 
Nice idea!

I started by reading what I could find and it really didn't help me much. I break tools everyday trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. It would be nice to have someone look over my shoulder every once in a while...
 
No Wallis we wont tell you that.. Myself I probably am the last to conform with this mordern world; however I cant live without Utube.
None of this was around when I went to school calculators not invented yet black & white TV ruled we counted beans on our fingers. Now
its all on utube free. I just watched a guy smellting alum in a micro wave??? well he did it. You name it, its in there. But I suggest you
watch the old school guys and machines, ya gotta crawl before you walk. You know the greatest achivements were made by those never
finishing grammer school most were farm boys, my grandfather took my father from sixth grade to pick tomatoes, my father hated farming,
worked in a machine sweat shop and ended up owning it, which I still run. Me, I slept'ed thru school all I ever learned was from the old
timers. When I started in this racket, I just about locked myself in there with these monster eating machines until I dared to get close
enough to feed them. They all got big biting teeth, you first better first respect that. Even at my age, I know better to stay away from
my cat when he's eating turkey or I better get out the band aids the cat dont care same as the spinning machines dont care.
 
Thanks Groenie - nice to see a fellow Saffa on the board :) and to you GK for the responses.

I agree , YouTube is great, however I get the feeling I'm walking across a thin frozen lake with DANGER notices placed all around! There is so much information that I would prefer someone showed me the route I need to take as opposed to walking blindly and hoping I wont fall through the ice!


I suppose I should ask, " Has anyone done formal classes on the Lathe and Milling Machine and if so what was the curriculum?" I don't need course notes etc, (if you did have them that would be great!) - I need the various chapters describing what needs to be learnt in a structured way - ie what follows what, so that I can then do my own research.
Cheers!
 
Wallis,

I am currently up to my elbows designing a website (I'm better at machining than web design) to better present my instructional videos. In addition I'll be including a section of what I call project tutorials, where the viewer can follow along on provided drawings and view a video tutorial where I build the project from start to finish. The projects are designed by me to actually be useful and are carefully chosen to include as many basic machining practices as possible. I'm working on the first one now and have an additional ten or so in mind, each a bit more advanced than the last. It should be fun.

I hope to have the website on line within the next month and will announce it here and on my YouTube channel.

Tom
 
GK1918 said:
No Wallis we wont tell you that.. Myself I probably am the last to conform with this mordern world; however I cant live without Utube.
None of this was around when I went to school calculators not invented yet black & white TV ruled we counted beans on our fingers. Now
its all on utube free. I just watched a guy smellting alum in a micro wave??? well he did it. You name it, its in there. But I suggest you
watch the old school guys and machines, ya gotta crawl before you walk. You know the greatest achivements were made by those never
finishing grammer school most were farm boys, my grandfather took my father from sixth grade to pick tomatoes, my father hated farming,
worked in a machine sweat shop and ended up owning it, which I still run. Me, I slept'ed thru school all I ever learned was from the old
timers. When I started in this racket, I just about locked myself in there with these monster eating machines until I dared to get close
enough to feed them. They all got big biting teeth, you first better first respect that. Even at my age, I know better to stay away from
my cat when he's eating turkey or I better get out the band aids the cat dont care same as the spinning machines dont care.
Click to expand...

Do you have pictures of your shop? That would be fun to see!

- - - Updated - - -

TomG said:
Wallis,

I am currently up to my elbows designing a website (I'm better at machining than web design) to better present my instructional videos. In addition I'll be including a section of what I call project tutorials, where the viewer can follow along on provided drawings and view a video tutorial where I build the project from start to finish. The projects are designed by me to actually be useful and are carefully chosen to include as many basic machining practices as possible. I'm working on the first one now and have an additional ten or so in mind, each a bit more advanced than the last. It should be fun.

I hope to have the website on line within the next month and will announce it here and on my YouTube channel.

Tom
Click to expand...

Tom

What an excellent idea!
 
Tom - That sounds fantastic ! Thats exactly what we beginners need - to be able to follow your videos, with other beginners would be great. To have a good foundation and then build on that ensures good habits and hopefully good results :)
Please let me know what your youtube ID is - definitely would like to have a look see.

Let us know when your site is ready !
 
There is a great how to series for the lathe and mill. It is called the Workshop Practice Series. Each book explores a certain skill or type of machine or a special use tool like a dividing head or rotary table. You can buy those books in any order you like and if you follow the directions in the books you will build some nice workshop gadgets along the way. Unfortunately there is no clear road map to success on these machines because so many folks do so many different thing that some skills are unique to some types of work, like gun smiting and making replica engines. The MIT also has a series on You tube as well as Glacern Machine Tool that is a pretty basic crash course in milling and basic lathe use. The best book available by far is also the South Bend how to operate a lathe. It takes you through unpacking, cleaning and adjusting a machine and explains how the levers and knobs all work. You will also have a plethora of knowledge available here nearly 24/7 so that should take pretty good care of getting you started safely and getting you comfortable with the equipment and what it is capable of doing both for and to you. Welcome to the addiction and I promise you once you get way oil in your blood you will not be able to stop buying machines and materials for a long time to come.

Bob
 
TomG said:
Wallis,

I am currently up to my elbows designing a website (I'm better at machining than web design) to better present my instructional videos. In addition I'll be including a section of what I call project tutorials, where the viewer can follow along on provided drawings and view a video tutorial where I build the project from start to finish. The projects are designed by me to actually be useful and are carefully chosen to include as many basic machining practices as possible. I'm working on the first one now and have an additional ten or so in mind, each a bit more advanced than the last. It should be fun.

I hope to have the website on line within the next month and will announce it here and on my YouTube channel.

Tom
Click to expand...


Hey TomG

Just went out to look at your channel and image my surprise when I realized how many of them I had seen. Really great job on these. ​I just subscribed to your channel. On occasion I teach a machine shop class to product designers here at the University. I would love to see the site you are working on and would be happy to share some of my notes as well.

I like the idea of maybe making little courses that people here could use in ordered steps to learn. I know there are some people here with some skills I would love to learn. When I sat down to design my last class I found a huge lack of information about surface grinding for example.

Jeff

Jeff
 
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