Would you join a metalworking club if there was one near you?

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HMF

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During my lifetime, I have been involved in a few hobbies.

Among them was model railroading and collecting Hummels. I belonged to clubs for both. Model railroading was 30 years ago. Hummels was about 15 years ago.
I always did better in clubs, watching others and learning. Online has never been much good for me. I am too visual and need to "see" what I need to do.
Plus, it is harder to communicate online in many ways.

So my question was, if you was a metalworking club near you, would you join? For those who already belong to one, how do you like it?

My answer is that if there was an active club near me where I felt comfortable, I would definitely join.


What about you?


Nelson
 
Yes, really think there is a benefit to actually seeing things rather than photos and words. I have been looking for a nearby club for a while

Axel
 
It's like driving a trolley car. There is no way I could have learned to drive a trolley car unless I had joined the Seashore Trolley museum when I was younger. Can't learn it from a book.

As for learning from mistakes- I once had the brakes delay on me when coming into the station, and I ran my car into the back of a newly restored New Orleans closed trolley car. The yardmaster wasn't happy at all, but that is how we all learn.

Nelson
 
author=Mayhem link=topic=2759.msg18915#msg18915 date=1310773311
author=Allthumbz link=topic=2759.msg18845#msg18845 date=1310703510
...I always did better in clubs, watching others and learning. Online has never been much good for me. I am too visual and need to "see" what I need to do...
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So why did you start a web site instead
author=Mayhem link=topic=2759.msg18915#msg18915 date=1310773311

author=Allthumbz link=topic=2759.msg18845#msg18845 date=1310703510
...I always did better in clubs, watching others and learning. Online has never been much good for me. I am too visual and need to "see" what I need to do...
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Nothing local for me. No short courses available either. It is an apprenticeship or nothing at the tech colleges.
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There were no home shop guys around me in Queens. There was a group that had meetings out on Long Island at Brookhaven Labs over an hour drive away without traffIc (LIMWS). I could never make the meetings due to tiem constraints. Then the guy who ran the group stepped down, and now the group has meetings every six months or so. I would love to have a group around here, but there is little industry left in NYC. Spaces to hold meetings are hard to find here in NYC where space is at a premium. I have posted on the group's email list for hsm's looking to start a round robin group.

Nelson
 
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Absolutely! Just having other like-minded individuals to talk with would be beneficial as well as informative.
It's kind of curious, I'm in NE Ohio and I know there are quite a few home shop machinists, some with quite well deserved reputations for excellence of their work, but evidently nothing in the way of local clubs, associations, whatever.

All the best,
Mike
 
author=platypus20 link=topic=2759.msg18923#msg18923 date=1310779753
Would I join a local metal work group if one was available??

Maybe, it would depend on how it was set up.

If there is a meeting hall, restaurant or some place to meet, possibly, the type that goes from member's shop to member's shop, would be hard, it would be impossible to have more than 2-3 people in my shop at any given time, due to the lack of space.

Is there a defined agenda, programs or its a glorified drinking club??

It would also depend on the membership blend, a group of 20 newbies and no one with actual experience for guidance could be a short lived disaster.

At times I do miss actual contact with people with the same interest, but if nothing else website groups like this do partially do fill the void.



jack
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The ideal club to me as a newbie would be where an experienced person has a lathe and/or mill there and shows the techniques. This would require a good-sized space, machine-accomodations like electricity, and a lathe and mill. If someone had a shop capable of holding a group of people this would be ideal. Having someone stand in front of the group and speak without showing the techniques isn't too useful. Going on "field trips" to old machine shops with belt driven machines or to places with new CNC machines is nice, but doesn't help either. Going to the shop of a live steamer is helpful, if he explains how he does things. A small group is likely all that can be accomodated.

Having a beer together is nice- comradery-wise, but how much can be learned about machining?

That was why I quit the local NAWCC (clock collectors club) chapter. They have a mart every month, on a Sunday when I go to church (I take it many of the members are non-church goers or Jewish), they buy and sell things, have a speaker, and that's it. No training. Another member and I tried to organize a clock-repair training session, I even got a location, and it went nowhere. I will be taking the NCC (Nassau Community College) class to learn.

Unfortunately, the local community college no longer gives classes in machining. I suppose it is because of the lack of manufacturing around here anymore (labor and operating costs are too high here).
The situation makes it hard to learn and hard to get a group of guys together to teach one another.


Nelson
 
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author=Pauls77 link=topic=2759.msg18948#msg18948 date=1310850806
To answer the simple question; heck yes.

I'd even be willing to work on club administration tasks, such as publishing minutes.
But I work full-time, own a business, and I don't need another full-time job.

There are some well known HSM clubs that seem to be very successful.

CAMS & the one in the SF Bay Area are two that come to mind.

I wonder what they do/did that makes them successful?

Anyone know someone in a leadership position in a successful club that could advise people who may want to start one?

People seem to shy away from "Formality" in a club. But it seems to me that some kind of system is needed to keep things going. Maybe it doesn't need to be "Roberts Rules of Order", but it should be an "Institution" not a "Personality". Institutions have some kind of formal structure & bylaws that survive the loss of any individual. They share the burden too, and the leadership is legitimized via some kind of a democratic selection process.

I don't know what's so wrong about real dues either. I'd pay $25-$50-$100 a year for a good club membership. That would maybe rent a hall, or go toward events.

I'd also like to give back to the community if there is an opportunity. Projects that help others would be a satisfying way to use our unique skills and equipment. I'm thinking of some of the groups I've heard that rebuild old airplanes or historic items and such, all as volunteers.

We need your organizational skills and enthusiasm here Nelson. I vote for you as President. :)

PaulS
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The key in the NYC-LI area is to get a space where you could have a small lathe and small mill to use to show.

Then you could train members in how to use each of them. There has to be a tech school somewhere around with some machines left, though I don't know where.
There is a farm museum in Bellerose- they have a woodworking shop with a guy who makes a lot of stuff and fixes a lot of stuff. I wonder if they would entertain having some people build a metal shop on their grounds. Insurance and liability is always an issue here as well. People get hurt- they sue, no matter what they did to cause it.

If the LIMWS was closer to me, I would have attended and tried to keep it going, but it is farther out on LI than I can get on a work day.
I would be interested in helping get something started, but I don't see anything happening at the moment.


Nelson
 
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