Jc Machinist Classes Still Live-for A Price

[visenfile]

A while back some of us were bemoaning the disappearance of junior college classes in machine shop practice. I was surprised recently to see the local college offering a manual machine class. I was considering taking a mill class until I saw the tuition. Yikes, the class would cost me over $400. In the "good ole 1990's" a person could go to nite classes in CA for about $50. Anyway, good to see something still being offered.

 

[P T Schram]

Education not only isn't cheap, it's priceless

I hesitate to think what it cost my parents to put me through six years at a fancy private college-but I do know how excited they were when o started paying for graduate school and my machine tool technology program as well

$400 for formal training is cheap compared to the things you'll learn (not to do)

 

[BGHansen]

Ah, the good old rising cost of education. I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University. Graduated in 1982 and paid $33 per credit hour (equivalent to $50 per semester hour). MSU is now up to something like $450 per semester hour. By the way, gas had just rolled to over $1 per gallon my senior year. So, cost of MSU has gone up by a factor of 9 in 34 years. Price of gas, no wheres near that. However, I'd hate to think where I'd be now without the degree. Probably wouldn't have my shop for starters!

Bruce

 

[dulltool17]

That's funny, Bruce. I graduated from Illinois in 1980, BSIE. Last semester's tuition was $832. I think it was 18 credit hours.

Youngest is a sophomore at a liberal arts school. Tuition is 10K per semester.

Still, like you, I'd not be in the comfortable and rewarding position I'm in if not for that degree.

 

[planeflyer21]

A friend who was a retired teacher used to like saying "You are going to pay for an education, like it or not. You can do it at school and learn from others' mistakes or you can make your own mistakes for several times the cost."

 

[eeler1]

Lassen college in susanville CA used to have two x one week summer machine shop classes. Oriented toward gunsmithing but covers the machines and you start making chips right away.

 

[wrmiller]

I managed to see the machine shop classroom here at the local JC. A few (very few) manual machines and a whole bunch of small cnc machines. I didn't ask any questions, but it looked like they were more interested in spitting out machine operators.

 

[Bob Korves]

In the early 1970's my GF at the time and I went to adult night school at a high school here in Sacramento. She took wood shop and I took metal shop. Wednesday nights from 6-9:00 pm. $20 per semester. Both classes were project based. You could make anything you wanted, use any of the tools you knew how to use, if not, ask the teacher or one of the old hands there for instruction. Help yourself to anything in the scrap bins, otherwise buy materials at their cost, by the inch, foot, or whatever. Welding rod and gases, tooling, solvents, safety glasses, gloves, and everything else was included for the $20. Nicely equipped shops. Great teachers. People built boat trailers, one guy built a 18" band saw, I helped him cast the brass pulleys, one fellow was making a run of carburetors for WWI LeRhone rotary aircraft engines. We attended those shop classes for years, and it also got me started in metalworking and into the truck and heavy equipment trade as a parts man. I would still be going there if they had not shut it down... ;-(

 

[visenfile]

Know well the expense of education having raised 3 daughters thru schools. Two are faring well in this new economy, the third was laid off a couple years back and is now one of the silent unemployed. My intent in this post was to support training and bemoan only from a hobbyist perspective. The curriculum here also mostly includes computer driven machines, but understandable. Until tuition comes down hobbyist will have to learn by doing and consulting this forum. But you need a machine like the lathe I'm considering.

 

[JPMacG]

Yes, 4 year private college is approaching a quarter of a million dollars.

Around here the vocational high school does offer a machining program. I have heard that they blow through manual operations in the first two weeks then it's on to CNC. I guess all the jobs are for CNC operators.