TechShop

[JordanGrant]

Ran into the following web site while surfing today. TechShop is apparently a fully equipped shop filled with the latest and greatest industrial tools that you can have full access to, for a standard monthly or yearly fee. They even have instructors and classes available to teach you how to use them. If only there was one of these available when I was building my RV-6! It would've been great for those one-off jobs when I just didn't have the right tool/machine available.

http://techshop.ws/index.html

[tonyjohnson]

The techshop idea is great. At this point, they have only one facility which is in California. If you don't have a tech shop in your town, you might have a very close option.

My local Vocational Tech school offers night classes. During the day, the people who attend the school are actually training to become machinists. There are "adult education" classes at night. There are usually about 8 of us in the class, all of whom have taken this same class every semester, one guy has taken it for over 10 years.

The first time you take it you learn how to operate the milling machines, lathes and other equipment. There is also an older CNC machine. The deal is, you pay your tuition for the semester, and you have access to the entire shop to make whatever you want. The only limitation is doing commercial work there.

I have taken the class three times and many of the parts of my 8A project were made there or cut, drilled, etc. there.

Until techshop is available in your area, you might want to check out the machinist classes at your local votech.

[pierre smith]

Great idea.
While we're on the subject, is there any place in the Southeast where I can go and learn to use an English wheel or is this something you learn on your own from a book?

Thanks,
Pierre