Our community college offers CNC classes. Does anyone have any idea if this is super basic stuff or I could benefit from it. Thanks
- posted
13 years ago
Our community college offers CNC classes. Does anyone have any idea if this is super basic stuff or I could benefit from it. Thanks
Do they have a course outline online? Perhaps you could email the instructor with your questions?
If it's cheap enough I expect you could benefit from it. Even if the main part of the course covers things you've already learned I expect it might fill in some gaps, and if the instructor is good they can probably cover some more advanced stuff for you.
Did you get my email about two arbors that you forgot to take? I can mail them to you.
i
That "if the instructor is good" is the whole question. I had done this hobby a few years and took a votech class just to get at a machine I didn't own. Turns out the instructor had worked as a machinist for 20 years before chucking it to do his real love - teaching others. He was awesome.
Karl
Yes, I replied.
That has been my experience as well in several evening classes at a local vo-tech school, in each case the instructor had many years of experience and was either retired, or in some cases was still actively employed in the field and was teaching for fun and some project money.
Our welding 101 instructor was like that, I learned a lot from him. TIG welding class, not so good.
i
Sometimes that sort of thing is worth the time & money even if all you learn is the language that everyone _else_ in the world uses to describe what they're doing. Then (for instance) you know to say "spindle" instead of "round spinny thingie that holds the sharp spinny thingies".
That's because you are using the wrong terminology. Everybody know you just say. RST and SST for short.
Check on prereqs, would be my advice. At the local JC, I took a machining class that was a requirement for the CNC class. I enjoyed the machining class and learned good stuff, but never got a roundtuit for the CNC class.
--Winston
Yes, machining is a prerequisite for CNC since the machining operations performed on CNC machines and on manual machines are fundamentally identical. The CNC end is really more about programming than it is about machining. Iggy should probably be looking for a machining class as well as a CAD/CAM class if he wants to get the full picture.
Check out the course description and read the syllabus! Maybe pick up the phone and call the instructor and discuss what you want to get out of it.
I've taken two at two different local community colleges.
Since you already have unlimited access to a CNC machine, have advanced programming skills, etc., I'm not sure you would have gotten much from either class, but the second was definitely better (more independent, you got to program one of about 6 actual machines--- not always true!) and the instructor was helpful without being intrusive. It was really self-directed learning. The first was incredibly boring, as well as involving some tedious trig that I'd not used in decades.
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
That was my experience as well at a local community college (though not a machining course). And as a friend of mine used to say, "Education is like sex & pizza. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good."
See my comment below about the quality of teachers, sex & pizza. But further to that, check with the college about withdrawal & refund policies. You may be able to get a refund (or at least a partial one) if, after the first class, you decide it's not for you.
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