Manufacturing Tech Skills for ME

[Kinsrow]

I'm seriously considering taking manufacturing technology associate degree with CNC option. I do this because I enjoyed doing hands on work and always impressed by knowledge that those machinist have. I too hope someday have my own machine shop so I can do consulting work. Currently, I'm a tooling/fixture designer with BS in Mechanical Engineering.

Anybody out there who has similar situation can tell me their stories. Perhaps pro/cons, up and down.

One of my concern is that since manufacturing technology evolves very rapidly, things that I learn now would be gone in 3-4 years. 5 years ago, I saw many machine shops that operates manually. Now, true craftmanship are extinct, many of them uses CAM software to complete their mission.


Thanks

 

[waskillywabbit]

Kinsrow, the basics will always be the basics, whether done by a machine or by human hand. We have several master machinists here who are truly skilled craftsmen, both in the "manual" world as you call it, and in the realm of technology. I think they would be the first to tell you that doing things the "old way" all the time would make their jobs much more difficult. I don't think you can progress to the world of technology w/o first at least understanding the basics, preferably being skilled in them. Find a good trade school and jump in!

Any time I have a "personal" project that involves some aspect that I might get advice from one of them about, I go ask and it has been amazing the things I have learned.

Brian