As a late-teenager, I built a custom car. I wanted to make all sorts of little bits and parts for it, like I saw in the magazines- such as "Lil' John" Buttera- but didn't have the machines. Shortly thereafter, I picked up a badly-worn mill-drill, and took a couple of classes at the local Community College to learn how to use it.
I had by this time gotten into the sport of paintball, and like almost any pastime, there's a measure of customization of the equipment going on. As magazines for that, too, were still a thing, I'd see the custom stuff in those, and try to emulate it. And, not to toot my own horn too loudly, got fairly good at it.
As such, when the time came to... shall we say, change careers suddenly, I decided to give it a go as a day job. No, no recreational pharmaceuticals were involved, just a little too much optimism and
way too little experience.
That was over twenty years ago, and I'm still here.
I took the college courses several times- five, total, I think, and read literally every book, tome, pamphlet, leaflet and flyer I could, that had anything to do with machining. I am, or in some cases was, also a regular on some of the popular machinist boards, and read a great deal there, too.
And, mainly it's been all hands-on. I was an enthusiastic beginner for a few years there, and then an obsessed nutball doin' to for pay after that.
My collection of books ranges from a 1917 British book on Turret Lathes, to Moore's
Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy.
Doc.
