On Jan 18, 12:21 am, Bill wrote:
I've been getting a Continuing Education booklet from my local college for
a while now and for the past 5 years they've offered a Machine shop course.
It started out around 400 dollars for a 10 week course and has gotten up to
500 the past year or so, a bit on the pricey side for me hobby wise so I've
put it off until now. Every year I discused it with SWMBO and decided to
wait a bit more, each year I told her I sure hope they teach it again next
year. Well, it's next year and I've decided to bite the bullet and sign
up!
My biggest two worries were that who ever is teaching it might die or just
plain decide it wasn't worth it anymore or that the college would stop
offering it because of lack of interest. The course starts at the end of
January and is limited to 10 students, as of today I'm the only one signed
up, it will be really neat if I'm the only one since that would mean one on
one instruction 
One of the reasons I wanted to take the course was that the description
ended with a line, 'for people who want to build their own tools' which is
something I've always liked to do.
I'm hoping for an old geezer with many years experience in the industry for
a teacher, I figure that way I'll get practical stuff and lots of tips
instead of a younger 'professor type' who just went to school for it. I'll
take either one but I think in this field older will be better 
Wish me luck.
Bill
Bill, good luck - I started out the same way, a few years ago - it was
as you describe, a "fee for service" course - it was canceled 2 times
due lack of enrollments, talking to someone at the local steam museum
open day, he suggested I do a "proper" course at certificate level.
The college I was trying to do the "short course" were not helpful, I
contacted another one who were bloody fantastic. I enrolled in CERT II
in Production Engineering, (used to be known as Fitting and Turning)
same fees, for a year of 1 day a week. Finished CERT II (don't feel
remotely competent yet) and am going on to do CERT IV (cant do CERT
III, you have to be an apprentice)
I am the "old guy" in the class, they know I will never be employed in
industry, so they are happy to teach me what I want to know - so
saying that, they insisted on teaching me what I needed to know to get
to minimal, don't loose fingers or wreck machine standard. This year,
want to do more milling, get more precision in my lathe work, and
learn how to use a rotary table. Also signed up for 4 units of
welding, which should be interesting - will have to "unlearn" most of
what I have taught meself, no doubt. A great place, skilled,
competent teachers, cant speak highly enough of it.I am mature enough
not to do something stupid, or abuse the trust they have given me - I
can use their precision machines for my own projects, and they are far
better than anything I could ever aspire to own myself. (The brand new
Bridgport is indeed a lovely machine...)
They taught me how to measure, from ruler to micrometer, how to use a
file (went out and bought about a dozen new ones myself after I
realised what a truly versatile tool they are), how to freehand
sharpen drill bits, how to freehand grind your own lathe tools, lots
of things the 1st year apprentices were doing (it was the same
course). You wont get that in a 1 term short course....
Colleges just love the "mature age" students - our government is
desperate to get people into the engineering trades, so the college
gets brownie points for me being there. Yours is probably similar -
looks good in the stats.
So, if the options open to you, try for something similar - all I
wanted to do initially was to learn how to do simple things with my
lathe and mill as an adjunct to my radio homebrewing - its turned into
a genuinely fascinating pursuit in its own right...
But, be warned - you will start collecting tool catalogues, dream of
buying more tooling, look at dump bins with a focus on bits of metal -
and then you will want bigger, better machines, a bigger shop, more
tooling,.....
Regards,
Andrew VK3BFA.