[Karibou]

On a 25 student team (my freshman and sophomore year), from what I recall: 22 drill press, 22 bandsaw, 5 mill, 3 lathe, 1 welding. We didn't have a formal training program - if you showed up and were willing to work in the shop at least once, someone would teach you how to use the bandsaw and drill press. The only students who weren't competent with them were the ones who didn't go into the shop at all. Mill/lathe/welding were on a "by interest" basis, or a mentor saying "hey, we don't have any students here today that know how to use this, wanna learn?". We had a very dedicated set of students working those machines (and on the team in general), and they were nearly constantly in use.


Junior and senior year were at a different high school in our district, and our membership numbers and levels of dedication varied. ~40 student team: 30 drill press, 30 bandsaw, 2 welding, 4 mill, 2 lathe. We did have shop training that every student had to go through, and each student was told how to use each piece of machinery and had to attempt a predetermined task (i.e. measuring locations for and drilling 3 holes in a piece of scrap). So everyone knew how to use the machinery, but not everyone was proficient. The drill press and bandsaw are easy enough to pick up, so most students could use them on their own by at least the end of the season. Mill/lathe/welding were once again on a "by interest" basis, though we didn't manufacture as many parts (that required those machines) those years and there wasn't much interest.