Wow.... thats a big frame rail... would be nice to see how those came out. We made our frame rails out of 1/2" aluminum too back in
2006, sorry no pics of just the rails. Is that a VF3? I use a hurco VM2, essentially the same specs as the VF3.
Uhhhh... and... i don't think Machinist/Dentist is going to be a popular degree at your favorite corner educational insitiution... i'd be worried he'd forget he was drilling teeth and not aluminum!
Awesome of your mentor to do that for you all...
-q