[ayeckley]

Unfortunately, liability concerns prevent many schools (including universities) from allowing students to operate machine tools. If you are one of the lucky ones who have the opportunity, please take it. Please be careful, but don't be intimidated.

I think having machining experience will make you better engineers. Too many of us nowadays just "throw our drawings over the transom" without a proper understanding of how our parts will actually get made and our profession suffers as a result.