Hello. I am a mentor on team 4776, based in Howell, MI. Howell High School has an amazing machine shop, with 2 large Haas mills, a Haas lathe, a waterjet, 9 Bridgeports, 6 welding stations, and really it is a phenomenal shop by any standards. However, our experience using the CNC machines is limited, and we want to learn from people who have the experience to train us correctly. We have great CAD mentors and students, and even have some CAM experience, but we still have more questions than answers at this time.
Please let me know if you can help us, or if you can refer us to someone who might be able to help. This training can be done in Howell or Plymouth, as we have access to CNC machines in both locations. Whatever is most convenient for you.
It might be worthwhile to contact a local Community college that teaches taht sort of stuff, or Tech shop Detroit (not too far away). If they can’t help you, they may be in touch with trainers that could assist.
Lastly, hitting up local industry might be another avenue. There are a handful of good manufacturing companies in that area that might be willing to donate some hours.
A good friend of mine offered to help you guys either via Google Hangout or invited you out to his shop (it’s a bit of a hike) His name is Ben, he is having some problems registering for this site but the best ways to reach him are via his site (http://www.barchdesigns.com) or twitter (@benjaminbarch)
Finally got the registration to go through…thanks admins! I’m up in Lakeport so as Andrew mentioned it’s a bit of a hike for me to travel down there, but a Google Hangout might work to see if I can help you guys out.
I founded a company called Barch Designs in 2005 and I can probably get you guys going in the right direction. I’ve got a few CNC machines up here and it’s just me to do the CAD drawing, G code programming, all the way down to the maintenance on CNCs … it’s what I do all day every day. Find me on Twitter or Google+ under the name BarchDesigns or give me a call to work out the details of the time and date for a Hangout. 810-496-8368.
I can give you guys about an hour and we will see where it leads to after that.