I am looking for hobby machinists in the Sacramento, CA. area. I cannot find local resources for mills/lathes/tools and education in the area. Anyone interested in starting a machinist hobby club?
E-mail "notify_me_here@hotmail.com" Looking forward to hearing from like minded home shop machinists in and around Sacramento, CA area.

I am in Vallejo, CA. Glad to discuss things and such, not really interested in any clubs.
Strictly a hobby for me. Definately not a pro, just do it for fun.

HeavyMetal, I found this club while surfing the net. I looks like great club to model new clubs after:
The Home Metal Shop Club of Houston-This is a club typical of many around the country dedicated to sharing of ideas, resources and instruction in all phases of metalworking including machining, casting, welding, CAD, blacksmithing and more. The site has a web site at http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/ and meets the second Saturday of each month at the Collier Library in Houston at 1 PM. Visitors are welcome. Dues are $15.00 for the first year and $12.00 per year thereafter.
David Steele

argh...wish someone were closer!
hi from marin!

I am looking for hobby machinists in the Sacramento, CA. area. I cannot find local resources for mills/lathes/tools and education in the area. Anyone interested in starting a machinist hobby club?
E-mail "notify_me_here@hotmail.com" Looking forward to hearing from like minded home shop machinists in and around Sacramento, CA area.

I'm in Sacramento. I've looked up & down, but NO hobby machinists clubs in the Sacramento area. I have a few co-workers that maybe intrested. It sounds like fun. I work like 8 days a week, but after work I may be intrested. As far as Apprenticeships, or Unions, Sacramento doesn't have any. (Any active one anyway.) the Closest thing is the drywall/lathe union.sierracollege (http://www.sierracollege.edu/ed_programs/liberal_arts/disciplines.htm)
used to have classes, but I herd they got rid of them. you can PM me & I'll get back to you.................. :cheers: I'm also working on a lil info site for sacramento..... I don't have a domain name picked out yet (if you got a cool name let me know), Otherwise I'll post it here when I do...

Our community college is shutting down a 30 year old Machine Technology program. :withstupi

I wonder if there are plans to outsource the rest of the trades as well. How long will it be before we’re all obsolete? The only interest these days is in Academics and Degree programs. I wonder how many PhD’s it takes to run a lathe. Maybe NC Code belongs in the Computer Science department. - Lets see now, 2 semesters of G-code and one semester of M-code? - Tool Paths 101 and Advanced Tool Paths 200? - Maybe we could take Metallurgy in the Art Department, that's where the welding equipment went.

It looks like we're on our own guys! No one needs to learn trade stuff at college - but they still want more of our money - (for academics). I guess only PhD's, MBA's and BA's pay taxes. That's a bunch of BS'ers. :boxing:

It is the old problem of pay for work done.

An old tool maker once told me that:
"A tool maker needs to know as much as a brain surgeon and gets paid $2 an hour less than a UPS driver"

I took it to heart and started picking up computer science as a side line that ended up being a career. I t paid well and was nice work, however it does lack the creativity quotient of toolmaking.

Our community college is shutting down a 30 year old Machine Technology program. :withstupi

I wonder if there are plans to outsource the rest of the trades as well. How long will it be before we’re all obsolete? The only interest these days is in Academics and Degree programs. I wonder how many PhD’s it takes to run a lathe. Maybe NC Code belongs in the Computer Science department. - Lets see now, 2 semesters of G-code and one semester of M-code? - Tool Paths 101 and Advanced Tool Paths 200? - Maybe we could take Metallurgy in the Art Department, that's where the welding equipment went.

It looks like we're on our own guys! No one needs to learn trade stuff at college - but they still want more of our money - (for academics). I guess only PhD's, MBA's and BA's pay taxes. That's a bunch of BS'ers. :boxing:


Yea, this seems to be the trend. My high school (built in the 60's) had a HUGE
Industiral Tech building. But has'nt had an Industiral Tech dept. is years....
But have faith. Im a new machist myself (1.5 years) & I'm a manual guy. mil/lathe. my shop has about 10 of us, the rest are CNC guys. I learned my trade in the military, along with welding. It kinda scary to think that the US could loose 99% of its manufacturing capabilities. But we still put out engineers like crasy....... I find that odd.... but I digress. Well I 'm off to work myself....

Hey Hot metal!
I live in Sacto and sure have been wishing for years i could find someone locally into cnc. i met a guy in Davis that is a friggin cnc genius. My mill sat dormant for 3 years until i met him. Motors were screamin 15 mins after he looked at it. He would be a perfect club prez if we could get a group going here. I have thought about this for years.Maimly, how do you have meetings when a mill weighs x pounds? Obviously you would have to change meeeting locations so everyone would get to see all the different mambers machines. Email me, we can talk about it. Randy in Sac. randyharps@comcast.net

you sac guys make your meeting on the weekend and I'll drive from San jose for the meetings.

I'm in Napa. I have a 3 axis gantry router I use for making patterns and a robot arm. I had a couple other arms but gave them to The Crucible in Oakland to get them out of rented storage. The Crucible is a public access industrial arts non profit. They have a rental machine shop. Something like $150 for six hours unsupervised. Storage to keep your projects. Welding, bronze casting, and other things. For artists or if you want to make some brackets for the back deck.
www.thecrucible.org

Hey guys, I know this is an old post, but I am in Vacaville and I would be interested in some sort of club. I also would like to meet the CNC genius in Davis.

Bruce

I am waiting for the Sacramento TechShop to open. It looks like it might be a good place to hang out and meet other machinists. Check out http://sacramento.techshop.ws/

There appears to be a few of them open in the bay area.

Steve

The techshop is a great idea. I'm in Folsom and thanks to your link just got on their mailing list. Can't wait to see the place up and running. It would be handy to have access to some equipment so I can make some motor mounts and things for BP hydraulic tracer mill I want to convert to cnc.

I might have an interest in hobby club in the sac area too.

Hey guys im new too these forums,and im from Sacramento,I work in a CNC shop in natomas area. we have matsuura mills with Yasnac controls and some screw machine lathes and a bunch of manual machines,id be interested in meeting more machinist type of folks in the area. If anyone is interested in hanging out and talking cnc or whatever just pm me here.and if your from sac and looking too learn more about cnc you can contact me about that as well. I have 11 years in the trade professionaly,but have been around shops all my life because my dad and grandpa are machinists as well.

Hey! I'd love to see some kind of group get started in the Sacramento area. I am in the planning stages of building a large CNC router table and a smaller Cnc lathe/mill. Anyone that has any experience with either in the Sac area, I'd love to get in touch with you and throw some ideas around and discuss different options. If there are any weekly meetings getting going, e-mail me at ejhess at gmail dot com and I'll do what I can to make it.
Eric

I think I contacted someone from Sac a few months ago about this CNC club but there wasn't much interest at the time. I for one would love to have somewhere to go and actually see how it should be done. I have friends that are machinists but after working at the job they really don't care to work for the fun of it. I've never actually asked for help but they don't seem that eager either. Anyway does anyone happen to be familiar with the program PartMaster by Dolphin Cad/Cam? I have it but could sure use a little help getting going. I would like to be on the list for members and I live in Stockton or a few miles East in Waterloo. Any help would be appreciated.
thanks,
Jim

Stockton
I did not know there was any machine shops in stockton (LOL) just kidding I to would like to join if anyone sets up a club just to see how other people do there machining technicks that way I can also learn some stuff.

It doesn't look like this thread is going anywhere! What I really need is someone who is up and running with Dolphin's Cad/Cam program. There are so many ways to do the same job and not being a "Machinist" by trade I'm getting frustrated trying different things, getting stuck, trying something else and in the end getting nowhere. If I just knew which way to go for a certain circumstance it would really help. I'm trying to do several different shapes and when one doesn't work I try another.In two weeks, nothing. I'm at the point where I would be willing to hire someone by the job or hour to coach me. Any takers? I keep reading, Once you learn your way around it's easy. Maybe but not at this stage. I have The Level Three PartMaster Cad/Cam program from Dolphin Cad/Cam Software, with the dongle.
Thanks in advence, I hope,
Jim

Just finished my first benchtop CNC Router. I live in Placerville and would love to get together with knowledgeable people to learn or share what little I know.

Don

Just finished my first benchtop CNC Router. I live in Placerville and would love to get together with knowledgeable people to learn or share what little I know.

Don

Don, I am also in Placerville with a 24" by 30" CNC router that has just recently become operational. I use TurboCAD, Vectric Cut2D, and Mach3. My goal is to design and build a wooden gear clock. It is slowly nearing completion.

I wouldn't mind getting together with other local people to share knowledge. I didn't chime in earlier because my focus is woodworking and the start of this thread appeared to be metal milling.

Steve

Hello all.
My name is Kevin and I work for a company in the Sacramento area where we deal with manufacturing companies and candidates and it is my job to be able to network with as many industry experts as possible. I wanted to present myself as a resource for anybody who is out there on the job market. With the economic market we are in I know it can be tough and I will be on this site from time to time to let you know about possible openings in the area.

For example I am currently searching for someone with Sinker EDM experience. If there is someone out there with that experience I would like to talk to you.

Bruce:
Do you know of anyone you could recomend, here in the south Bay, (sunnyvale)

That could help me with EMC2 and the Messa Boards Have a small shop .
just pur. 2 older mills A tree 425 and a Shazoka to retofit but, would like to
do a EMC2 5I20 7I37pa convertion. at my shop.

Frank M. 408-338-7371
AERO-MOTIVE@GARLIC.COM
Thanks