Thanks for the detail.
This might be a problem!!! Even if you only run a CAD program it will take lots of energy. Beyond that there is likely to be a need for much remedial learning, which depends on how good the local primary education is. It is pretty hard to teach CAD/CAM in a vacuum. I'd like to think that you would want balance education here.
I don't have much experience with Fusion 360 mainly because I don't like how it is licensed and the need to call home all the time. In any event I really think it is bit silly to try to teach Fusion 360 without first getting a bit of formal training yourself. This is from personal experience attending seminars where the people up front clearly didn't know what they where trying to teach. You really want to be able to display a high degree of confidence and a depth of knowledge with respect to the software.5/ Me: Software: Proficient at computers and a quick learner of most programs. I do not see any problems with me learning Fusion 360, after spending a few hours at it.
...........Mechanical: Although I am not wonderful when it come to metal, I am however a qualified carpenter/joiner from the 70's. Of course I have another 'friend' who is not much good at wood, but very good with metal. He will do any metal work I need for free.
The other problem I have is a focus too much on one application. It is highly probably that a student will find himself working someplace where other CAD/CAM solutions are in use. At the very least they need to be exposed to the idea that there are many solutions out there, some of them industry specific. You could limit yourself to running Fusion 360 seminars, but that isn't a board education that really prepares your students for the job market.
I really don't see how $3000 euros would even get you started. This especially if you have no computing hardware, no machines to run jobs against and no facilities.6/ Funding: We do not actually have one peso of funding that is directly allocated to this project as of today. However we have one partner in Germany who is keen for us to do an computer related education program. Although not confirmed as I write, I think the initial budget will be 2,000 - 3,000 euro. In order to get funding, we need to have a proposed outline of the program itself. Having said that, this partner trusts me 100% and we met on one of our projects in north Leyte shortly after the super-typhoon
Frankly you could do much training with the software running code against simulators, but seeing your project run on a real CNC machine would be far more inspiring to your students. If you are limited for time though trying to run machining hardware amounts to another class to teach. Remember, it often the case that the machinist is a separate occupation from the guy doing the CAD/CAM work. Not always of course but there is a significant amount of education required to do either job well.
Yeah I understand what you want to do, but from my perspective that is two different courses. It takes a significant amount of time to become comfortable with just the CAD end of the process and then you have to add on the CAM technologies. We are talking months here to get students proficient to the point that they would be offered a job someplace. Beyond that integrated CAD/CAM is somewhat new, you want to expose student to the idea that CAD and CAM often are completely separate packages sometimes from completely different vendors. I still have this feeling that focusing on Fusion 360 is doing them (your students) a disservice. That isn't to knock Fusion 360 by the way as many people seem to like it a lot, it is just the idea that your students will likely get stuck with what ever the company they are working has available.So bearing in mind the above conditions, we want to do a general understanding course in CAD/CAM & CNC mill. I would like to bring the students in on the building of the machine whilst we are learning the CAD/CAM. If we have a particularity bright student, we may be able to secure a mechanical engineering scholarship for him/her in one of the big cities. There is also a possibility down the line, that our students can make some money for their families as a livelihood program.
I'd strongly recommend attending a few Autodesk seminars or more involved classes. You need to prepare yourself first to get an understanding of what your program should look like and develop a strong understanding of the tools to be used. A local community college has a drafting and computer aided design certificate program that takes a year to complete, that should give you a time frame for the design / drafting side of things. Not no CAM and no machines in this program form what I can see.So my first thing would be to find a premises at nominal rent, put together 6 or 7 computer stations, install Fusion 360 only, and start teaching CAD followed by CAM. Autodesk has a huge knowledge network for the training of students. They have given me an email of a dedicated person to contact if in need of help. There is also lots of independent help and videos online for Fusion 360.
In the end it comes down to what potential employers will accept. I just don't see a couple of weeks of education focused only on Fusion 360as cutting it. The simple fact is math is important in a shop and an employer would want to have confidence that shop math won't be a problem. Then you have the issue of understanding what machine components and their functionality is all about.
Well I'm a big fan of learning by doing so the idea of student building a router is not bad at all in my mind. The problem of course is getting the funds together to build one and of course the materials to build one. I'm not sure how difficult getting materials in your corner of the world is. The problem is even a small machine could end up blowing a good portion of your budget.Then, there is the building of the router. Maybe we will build it from scratch over a period and make that part of the learning curve of both the students and myself. I could by the carriageways, bearing blocks and ball screws. The machine could be built around their size. Rather than use plans, I would like to build from my head, starting with making a perfectly accurate gantry from steel (Well my friend will do that).
Going small is a good idea here, a 12" square work space would be plenty for education and frankly for many interesting projects. For educational purposes you could build most of the machine out of wood but I'm not sure at all how the tropical weather would impact such a machine.