Hobby Machinist Sacramento, CA

[HeavyMetal]

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.

[MikeAber]

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.

[deep_drill]

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

[gcz]

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

[hotmetal]

Originally Posted by HeavyMetal 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
used to have classes, but I herd they got rid of them. you can PM me & I'll get back to you.................. 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...

[MikeAber]

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

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.

[DieGuy]

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.

[hotmetal]

Originally Posted by MikeAber Our community college is shutting down a 30 year old Machine Technology program. 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.

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....

[swarfmacdaddy]

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

[tekno]

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

[keithorr]

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

[htrowrod]

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