Mechanical Engineering student with big homemade dreams

[C-Bag]

WOW, you weren't kidding when you said you'd have to rely on yard sales. I looked on the the closest big city, Melbourne Craigslsit in "tools" and out of the 8 items there only one real tool!!! I can only guess how there not being a lot of used tools around can make the cost exhorbatent.

I get things are different elsewhere but that was a real wake up call! Here in the US Craigslist has replaced the classifieds in newspapers which was where you looked for used tools. Here where I live on the coast of California there is probably 50+posts to CL of tools. And there are several small manufacturers that go out of biz or retire or die. And this is a really small community people wise. And being about 3hrs away from Los Angeles there is everything in the world on CL there. But the logistics are daunting, and depending on what it is and where it is it might as well be on another planet.

As far as a shared space I was thinking more like what we call a high school shop. I used to pay a fee for a semester to use the high school wood shop class at night.

Personally, as an engineer in training I would think it would be invaluable to learn the manual arts BEFORE you do CNC. It gives a much more rounded view of what can be done for way less. I equate it to when my son wanted to become an artist. I taught him like I'd been taught with no computer, all drawing by hand. And his skills in manual art are what sets him apart from the competition. Knowing how to run a manual lathe and mill give you a much more intimate knowledge of how the process is done and you don't have the overhead of having to buy CNC right off the bat. Just my 2c worth.