How to become a Skilled Machinist
The profession of a machinist involves both technical knowledge, patience and attention to details, as well as skill with working with your hands. Becoming a machinist requires also an inner "3D-vision", an ability to visualise the piece you have to create in advance, to understand both its final form, but also its creation process in a step-by-step way, considering the means and limitations of the tools you have at your disposal.
A machinist work will range from simple (rectifying parts or objects, modifying them in small ways) to complex: basically creating new objects and parts from a blank piece of metal, using tools such as the lathe, drill press, milling machine, planer, and so on.
So how does one become a skilled machinist? The first answer might be "practice, practice, practice!", but there's more to that than meets the eye. To start with, a technical school orientated to that might be a good beginning - depending on the place you live, you can attend special courses (some of them are free, others are paid) or even go to a technical collage. If this is not possible, there are also a lot of good books on the subject, that you can buy on-line, or in libraries (one important note: such specialised books are more likely to be found in places selling used books, rather than in regular libraries - also, check the libraries located near technical schools). The things you should learn during this period are:
1. The understanding of the theoretical principles of the trade. How the tools you will be working with operate, the basic principles, the technical language involved, various proprieties of the metals, and so on.
2. Technical drawing. This is most important for a machinist working above the "hobby" level. Most parts are made by following technical drawings. Thus, it is vital to know how read those and decipher their meaning. It is also important to be able to make such drawing yourself, since as a professional machinist you might have to modify those drawings to suggest a different approach to making the piece, a better ideea or to correct a mistake in the initial drawing. You will more likely start using technical drawing yourself, to envision parts and pieces by yourself. Modern technical drawings are created using C.A.D. software (computer aided design) so you will have to learn such software (Autocad, Solidworks, Microstation, to name just a few).
3. Computer controlled production. In most modern machine shops, the machining process is controlled by computers. The parameters of the piece to be made are stored into a computer controlling the actual machine. More advanced systems use an actual 3D-model of the piece as a digital template. It is important to learn about this things, to find out which software is used, what are the standards used in the industry, and so on.
This would be the theoretical part, now comes the most important part of becoming a skilled machinist: practical application. If you have already chosen a technical school or course this is easier because most technical schools also have practical classes, with skilled instructors ready to assist you. If you are learning on yourself, you will either have to obtain some machine tools of your own (however, this can be expensive) or arrange with some friends or business owners to let you practice on their tools and equipment, with supervision, of course.
From this moment on, everything depends on you: you have the basics and now you can get as skilled as your desire to to so allows. Start practicing a lot, use Youtube videos for example and try to replicate their results, set yourself small projects ranging from simple to complex. Tell all the people you know to come to you for various machining works. Always try new things and new approaches, learn how to use as many tools as possible. Get involved in small projects that push you and your limits one step further. From time to time refresh your theoretical knowledge by buying new books, reading new articles, talking to other machinists about their work. The final aknowledgement of your skill will be a successful machining business or a high valued position as a machinist in a prominent company.
