A good place/way to learn

[the_h4mmer]

I'm interested in learning more about the fundamentals of CNC/milling design. I know the best way would be to go work in a machine shop, but I can't do that full time, so I thought I'd ask here:

1. If I was able to approach a machine shop to ask to shadow/apprentice, what would be the best pitch or ask to make?

2. Are there any guides, books, etc. that anyone could point me to for getting more than what I've found on sites like Xometry or Protolabs (they're helpful but only go so far)?

3. Any other recommendations? I'd love to get a tabletop-hobby mill at some point, and that's a tricky proposition on many fronts, but if anyone has other ideas or a recommendation on an inexpensive, reasonably quality machine, I'm interested to hear!

[SPerman]

I was going to suggest a benchtop mill, but if that is out of the budget, you could get a 3d printer. Take the print head off and replace it with a sharpie. That will at least get your feet wet with G-Code. You could even do your programming in SW (or your software of choice.) With a little ingenuity you could replace the hot end with a dremel, and use styrafoam as your stock. Now you have a benchtop CNC 3 axis mill.

[mike miller]

I was going to suggest a benchtop mill, but if that is out of the budget, you could get a 3d printer. Take the print head off and replace it with a sharpie. That will at least get your feet wet with G-Code. You could even do your programming in SW (or your software of choice.) With a little ingenuity you could replace the hot end with a dremel, and use styrafoam as your stock. Now you have a benchtop CNC 3 axis mill.

Ahh, handwriting Gcode. That brings back good memories. I always enjoyed writing an efficient program that handles changes well; much like CAD models. If I ever resigned from engineering I'd go back to machining in a hurry.

[the_h4mmer]

I was going to suggest a benchtop mill, but if that is out of the budget, you could get a 3d printer. Take the print head off and replace it with a sharpie. That will at least get your feet wet with G-Code. You could even do your programming in SW (or your software of choice.) With a little ingenuity you could replace the hot end with a dremel, and use styrafoam as your stock. Now you have a benchtop CNC 3 axis mill.

My first thought was a Dremel zip tied to a 3D printer!

I'm sure there are DIY projects out there similar to this, I'll have to do some searching around. As for creating/modding G-code, I've done some modifications by hand for 3D prints, but now I'm thinking of how to model the negative space of something that would be milled, using a slicer to generate the G-Code, and then reversing the commands (since printers start from the bottom and mills from the top)....interesting.

Ahh, handwriting Gcode. That brings back good memories. I always enjoyed writing an efficient program that handles changes well; much like CAD models. If I ever resigned from engineering I'd go back to machining in a hurry.

Any recommendations on what might be a reasonable pitch to a machine shop to allow me to get some 'free' training? I'm curious if I could do an exchange for services of some kind, learn machining but do some grunt work (or whatever they'd need) in exchange.