You raise some good points, but I think they're a bit too overreaching.
I started working with manual machine shop machines (mills/lathes/presses/all types of saws/water jets/lasers) over a decade ago, and I'm only in my early 20's now.
>There are aptitude tests just for the education because some people who are otherwise brilliant are absolute terrors, a dangers to themselves and others
This is true. Working as a student shop instructor in Uni, I've had to remove a fair amount of people/literally leave & shut down shop from stress/frustration after people repeatedly nearly lost fingers/limbs doing what they were told not to do multiple times - mainly on table saws. As to why these people are they way they are... I do not know.
>Trial and error works very differently when you focus enough pressure into carbide to cut steel like it was butter.
No instructor/supervisor should be letting newbies work with steel to begin with, except possibly very mild steel... we have things like 6061 T6 Al and even polymers for demonstration/early learning. It was a good bit until I was allowed to work with stainless steel on mills/lathes.
>You should watch the horriffic videos of people being turned into bloody messes on machine tools and THEN decide if this is something you want to try.
I grew up doing this, still do, and always recommend it to anybody who's about to start working with machine tools. I have yet to meet an instructor/shop supervisor who doesn't make it very, very clear how easily and instantly everything can maim and kill you. In the 21st century, if there are those who don't do this... that's just unfortunate.
In the end - mills, and especially lathes, are honestly highly predictable machines. It's quite hard for things to go wrong with them aside from tool crash/breaking, which you won't really be in a position to be hurt by. There are some machine tools that are inherently more dangerous - but - nothing comes close to how fucking dangerous a tablesaw is. I consider a tablesaw to be the most dangerous and unpredictable tool I use, as does the person I learned from who's been an industry/custom fab machinist for over 40 years. And tablesaws can be found everywhere, typically without much restriction, if any, to begin using.
The sawstop is cool, but I really fucking hate them for not releasing the patent to it for all to use.
I started working with manual machine shop machines (mills/lathes/presses/all types of saws/water jets/lasers) over a decade ago, and I'm only in my early 20's now.
>There are aptitude tests just for the education because some people who are otherwise brilliant are absolute terrors, a dangers to themselves and others
This is true. Working as a student shop instructor in Uni, I've had to remove a fair amount of people/literally leave & shut down shop from stress/frustration after people repeatedly nearly lost fingers/limbs doing what they were told not to do multiple times - mainly on table saws. As to why these people are they way they are... I do not know.
>Trial and error works very differently when you focus enough pressure into carbide to cut steel like it was butter.
No instructor/supervisor should be letting newbies work with steel to begin with, except possibly very mild steel... we have things like 6061 T6 Al and even polymers for demonstration/early learning. It was a good bit until I was allowed to work with stainless steel on mills/lathes.
>You should watch the horriffic videos of people being turned into bloody messes on machine tools and THEN decide if this is something you want to try.
I grew up doing this, still do, and always recommend it to anybody who's about to start working with machine tools. I have yet to meet an instructor/shop supervisor who doesn't make it very, very clear how easily and instantly everything can maim and kill you. In the 21st century, if there are those who don't do this... that's just unfortunate.
In the end - mills, and especially lathes, are honestly highly predictable machines. It's quite hard for things to go wrong with them aside from tool crash/breaking, which you won't really be in a position to be hurt by. There are some machine tools that are inherently more dangerous - but - nothing comes close to how fucking dangerous a tablesaw is. I consider a tablesaw to be the most dangerous and unpredictable tool I use, as does the person I learned from who's been an industry/custom fab machinist for over 40 years. And tablesaws can be found everywhere, typically without much restriction, if any, to begin using.
The sawstop is cool, but I really fucking hate them for not releasing the patent to it for all to use.