Shop Kulture: Why I Quit My Corporate Job to Become a Welder

Mad 4x4 Fabricating Skillz & a Killer Truck Built by Hand!

2011-03-20T21:43:00.000-06:00

So what do you do when you've just got to have a second generation, double cab, Toyota 4x4, but you live in the Land of the Free where it's against the law to import that vehicle? You build your own out of junkyard parts of course! And while you're going to all that trouble you'd want to make it bigger and better than the original. This is America after all. Well a fellow who calls himself Talon84x4 on the MarlinCrawler forums has done all that and more.

Above is a Photoshopped image that the dude made as his first step. Now most guys who have these kinds of dreams don't usually even get this far, but Talon84x4 is not a regular bench racing, big talkin sort. This is a guy with skills and drive to back up his ideas.

In this picture you can see how far the guy has actually gotten. And the picture doesn't do justice. It took parts from three different cabs and some serious modifications to make what you see here. He's even got doors and a bed pretty close to ready for installation. And all that stuff is excellent too! Do yourself a favor and check out the thread for this project over at the MarlinCrawler forums. It runs about 21 pages, but it reads like an adventure novel if you love this stuff like I do.

Here's another link to the awesome and inspiring Low & Slow 1984 Quad Cab Project.

Caswell Inc: For Metal Finishing Supplies & Techniques

2011-03-14T23:26:00.000-06:00

When I first saw Caswell Metal Finishing in the 1990’s I really liked it. Now it's even better with a wealth how-to information and supplies for plating, polishing, powder coating and anodizing metal, these guys have the interests of the do-it-yourself crowd at heart.

And now their forums have grown, so you can expect quick answers to all your metal finishing questions. Want to build your own powder coating oven? They’ve got the plans, parts and forums for support. You could even start a metal finishing business! These guys are ShopKulture diehards.

Go to Caswell Inc.

A Success Story: The Promise of Real Change That You Make Yourself!

2010-12-31T13:29:00.002-06:00

So you say that you've never heard of Marcin Jakubowski! Well you may want to find out about him quick, because this is a guy going places. He was recently granted a TED fellowship for his project to remake the world. He's all about putting people back to work making the stuff they need, locally. Jakubowski is a young guy with a PHD in physics and a boatload of constructive energy and it looks like he just may be succeeding.

Open Source Ecology (OSE) is the name of his game. And building Resilient Communities with a Global Village Construction Set is his goal. What it all boils down to is this: With the right tools and some modern computer assisted technologies, he says, we can take control of our lives back from impersonal, multi-national organizations.

Making the dream real, Jakubowski is well on his way to creating the tools that make up what he calls the Global Village Construction Set. He's building prototypes for machines like small tractors made from used car parts and salvaged steel. He's building machines that crank out compacted soil building blocks, shop tools for building better machines and much, much more.

Jakubowski builds all his farming and community building equipment from common, easily sourced parts. And his plans are being made available free to anyone. That's what open source ecology is all about, helping people use tools and technology to make their lives manageable down at the community level once again.

Jakubowski and his cohorts want to see more people powering their homes and farms from electricity made on site or in the local community. He wants people to be able to tell the regional mega-utility to take their behemoth coal-fired power plant and shove it. And why not, with a solar micro-turbine in your backyard, that you built yourself, you'll be producing all the environmentally friendly energy you need.

Marcin Jakubowski wants you to imagine not having to buy stuff that was produced on the other side of the world, because somebody in your community or region is producing high quality products locally at affordable prices.

Resilient communities, he believes, make the conditions right for jobs, prosperity, environmental healing, social well-being and personal freedom. He says that all we need are good tools, open source sharing of ideas and a can-do spirit to reach these goals.

There is way more to this movement than I can tell you in a short message, but from what I have seen I can say that this could be the beginning of something that it is extremely exciting and full of good potential. I urge people to get familiar with the open source ecology movement and then to spread the word.

There is a chance right now to help shift this project into overdrive. Make Magazine is holding a Green Project Contest to find a great, green, do-it-yourself, idea to promote. Vote now for Marcin Jakubowski's Global Village Construction Set.

New! Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) in 2 Minutes - 2 min video

Backyard Metal Casting and Machine Tool Building

2010-10-02T23:10:00.000-05:00

Ok. This home-shop metalworking stuff is getting better and better the more we look into it! Just in the past day we've come across several backyard and home-shop metalworking websites where people with creative minds are casting molten metal and building machine tools from materials sourced from other people's trash. There are people out there who have a passion for this stuff and they are proving that with a little ingenuity, resourcefulness and persistence you can do great things with little money. And thankfully the internet makes it easy to hook up with these people and learn their methods.

The website Backyard Metal Casting is a gem of a resource. Check it out. If you are into the ShopKulture lifestyle you'll love it.

A home shop operation that can cast metal parts and then machine those parts into precision pieces can build or repair just about anything. And if you are building and salvaging stuff it seems reasonable that you'd want to use your skills to furnish your own shop with affordable tools and equipment . In any case, it sure looks like a lot of fun.

A lathe is said to be the heart of a good metalworking operation. If you want to make some serious parts (and maybe you've got some fresh metal castings in need of machining) you'll want to have one. Serious lathes start at around $3000 and go up from there quickly. Even used lathes are usually well over $1000. Did you know that it's possible to build your own lathe from scrap metal and used automotive parts? This won't get you a "tool room", high precision, piece of equipment, but with some care it will get you a machine that is accurate enough to make parts for all those shop tools and equipment we were talking about building and salvaging for pennies on the dollar.

A few good resources for lathe building information are the Open Source Machine website and MultiMachineYahoo Group, and the books of David G. Gingery available from Lindsays' Technical Books. Just from the looks of it we like the MultiMachine information best, but we think there's a lot to learn from Gingery's approach too. That and Gingery has other plans for making bandsaws, drill presses, milling machines and a bunch of other stuff. Here's a list.

If you are just learning machining, you'll know a whole lot more after you build these projects. There's nothing like hands-on experience to teach lasting knowledge. And we figure that once we have some fundamental shop tools working we'll be able to figure out how to put them to work to bring in some cash so that we can afford to buy a fine old (factory built) South Bend Lathe and a Bridgeport milling machine.

The Self-Education Revolution is Underway!!

2010-09-30T13:29:00.002-05:00

Self-education, it is one of the most important tools independent minded people have at their disposal. As conventional American education methods and outcomes continue to be revealed as ineffective and/or too expensive for today's students the great news is that resources for self-education are becoming more and more available every day. The internet and other modern tools of communication and publication are making it easier than ever to find learning resources, including texts, curriculum and human assistance to study almost anything.

In an earlier ShopKulture post, A Great Online Math & Science Resource, we were very excited to have discovered the Khan Academy, an online resource that uses youtube video to make more than 1000 video lectures and presentations available to help people learn math and science. Well it looks like we weren't the only people who noticed that good things were going on over at the Khan website. Now a program, undertaken by the internet giant, Google, to fund "inspiring organizations working on solutions to ... global challenges" has generated a grant of two million dollars ($2M) to help foster the Khan project!

When you consider this great news along with the fact that institutions like MIT and the University of California at Berkeley are putting more and more of their lectures and course materials online, you start to think that we are moving into an era where powerful learning resources are with in reach of almost everyone.

At ShopKulture we are excited about these trends. We believe that it's a great fit with our main idea which is to unleash thousands of home shop inventors and self-trained engineers to tackle the world's problems with human scale solutions and to build resilient economies and vibrant communities of free people.

Teach Yourself Machining: Video Courses

2010-09-30T01:15:00.004-05:00

Machining parts out of raw metal to make, modify and repair useful machines is fast becoming our passion. Now We've never been much for attending classes or going to school, so we're working to teach ourselves to operate tools like lathes, milling machines, drill presses and surface grinders, etc. Self-teaching is our favorite method of learning and that's why We're excited about the instructional videos that SmartFlix has in their rental library. They have a fairly thorough machine shop course by the American Gunsmithing Institute and various offerings by master machinist Rudy Kouhoupt and others. The American Gunsmithing series consists of about 14 DVDs and costs about $1300 to purchase outright. However, thanks to SmartFlix you can rent the whole series for about $200!!

But wait a minute, how about some free videos to get started. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a free video series on the basics of machine shop tools and practices. Every semester MIT has a new crop of engineering students who need to learn machining in a hurry. They need to be able to work in the university's well equipped student machine shop where they will make the parts for projects in robotics. Most 17 year olds are a bit short of machining experience so the school has put together a series of ten videos to help jumpstart the student's practical abilities. We watched the first four of the videos. They covered layout, drill press operations, belt sanding & grinding, and vertical milling, We found them well made, interesting and informative (to my novice perspective anyway). So get busy my fellow ShopKulturians and WrenchTech(nicians). Go forth and learn. Next time we'll talk about how to build you own multi-purpose machine tool from scrap metal and automotive parts.

ShopKulture and the Future of the Garage Based Shop

2010-09-22T13:17:00.001-05:00

We've seen the future and it looks like making stuff is coming back in a big way. This message is not lost on us. The luxury of playing around with sports cars, motorcycles and 4x4's is great fun, but it is a luxury after all. The serious economic times we are in require serious thoughts and actions. So we've been thinking about tools and equipment for productive work lately. What about building a tractor, a shop heater, a bandsaw lumber mill? And what if you could build this stuff from junk cars, appliances and scrap steel? Count us in!

A movement with the tentative name Open Source Ecology is doing just that. They are putting their money and effort where it counts right now. The stuff they are building is cool and functional. We're so excited we've got to get on this bandwagon!

Don't let the name fool you either. These are not a bunch of idle dreamers, these guy and gals are mad fabricating geniuses. They are building great stuff from scrap and low cost parts; lumber mills, tractors, shop heaters, farming implements, construction equipment, well drilling, and most importantly machine tools to aid in their low cost manufacturing approach.

Think what you could do with a computer numerical control (CNC) torch table that let you rapidly cut metal with computer accuracy. Or a CNC router table that could cut precision parts from wood or plastic while you did other things. A serious person could start making some real money and an independent lifestyle that didn't depend so much on the ups and downs of the overall economy.

Now think about the fact that plans for building metal working lathes, milling equipment, heating systems and CNC tools are now circulating freely on the internet. And not just plans, support groups, blogs and discussion forums as well. These are great times to be a Maker, a ShopKulture person, a Wrenchtech type.

Keep watching this blog as we focus like a laser beam on these new trends and work to pull together all the information and resources we can find to promote this thing that we love; MAKING COOL USEFUL STUFF ON THE CHEAP!

Don't forget to check out The Open Source Ecology website. and maybe become a supporter of theirs at $10/mo. I have and I do.

Fun With Fiberglass and Composites

2010-03-05T10:44:00.000-06:00

Not only fun, but skills that the home shop enthusiast shouldn't be without.

It seems that most of the shop techniques we've written about so far in this blog have been related to metalworking. We love welding, machining and fabricating with metal, but we can't imagine calling ourselves master craftsmen if we don't have some good skills for working with composites. The word composite as used in this article refers to materials built up with reinforcing fibers and a binding agent, like fiberglass. Fiberglass is the most popular of the composite materials for use in the shop. Once a few basic techniques are mastered, fiberglass becomes one of the most versatile materials available to the home shop enthusiast.

Building Your Kevlar Canoe: A Foolproof Method and Three Foolproof Designs

So what are composites exactly? In most cases they are reinforcing fibers embedded in a plastic resin. The resin usually starts out as a liquid which is combined with the reinforcing material and a a precise amount of a hardening agent. The reinforcing material be in the form of loose fibers, mats of short fibers, and/or woven cloth. The result is a very workable material that can be hand shaped, laid into a form, or draped over an existing object. The shapes and types of objects that can be made with composites or assemblies of composite components is almost limitless. Once the composite material is cured it can be cut, sawn, drilled and sanded to make finished objects.

An example of resin and cloth construction could be that of a boat hull, made out of another material like wood, which is then covered with fiberglass cloth and resin, which forms a waterproof skin and which may contribute some strength to the overall structure. A number of small aircraft designs consist of foam cores that are covered with glass-fiber cloth and resin. In this case the fiberglass skin provides almost all of the structural strength of the aircraft. A mass produced car, the Chevrolet Corvette, was for many years made with body panels of fiber reinforced plastic.

Glass is not the only fiber used to make composites. High tech fibers like Kevlar and carbon-fiber are also used where either super strength or very light weights are called for. Composite technology is making advances into areas where other materials have long been used. Large commercial ship and aircraft builders are increasingly turning to composites to build stronger, lighter, faster and more fuel efficient vehicles. Consider for example the New Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a 300 passenger commercial airliner. It has an all composite fuselage. Even the U.S. Navy has designs on the table for warships that will have superstructures made largely of composites.

For the home shop enthusiast an introduction to working with composites could be a simple as using fiberglass putty and/or matting to restore rusted automobile body panels. A great project for composite beginners could also be building a canoe or kayak. There are many plans and even parts kits available for small boats. Automotive enthusiasts can also find simple projects that can teach the principals of composite construction. Learning by doing is what we stress here at ShopKulture/Wrenchtech.

Some good videos that teach the fundamentals are available from FiberGlast Developements. These videos can be purchased directly from FiberGlast or through Amazon.com. They can also be rented from Smartflix.com. Small amounts of resin, fiberglass mat and cloth can be purchased from home stores like Home Depot and Lowes. Larger amounts of materials can be ordered from FiberGlast or FiberglassSite.com

Here are some links to resources for the composite construction:

FiberGlast Developments
EpoxyWorks Magazine
West System
West System Techniques & Materials
FiberglassSite.com, Discount Fiberglass Products

A Dodge Truck So Fine

2010-02-27T17:46:00.002-06:00

We spend a lot of our time obsessing about cars, trucks and motorcycles. Maybe it's unhealthy, but we don't care. It's also a fact that not much of our time is spent thinking about the Chrysler Motor Company's products. We just weren't raised that way. We've had Chevys and Pontiacs; and Toyota's and Yamahas. It's just the way things worked out and we don't feel like we have to make any apologies.

None the less, our interest is piqued when people start talking about the Cummins diesel that Dodge was smart enough to install in some of its pickup trucks starting in 1989. The Dodge Power Wagon is another Dodge product that has a permanent place in our hearts. Originally built as a military truck in the 1940's and continued almost unchanged into the late 1960's has to be one of the most iconic, and dare we say "bad ass" designs in 4x4 truckdom. Most that are encountered today are in rough shape. These trucks have been worked hard and they often show it. In many cases you find that they were worked out years ago and left to rust in some neglected farm yard and overgrown with weeds and rusted through. Nice original examples are occasionally found in arid regions of the Rock Mountains and the southwestern deserts of USA.

There is a small legion of Power Wagon diehards out there and you can find them if you look hard enough. If you agree with us that the Power Wagon is indeed worth checking out, if just on the strength of it's unique style, we hope you'll look into making a project out of saving one of these icons of the American Iron Age. It's our short list, that's for sure. In the mean time get a load of this eye candy.

Go to Hot Rods & Custom Stuff Power Wagon page for the rest of the story and more pictures. And go to their home page to see one of the most incredible Hot Rod sites.

I'm in Junkyard Heaven Thanks to car-part.com

2010-02-25T21:58:00.002-06:00

My computer's web browser has a button in the bookmark bar that lets me see which sites I visit most. I was surprised recently when I saw car-part.com in the top ten. car-part.com is a search engine website for finding used auto parts from wrecking yards. I really like this website because it lets me search hundreds (maybe thousands) of yards all over North America for parts from a staggering list of car and truck makes and models.

Need a flywheel for your old Toyota 4x4 with the 22R fourbanger? No problem. Need a set of factory aluminum wheels for your Mercedes Benz 190E 2.3? Not to worry, car-part,com has pictures of all the choices to help you make the right selection.

Not only do you have access to tons of parts for sale, you have access to information about what fits with what. It's not a perfect interchange guide but you can usually tell if a part fits in several different models by seeing what the sources are for the parts being offered. I find it to be a treasure of information that helps me to be a better gearhead.

Prices and part grades are listed too, so you can get an idea of what the range of prices is and have some way to tell good parts from the real junk. This has helped me to get a good part at a good price on several occasions.

When I was kid, big store chains like Sears used to put out Christmas catalogs for children, I used to spend hundreds of hours figuring just exactly what I wanted from Santa. I'd weigh all the details and go to sleep at night dreaming of the cool things I imagined I might get. I feel the same way about car-part.com. If I had a magic credit card that only worked on car-part.com I'd be buying parts and building cars and 4x4s from parts for the rest of my life.

The Datsun "Z" Car: 40 Years Old & Still a Hot Choice

2010-02-24T22:49:00.005-06:00

In our last blog post, Dirt Cheap Collectible Cars, we commented that we were glad to see the Datsun 280Z named as one of Money magazine's favorite low cost collectible cars.

We can't believe that this is a 40 year old design. It just goes to show that some designs are so good, so in touch with what really makes people feel good about cars, that they are timeless.

The "Z" car is a two seater with low-to-the-ground seating that makes drivers and passengers feel like they're going a hundred-miles-an-hour, even when it's standing still. But this car is not just a styling exercise, it has the makings of a real sports car under that pretty skin.

This is a vehicle that came onto the North American market in 1969 just a few years after the Ford Mustang and the Chevy Camaro, yet while those cars have solid axles and leaf springs, the "Z" has coil springs at all four corners and a fully independent suspension all around. The Datsun engine, an inline six, while no match for the American V-8s, was a pretty good choice for the much lighter "Z" car.

Today this car still has a strong fan base. The sporty styling, the excellent suspension and the roomy engine bay, have made this car an engine swapper's dream. The engine of choice has always been the Chevy small block V-8 and that hasn't changed with the advent of the LS1 series aluminum V-8. Team the LS1 with a T-56 six speed out of a late model Camaro, Firebird or Corvette and you've got something hot. Add some floor stiffening ribs and a big brake kit and you have a car that is almost track ready.

The engine bay is so accommodating that chevys are not the only engines that have made their way into "Z" cars. Ford V-8 drivetrains are common too, but swaps involving exotic power plants like the BMW V-12 are not unheard of. For our money we think an inline six is what Datsun intended and what this Datsun deserves. It's just that we think the six of choice is a Toyota! The 7M-GTE engine out of the '87 - 92 Toyota Supra Turbo, with a matching Asin R154 transmission, is the dollar for dollar so much fun for so little money that we wondered if we ought to keep it a secret.

The 7M-GTE is an electronically fuel injected, turbo charged engine that makes 240 hp in stock form. The incredible thing about this engine is that it has internals that are bullet proof to roughly 500hp. The engine control computer on the 7M is has simple wiring and is easy to fool into much higher power output, so with some exhaust tweaks, an upgraded turbo, some larger injectors and a good head gasket you can add an easy 200 - 300hp. Did I mention that you can often buy a Turbo Supra donor vehicle for less than $1000 and a nice fresh Japanese import engine, with no more than 50k miles on it, for about $795?

If the 7M engine is too mild for you there is one other Toyota inline six that is a good match for the "Z" car. It's the little known 1JZ--GTE. This was a successor to the 7M motor, but it was never offered in any North American market Toyota. Yet it is easy to import and substantially cheaper that the popular 2JZ-GTE that came in the '93 - '98 Turbo Supra that has become one of the most prized sports cars on the planet. The 1JZ engine has less displacement at 2.8 liters, but it has a shorter stroke that allows it to rev to 8,000 rmps. Tune one of these up to 500 - 600hp, put it in a prepared "Z" car and you will be treated to the rush and the music of something you could only experience on a racetrack in a professionally built race car.

We are talking about so much fun, for so little money, that I almost can't imagine another project that I'd rather be involved with. Well, there are a few other projects that are in the running, so stay tuned. I'll be writing about those soon.

A super source for Datsun Z info and images is HybridZ.org

Dirt Cheap Collectible Cars! We Love It!

2010-02-24T13:18:00.002-06:00

Dirt Cheap Collectible Cars. Now here's a concept we can get behind! My list would be very different, but I'm really glad to see the Datsun 280Z and a classic BMW 3 Series in this list. Still we can't do enough to emphasize the benefits of low cost collectible cars. Go man go!

Zuk's Toyota Gear Installs: A Great Website for Gearheads!

2009-11-29T18:23:00.001-06:00

Zuk's Toyota Gear Installs website is fantastic. It stands out because it's got lots of very detailed, but very clear, information about setting up Toyota 4x4 differentials. Zuk's website is also rich with large, sharp pictures of the procedures he carries out when he sets up a differential. In fact, some of his pictures are downright artistic (note the picture at left).

It seems like he documents every one of his rebuilds and re-gears, so his site is just overflowing with tips and techniques. I imagine that if someone took the time to read through the whole site and to gather the special tools needed to do the work he would come away from the experience with at least a bachelor's degree in gear-ology. I wish Zuk would take up transmission work and engine rebuilds so I could follow him on that too. -- Mitrik

Tool of the Day, #1

2009-11-19T22:04:00.002-06:00

This tool review is about the common hydraulic shop press. Pictured at left is a floor-standing model rated at 40 tons.

What would you need one of these for you might ask.

Many automotive operations can only be carried out with a press. Axles, differentials and transmissions almost always have gear assemblies, bearings, races and bushings that are pressed on and off of a shaft or other component. Suspensions also have bushings that are pressed into control arms and spring eyes. Presses are handy for bending and straightening operations as well.

The market has seen a flood of inexpensive hydraulic presses from China offered at stores like Harbor Freight and on eBay. Press capacity ratings start at about 4 tons with compact models that can be placed on a workbench. Models rated at over 100 tons can also be had. Common units for automotive type work are rated at 12 and 20 tons (24,000 - 40,000 lbs). The rating refers to the amount of force the ram can place on a workpiece. Twelve to twenty tons is usually enough muscle to git 'er done. Harbor Freight stores, that great outlet for Chinese manufacture, sell presses in this capacity range for less than $250.00. You will also find them on eBay, but if you are not local to the seller freight costs can be a killer.

Anybody who's serious about shop work that involves engines, drivetrains and suspensions is going to find one of these useful.

Electric Car Kits in Our Future?

2009-11-11T23:16:00.003-06:00

You can buy a kit to build a replica of cars like the AC Cobra or Porsche 356 Speedster. And you can buy a kit to build a 350 mph airplane. So where are the electric kit cars!!?

I recently read an article about the Aptera Motors 2e plug-in electric (pictured above). It's going to be built, as a production vehicle, in California and sold to the public in 2010. One of my first thoughts was, "This looks like a cross between a kit-car and a kit-plane! I want to build something like this!"

Can a 90 mph home-built electric car be built for less than the $35,000 price of the Aptera? For now I'm going to be watching sites like Wired's Autopia to see what happens. I've got my fingers crossed that some brave and creative soul is working out the details. -- Mit Spanner

Land of the Free, Home of the Diesel Deprived

2009-11-09T23:33:00.000-06:00

In Europe and across the globe a revolution in fuel efficient diesel cars and trucks is underway, yet Americans are prohibited from participating. Take for instance the 2010 Mercedes E220 Blue. Here you have a nice, sporty mid-sized sedan that gets nearly 40 mpg highway. It has a 2.2 liter, 4 cylinder turbo diesel that puts out 180 hp and 290 lbs/ft of torque, and it can be teamed up with a manual six-speed transmission. Now this is no AMG hot rod, but it has some zip. And did I mention that it gets nearly 40 miles per gallon of diesel. Unfortunately it's not cleared by U.S. transportation authorities for use on American roads, so forget about getting your hands on one unless you plan a trip to Europe, where you may be able to rent one. If a Mercedes sedan is not your cup of tea, perhaps you'd like a compact 4x4 pickup like the Toyota Tacoma with the latest of the clean burning, smooth running, high power diesels. Or a Subaru Outback. Or an Audi, or a host of BWMs. Again, don't look for these in the U.S., because they are forbidden. It all has something to do with this being the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave I'm sure. Maybe it's time to move to sunny southern Italy or Spain.

Electricity & Electronics for the Shop

2009-10-31T20:02:00.000-06:00

I've seen the future and it's powered by electricity! I love diesel engines in pickup trucks, cars and just about anything else. I love fast cars and 4x4's with powerful gasoline engines and turbochargers. This is what being a gearhead has always been about. And there's lots the homebrewed engineer can do with vegetable oil fuels and biodiesel, but if you read Wired magazine's, Autopia website you will see that "plug-in" electric cars are coming on strong.

A new breed of gearhead is also rising to meet the challenge of working with the new battery and motor technology. Much of which is available now for hackers (gearheads) to purchase. Electric cars with 90 mph top speeds and 200 mile range are a reality. The problem is that they are being priced around $35,000. A resourceful hacker is going to be able to put something with that kind of performance together for much less.

Wouldn't it also be fun to start thinking about how to install an array of solar panels on the roof of the house to charge the new electric hot rod. And maybe produce enough power to put a serious dent in the household utility bill as well.

Now I'm a bit behind on electronics, but I found a book, Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition, that looks like an electronics technician's associate degree program under one cover. I'm happy to say that it's well laid out and easy to read! I love it because self-learning and reaping the fruits of the knowledge gained alway make me feel like I'm like beating the System!

One Step closer to Being a Metalworking Guru!

2009-10-31T17:58:00.003-06:00

I took my first machining class the other day. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am not an official student in this class. Regardless, the instructor has welcomed me to sit in on as many sessions as I want. The machine shop is right next door to the welding lab where I am a regular student. I happened to meet the instructor a few weeks ago when he was in the welding area. We talked and the next thing I know I'm an adopted student in the manufacturing/machining class!

So far so good. In my first session I listened to a lecture about tool and feeding speeds. In the lab we worked at setting up workpieces in the lathe and the horizontal milling machine. The machines are commercial grade Bridgeport products with digital readout (DRO) for the axis of tool positioning and feeding.

Next time I promise I'll have pictures.

I think I got a good head start on this class from watching the American Gunsmithing Institute's (AGI) lathe videos, which I rented from SmartFlix.com How-To DVDs The whole AGI video machine shop course covers lathes, milling machines and other machine shop tools. It is very comprehensive with 26 hours of instruction. I costs over $1000 to purchase the set, but can be rented for as little as $14.95 per DVD. Rent the Professional Machine Shop Course: Lathe

There are also have many other Lathe and Milling videos.

They also have Welding videos and metal shaping for Sheetmetal.

A Couple of Good Little Welding Machines

2009-10-16T22:13:00.002-05:00

The Lincoln Invertec V155-S is one of the small new inverter type welders that is slightly larger than a lunch box and capable of very good stick and DC TIG welding. It will run off of a household electrical outlet at 115 volts and 15 amps. If you can plug it into an outlet with a 20 amp breaker it has a better range. It also can be plugged into single phase 230 volt outlet for even more performance. With the right extension cord it can be used up to 200' from an outlet. It is also able to be run off of generators that can sustain loads of 15 or 20 amps at 115 volts. The price is around $690 with accessories for stick only. It can be purchased for roughly $950 with the stick accessories and a TIG package that includes a torch and gas regulator and hoses. The only drawbacks I can think of is that that it doesn't have any remote current control capability and it's DC only so forget about welding aluminum in TIG.

The WeldingWeb.com forum has a thread with a good hands-on review.

Now if you are willing to spend an additional $700 you might want to look at the Miller Maxstar 150 STH from Miller Electric. It has remote control, pulsed current modes, high frequency starting, works on house current (115 volts) and is still has similarly tiny size.

There are cheaper TIG welders in the new and used markets, some of which will also do AC TIG on aluminum, but these are going to be tethered to a 230 volt outlet which greatly reduces their portability. The idea after all is to have a welding machine that can go almost anywhere and plug into any outlet and these machines can do that. -- Mitrik Spanner

Automated Manufacturing and the Homebrewed Engineer

2009-10-16T19:56:00.003-05:00

I think I mentioned earlier, that while I was at welding class, at my local Technical College, I met the instructor from the Automated Manufacturing (AM) program. I found out that they have Bridgeport mills and lathes available for training in the intro to AM class. Next Monday evening I get to sit-in on the class when they work with those machines.

Earlier this week I joined the AM class on a field trip. We went to the Generac Power Systems plant in Eagle, Wisconsin, mainly to see their robotic welding set-up, but Holy Cow! It was a great experience for a (wannabe) Homebrewed Engineer like me. We saw stainless steel exhaust tubing being bent on a mandrel bender, a CNC laser cutting table with a whopping 4' x 25' cutting table (my gestimate). We saw the engine line, where we saw everything from 4 cylinder Ford natural gas fueled engines to huge Mitsubishi industrial diesels. We also saw a CNC water cutting table where they cut insulation panels with a 10,000 psi jet of water.

The robotic welding cell was what we really came to see. This is where they weld up big diesel fuel tanks. The tanks we saw looked like they had a fuel capacity couple of a couple of hundred gallons. Because the tanks are made of sheet metal the bodies are not perfectly symetrical, so you could never program the robot to run a plotted course for the welds. Instead the robot "feels" the tank first to gauge the positions of some key landmarks on the areas to be welded. Then when the welding is underway the robot can sense how close the welding head is to the metal by measuring changes in the electrical circuit that vary with the distance of the electrode in the welding "torch" head from the work. It was fascinating.

As usual, I was the geek who asked questions about everything, and I was only a guest of the AM class!

One of the things I came away from the experience with is that there really is a bottom line in these operations. The company really seemed to be trying to make the most out of every penny it invested. I learned that the engineers have a wish list of equipment that goes unfulfilled because of cost constraints. I found out that they even shop the used machinery markets for deals. The industrial engineer that guided our tour, and the experience of seeing things firsthand, put a human face on what was only a big corporate name to me before the tour. Of course I'm always pulling for the entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial spirit and always have been throughout my adult life.

All of this makes me want to build a CNC router and/or a CNC plasma cutter from some of the plans and parts that are circulating on the internet. More on that later ;-) -- Mitrik Spanner

The Benefits of Student Status

2009-10-16T00:22:00.001-05:00

The other day I was looking at a bulletin board in the main lobby of the tech college where I take welding classes. I noticed a flyer for the University of Wisconsin's software web store. I looked closer and noticed that Wisconsin technical college students are also authorized to get student deals from the UW store. They carry Adobe products. I'm a big fan of Adobe so I was excited to see that I can get a great deal on the CS4 Design Premium bundle. It has InDesign (page layout for print), Photoshop Extended (image editing & 3D images), Illustrator (drawing), Dreamweaver (web design), Flash Pro (web animation), Fireworks (web graphics) and Acrobat Pro (PDF document creator). This bundle would cost me about $1300 if purchased at retail. The school deal would give me a 2 year personal use license for $299! I also puts me on the upgrade path, so that when my student license runs out I can purchase the full retail license for the upgrade price.

Then I started thinking about Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. I'm a fan of Vectorworks from Nemetschek so I checked out their website and lo and behold! They have a recently created student portal featuring free one year student licenses for Vectorworks Designer 2010!! This is a profesional CAD package with 3D rendering that normally costs $2400. It features modules for machine design, architecture, landscape design, and theatrical lighting. I applied online and got approval the next day. I downloaded the wares and was up and running right away. The Nemetschek student portal is rich with free training resources as well.

I'm welding, I'm blogging, I'm planning for the Wrenchtech/Shop Kulture website and now I have access to software to make it all more fun and easier. Yes I'm having fun.

Tool Review: Automotive Spotweld Cutter

2009-10-15T18:26:00.005-05:00

I have recently been disassembling a 1989 Toyota 4runner for practice in preparation for restoration work I plan to carry out on another 4runner. One of the things I have to do is disassemble the body shell around the "B" pillar and the inner areas of the rear quarter panels. The structure of most modern vehicles are assemblies of many stamped sheet metal sections held together with hundreds of dime-sized spot welds. Disassembling a body shell requires a good tool to take apart many spot welds quickly and cleanly. If the parts need to be saved for reuse this is the way to go. This is where a spotweld drill comes into play. It's a tool that basically a small precision hole-saw that you use with a common electric or pneumatic drill. The better spotweld drills have replaceable pilot tips and cutters. A few companies offer a kit with a mandrel (the tool body), several replacement cutters and pilot tips or bits. One such company is Blair Equipment. The kit pictured bllow costs roughly $40.00. To download a video of the tool in action on a spotweld click here. Windows Media 1.9 MB or MPEG 7.6 MB

click image to view larger

click image to download video

Update: You don't have to buy the $40 kit to get started. Amazon has the basic tool with a single double sided cutter for sale for about $12.23. You can order double sided replacement cutting heads separately. They come three to a package (six cutting surfaces) for around $11.65. Your purchase will help support this blog.

Days 7 and 8 of Welding Class

2009-10-14T22:42:00.001-05:00

We're still working away at TIG welding. After all this is a TIG class! Last week I was welding aluminum. Now we have moved on to 316 stainless steel. I missed two days of aluminum due to work conflicts. And missed a chance to try to weld a box out of aluminum. No problem though, there will be lots of chances to sit in on the classes that precede and that follow my mid-day class. It looks like there will be no shortage of chances to make up, or even get extra, hours of practice.

Anyway TIG on Stainless is sure different than aluminum. We were using pure tungsten with a round tip on aluminum. Now our tungsten electrodes are 2% cerium and are sharpened to a point. We also switched to DC electrode negative from AC. It also takes less amperage to weld the stainless. Gotta run now but here are my best of the last two days. There not much, but this is my first ever training and I only have about 12 hours of practice so far.

The first picture (below) is a fusion weld on a flat position, lap joint of two pieces of 0.125" thick, 316 stainless steel, run without any filler.

Below is my best bead for the session with filler (308L). Sorry for the bad picture. I struggled with lighting issues.

What Does A Homebrew Shop Engineer Need to Know

2009-10-12T13:21:00.003-05:00

What does a Homebrewed Shop Engineer need to know? Ultimately it depends on each persons goals. We think some blend of brain work and hands-on skills is the goal. Math, science and engineering skills, with practical skills like welding, machining, composites and maybe electrical/electronic tech is the model. A quick look at The University of Wisconsin's mechanical engineering curriculum guide might be helpful for the brain part. They list 14 three credit classes in just the main topic, mechanical engineering, alone. That's 43 credits out of the 121 credits needed to get a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. There are only two math classes required, a calculus and a linear algebra and differential equations class. It looks like students need to come to the program with some good math skills already mastered. There are also courses in chemistry, physics, electronics, engineering graphics and computer sciences that degree seekers need to complete.

Now I'm not suggesting that the Homebrewed Shop Engineer needs to throw himself fully behind such a curriculum, but I am suggesting that it could stand as a model. The internet offers free resources to study all these things so why not try to do what each of us is able. A little bit at a time is better than not at all. In the process each of us can find his own level. Some will want to go on through all the classes and some will not, yet all will benefit. In the next weeks I'll be presenting an outline with links to specific resources. -- Mitrik Spanner

A Great Online Math & Science Resource

2009-10-10T09:14:00.010-05:00

Who needs to spend a king's ransom to go to college when stuff like this is available!

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. They have 900+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

Be sure to check out the "What People Are Saying" column on the right margin of the Khan home page.

I'm using Khan Academy videos to make myself into a serious homebrewed shop engineer. In future posts I will be spending time focusing on alternative educational resources and plans to make it easier for anyone to do the same. So subscribe to this blog now so you won't miss any of the fun! -- Mitrik Spanner your host for the Shop Kulture blog

Math For the Shop Engineer

2009-10-08T14:35:00.009-05:00

As an aspiring independent engineer I have to face the fact that I need to improve my math skills. I can work with fractions and decimals. Maybe I could pass a pre-algebra test. This probably places me right in the mainstream with most Americans, but it's not nearly good enough for someone who wants to be a competent shop engineer. How much math does a shop engineer need? That's what I am in the process of discovering.

I discovered this book, Engineering Mathematics, which seems to fit my needs perfectly. Part of the book's description particularly grabs my attention:

"Whether you're an engineer looking for a useful on-the-job reference or want to improve your mathematical skills, or you are a student who needs an in-depth self-study guide, Engineering Mathematics is sure to come in handy time and time again." (emphasis mine)

The customer reviews for this book are almost all five stars and filled with praise. I recently purchased the book and can say that it looks very well organized and full of good content for self-teaching.

An Opportunity to Learn Machining Pops Up!

2009-10-08T00:08:00.002-05:00

There I was, in welding class, minding my own business, when in walks an instructor from one of the other industrial classes looking to get some welding done on a fixture he's making. Something to do with hydraulic principals for the Automated Manufacturing class he's teaching. While he's in the welding shop he mentions that he has a field trip coming up to visit a manufacturer with robotic welding facilities. I say I'm interested in the trip, so he invites me over to his classroom to sign up. While I'm there I mention to him that I'm interested in learning basic machining and that it's too bad that the school doesn't have an entry level machining class. He says, "But we do!" I didn't see anything like that in the course catalog, but he assures me that the class "Automated Manufacturing Concepts/Intro" has what I'm looking for. The class description is as follows.

Automated Manufacturing Concepts/Intro

An introduction to manufacturing processes with emphasis on manual machining to prepare students for further study in the Automated Manufacturing fields. Covers shop safety practices in a machine shop, the use of manual milling machines, lathes and drill presses to manufacture parts to print, and the use of basic metrology instruments to determine if the parts are to print. Calculation and application of correct cutting parameters of selected materials and tools is practiced.

I saw the lathe and the milling machine that are used for the class. The milling machine is a Bridgeport like I have seen in many small old-school machine shops. The lathe though, is some kind of modern CNC machine, however the instructor tells me that it can be used in a manual mode. I know what I'll be doing (if the gods of metal-working are willing) come next January!

Day Six of TIG Welding

2009-10-07T23:26:00.003-05:00

Below is a picture of my latest welding sample alongside last week's atrocity. In these exercises I'm welding with the metal in the vertical position and welding from bottom to top (vertical up). The weld on the left is horrible. The weld on the right, my latest, looks a lot better. It's amazing what changing to a thicker metal can do to help a novice welding student. It's still not nearly good enough, but it looks like I'm making progress. The first sample was done on thinner aluminum (0.0625"= 1/16" = 1.5875mm). The instructor recommended trying to weld on thicker stock. The new weld is on 0.125"(1/8" = 3.175mm) aluminum. I think it's easier, in this case, to TIG weld on the thicker aluminum because you have more time to get your heat (amperage) right before you melt a hole in your work. I'm also getting more used to doing several important things at once. Like using the foot control for the amperage, feeding the filler rod with my left hand and moving the torch with my right hand. I hope someday I'll have something really smart to say about welding, but that's it for now.

2009-10-04T10:36:00.003-05:00

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

If you're a gearhead and tool enthusiast like I am you will be happy to know that there is now solid intellectual support for our passions. Matthew Crawford has a PHD in philosophy from the University of Chicago, but he's also been a Porsche mechanic and a motorcycle repairman. He quit a prestigious job at a Washington DC think tank to start an unassuming motorcycle repair shop on the seedy side of Richmond, Virginia.

By all means get your hands on a copy of this book. I'm in the middle of reading the book right now and couldn't wait to blog about it. I'll do a more extensive review in the coming days. Buy the book using this link to help support the Shop Kulture blog.

"It's appropriate that [Shop Class as Soulcraft] arrives in May, the month when college seniors commence real life. Skip Dr. Seuss, or a tie from Vineyard Vines, and give them a copy for graduation.... It's not an insult to say that Shop Class is the best self-help book that I've ever read. Almost all works in the genre skip the "self" part and jump straight to the "help." Crawford rightly asks whether today's cubicle dweller even has a respectable self....It's kind of like Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
-Slate

TechShop: A Fully Tooled Out Shop Open to the Public!

2009-10-03T22:29:00.000-05:00

TechShop: Coming to a community near you!

Well not yet. But, if you live near San Francisco, Portland or Durham, North Carolina, and you can afford to pay the monthly fee, you can have access to a shop fully stocked with welders, machine tools, sewing machines, printing equipment, fiberglass works and about 50 other shop tools. Worried that you don't have the skills to run a lathe, a mill or a welder? Don't be! Reasonably priced classes are available to get you up to speed on the tool of your choice. TechShop is also looking to find partners who want to expand the idea to other communities.

What a great idea! I know where I'd be spending a lot of my time if one of these was near me. -- Mitrik Spanner

TechShop, Inc.
120 Independence Dr
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Toll Free: 1(800) 640-1975
Local Phone: 1(650) 521-9027
info@techshop.ws

Welding School: How About On the Job Training With Pay?

2009-10-02T21:50:00.000-05:00

Even in this rotten economy, where there are 5 people looking for work for every job opening, heavy construction firms that build bridges, power plants and refineries are looking for welding and pipefitter trainees. Many of these companies will hire people with little or no experience and put them through their own private training programs. Trade Unions, like the Pipefitters, are also eager to get new recruits. Many of these jobs offer pay while training and lots of overtime pay. Jobs like this are not for everyone. The have lots of discipline and the work can be repetitive. They can also expose workers to the rigors of working outdoors in heat and freezing cold. Of course Walmart is also hiring parking lot technicians, but if you want to get skills that you can use to earn a family supporting wage and build some serious stuff this may be something to look into.

As a guy who has lived through this kind of stuff I'd say the most important thing is to...

Do Something, and Do it Sooner Rather Than Later.

... If you get skills earlier in life you can pick a better job later, or even better, start your own business.

Check out the recruiting video for Cianbro Corp (link near the bottom of their page) . I don't have any connection to this company, but the list of positions they have to fill looks pretty impressive! It looks like they are doing public infrastructure work and utilities, where there is no slowdown in the economy yet.

A Short TIG Welding Video

2009-09-30T20:45:00.000-05:00

To do any kind of manual welding you need to be able to clearly see the molten "puddle" of heated liquid metal that you create as the welding proceeds. I'm still looking for a TIG video that has a good clear view of the puddle. In the mean time check out the handsome welds in this video from the website WeldingTipsandTricks.com, It contains 45 seconds of aluminum TIG welding in action. Welding Supplies, Welding helmet, TIG Inverter

Report #1 From Welding Class

2009-09-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

I originally wanted to post after every class, but it has been a little hard to keep up. Along with writing for this blog and going to welding school, I've been try to manage my photos better, be my own webmaster and hold down a job. In any case, I've had five welding class sessions so far!! We are welding aluminum with the TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) process , also know as GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding). I have played around with welding for nearly 30 years and I must say that welding school is a humbling experience! And just when I thought I was catching on the instructor switched us from welding on a flat surface to welding on vertical.

Below is an example of my work in the flat position (welded while the material was lying flat on my welding table). Not great, but not too bad for a guy with only a couple of hours experience with the GTAW process. I should also mention that both of these examples are on pretty thin aluminum stock (0.062"/1.575mm).

But then I started working in the vertical up position (material held in a vertical orientation while welding from bottom to top). Ooops! Looks like a chicken pooped on my metal.

I think there are about ten more weeks, so twenty (20) more class sessions, left in this Fall 2009 semester. Im sure that I will need to take classes at least through the Spring 2010 semester to have made good progress on both the TIG/GTAW and stick/SMAW welding processes. There might be a summer semester available too, but beyond that I will have to move on to other areas of the metal working arts and sciences ;-)

Tool Review: JMR Tubing Notcher

2009-09-25T13:19:00.001-05:00

At $595.00 this is not a purchase most home shop enthusiasts would make lightly. I'm talking about JMR's heavy duty tubing notcher.

Pirate4x4.com has a great in depth review with lots of detailed pictures.

Watch out, if you like heavy-duty wrenching and fabricating on hard core 4x4 rock buggies and stuff like that, you might find yourself addicted to the Pirate4x4 website. They have a busy forum that is a great source of technical do-it-yourself stuff on drivetrains, suspensions, chassis and metal working techniques. Enjoy!

JMR Manufacturing
P.O. Box 606
Creston, CA 93432
805-239-5972

My Prior "Shop" Experience

2009-09-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

First I should say that I do have some welding and fabricating skills. My first attempt to weld involved a car battery, some jumper cables and coat hanger wire "electrodes". I was 19 and trying to fix something on one of my cars. I don't remember much at this late date, but I don't think it turned out too well. I didn't know what a real electrode should look like, or anything about electrode diameter or flux, but hey, a guy's got to start out somewhere.

When I was 22 I got a job as a laborer on a steel building "erection" crew. I was an enthusiastic worker who liked climbing around on girders and bar joists and so it wasn't long before someone said to me "hey kid you think you could weld this corrugated sheet metal flooring down to these joists?". They didn't have to ask twice. Just the thought of being allowed to wear a welding helmet and to handle the stinger of a Lincoln engine driven welder was exciting as hell to me. The welding I did really didn't require much skill. It was a lot like making spot welds to hold sheet metal decking to the building's floor framing. After a couple of weeks of that I was allowed to graduate to running beads to weld floor joists to girders. This wasn't structurally critical. It was really just another kind of tacking operation, but it let me get practice watching the puddle (of molten metal) at the end of my arcing "stick" electrode. If you do this stuff day after day you begin to learn something. I also got to do quite a bit of oxy-fuel torch cutting and I learned how to rig loads to be lifted by a crane. I only worked for that company for about four months. They were from out of town and only there for the length of the project. They moved on and I stayed put.

Soon after, I got a job with a small, boiler and pipe fitting company. I got a few chances to try my hand at MIG welding. I also got to practice a little bit of oxy-fuel welding. The company used oxy-fuel welding to weld small diameter schedule 40 natural gas pipe for residential gas service. I mainly watched that operation.

Another three years passed until I was working in a shop where I needed to make a custom hydraulic shear. I looked in the Trader Classified Paper and found a Lincoln "beehive" welding machine. It was and industrial motor-generator welder that featured a three-phase electric motor that turned generator that made the current for welding. I liked that machine. Again I was burning rod! I built a guillotine shear with a heavy duty "H" frame made from salvaged steel I-beams. I also modified a two axle trailer and made a frame hitch for thr truck that was to tow it. I had all the time I wanted to make mistakes and try again. It was a good learning experience. I later sold the welder to some aerospace mechanic in Silicon Valley that said he was working on a private space launch project!

Not much welding for a long time after that (10 years). In about 1999 or 2000 I was driving semi-trucks all over North America and I had developed the habit of buying cool tools on eBay and picking them up myself in the big truck. This was how I got my 255 Lincoln MIG welder. I saw the deal on some classified add on the web. I saw that my schedule would be taking me near the seller's location within two weeks so I asked if he'd hold it for me until I could get there. About 14 days later I was picking up my lightly used welder. It's great to have a semi-truck to pick up stuff and fuel paid for by the business! Since then I've worked on stuff like trailer hitches, trailers, scaffold frames and some residential stuff like metal fencing and support columns for floor framing. Best of all, I've done repairs and modifications to my classic 4x4 Toyota 4runners and pickup trucks.

Some good experience all in all, but I still have no clue about welding on vertical and overhead surfaces and my experience is all with mild steel, no aluminum and no stainless steel. Since one of my goals is to do some more serious automotive work I need to improve and I need experience on different metals.

Hence I have enrolled in welding school at the local community college.

Depending on how good the instruction is, and how good a student I am, I plan to put in at least two semesters (Fall 2009 & Spring 2010). If I feel I need it I can continue in the Summer 2010 semester. I'm hoping by Fall 2010 I'll be free to start machining classes (lathe and vertical mill). Although, I am also looking into the idea that I might buy a lathe to try teaching myself with the video courses from The American Gunsmithing Institute and others like Rudy Kouhoupt.

So long for now. I'll report soon on my welding class experience. -- Mit

What This Blog Is Really All About

2009-09-17T22:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I never really had a corporate job (except for a short, but very interesting, stint as a trading floor runner at the Chicago Board of Trade). What I'm trying to say here is that, at middle age, I've decided to become a kind of independent shop engineer. The desired skill set includes metal working (welding, machining and metal shaping), mechanics (automotive, motorcycle, small engine, hydraulics, and small to medium sized equipment), composites (fiberglass, carbon fiber, kevlar and plastic resins) and assorted techniques related to wood working, auto body repair and painting, etc.. I've dabbled in this stuff since the tender age of 10 when I tried to modify my bicycle by adding a lawnmower engine. Since then I've been a I've wrenched on my personal vehicles, including my 25 year old Toyota 4x4, which has undergone an engine transplant, transmission upgrade, fuel injection conversion and a repaint without ever actually seeing the inside of a real repair shop in the 20 years that I've owned it. I've also built trailers, shop machines and a fiberglass camper for a pickup.

Now that I'm in my 40's I've finally decided to get serious about what has been an enjoyable hobby. Here's my plan.

The other day I abruptly decided that my welding skills had come as far as they were going to without some professional help. So, I enrolled in the welding program at the local community college. I'm presently studying TIG and "stick" welding.
My math skills are not very well developed. If I am serious about being an engineer I'm going to have to study algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. I think this is an area where the internet has everything I need to teach myself without formal courses.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) OpenCourseWare program has free access to mechanical engineering courses. Utah State University also has OpenCourseWare resources for engineering and math. Using these and other resources (online and not) I think I can put together a decent curriculum to achieve my goal.
There are good home study video courses on machining with the metal lathe and milling machine. The American Gunsmithing Institute has a series that covers the lathe, the milling machine and general machine shop support equipment. Some of those DVDs can also be rented from SmartFlix.com (lathe, milling) If I can find a deal on a lathe I would like to go the self-teaching route. If not, a slightly more distant technical college in my area has machining courses.

This is what I am going to blog about. I hope readers will join me in creating a community of self-learning men and women shop engineers.