Thank you for the well wishes. I can confidently say I am genuinely excited to start. I cant say exactly what all my job duties are as of yet. Its been described as "dirty work" which im totally fine with along with manual and NC machine training. I honestly feel like I hit the lottery with this new position. Between the starting wages, benefits, tuition reimbursement, willing to take me on with no machining experience, willing to train me on all the machines and processes. I think going to school shows them incentive and hopefully sees me as an investment for the future. I am leaving a clean desk job that had 24/7 on call support and had me tied to my phone because in the IT world you can do remote work from anywhere. I had zero desire to go to work, it was a decent paying job but had no growth at all internally. I've never been one to settle for very long and being salary with no growth potential drove me to despise the IT world and what pushed me to sign up for classes.

Haha noted I cant recall the brand of machines they are running at this new place. I just know they run alot of EDM machines so ill have a good amount of seat time on them soon enough.

Well the universe was looking out for me today. About a month ago I discovered a good friend was a manager in the R and D department at a medium sized manufacturing plant. A spot opened up within his group. He found out I was pursuing machining and offered me a job as an R and D tech. The pay is really fair considering my manufacturing knowledge. At first I'll be doing the "dirty" stuff and whatnot. I will be taught to work with EDM machines and multiple other machines. I know they work a lot with composite materials. Anyways I'm beyond excited to start in 3 weeks.

Got to mess around on a Bridgeport machine last night at a friends dads house. He is a long time machinist now retired who is more than happy to school me. Nothing crazy just ran a end mill over a block of aluminum a bunch of times, but its way easier to retain and understand when you are actually doing it. We went over speeds and feeling out the table if you're going too fast. Got some grants from the school to cover like 90% which was a shocker...possibly because im older (33) or because they want people to get into manufacturing. Either way ill take it and the classes are credit so this cert course can turn into a associates degree down the road. Once they post what books we need im sure it will come with a trial of software and ill be all over that. If you guys have any suggestions for practicing core basics on a manual let me know so I can focus on them next week on the BPT Machine.

Any chance this demo/trial software is somewhere else? It seems that the download link is broken. Thanks everyone

Gonna work on speaking to the teachers once i'm in there, good call I know a at least of few of them are employed during the day in the field. The job placement department is pretty good from what I have heard. And i'm pretty humbled to be around experienced people in whatever field it may be, maybe its because im older (33) and have a family to support so I take it pretty seriously. I've seen it here first hand (some of) the younger generation has entitlement issues to work on lol.

Might hold off the 3d printer idea then. Not really in a position to buy one right now anyways if its not relevant. Pretty pumped though..signing up for classes next week. But I gotta wait till Fall semester which is gonna drive me nuts. Had some great insight from a buddies father who just retired from Sikorsky in CT. He was in the machining dept for around 30 years and he went from manual machining to learning and running CNC. This kind of stuff is definitely for me after speaking with him. For right now I grabbed my grandfathers old Micrometer and have just been practicing lol. Will be looking around for machining jobs but i'm somewhat hesitant to apply with zero experience, id feel better if I have at least a few months of school under my belt first. I do have a line of a Aerospace place that's always looking for help and I happen to know a guy who's dad is in the company...would be great to get into there while going to school. If not its going to be a challenge balancing school and my IT day job (which requires after work support and traveling) but im determined to get into this field. Thanks to everyone in here for advice and encouraging words...Any open source mastercam alternatives out there btw?

One thing I was debating on doing was picking up a 3D printer for the pure learning experience. Didn't know if it was worth it though. Anything from the home 3D printer world carry over to the on the job skills of cnc programming??

That would be really great considering the school I'm going to is in Waterbury. Maybe something works out you know. Been driving to Milford for the past five years from the Naugatuck so something closer would be a nice change. I'll be looking more into this company for sure. Thank you for the suggestion.

I never have heard of the place but it's a lot closer than my current commute to my job now. I'll have to contact them and see exactly what they would be looking for. Do you have experience at that place? I spoke with one of the teachers and they do have you spend time in the shop using manual machines in the beginning. And i know they make you learn mastercam and also I believe G code I totally forgot to ask. Im gonna memorize the essential g code ahead of time.

Sorry I missed this question..Im in Connecticut

I was gonna try to pick up a book or two before these classes get going. Any suggestions on what book to start with as a total noob? I saw this book http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cnc-programming-handbook-peter-smid/1100495065?ean=9780831133474#productInfoTabs Just wasnt sure if its meant for somebody starting from scratch??

I wish I could get into a part time gig somewhere on the weekends where I could get some real life experience. <Removed> I just grabbed a copy of G wizard's demo to see exactly what im getting myself into. Every single school I called for manual machine training is during the day (the downside of being full time employed lol). Tons of training meant for people out of work though during the day. Im just working on getting a grasp of stuff before I enter the classroom in a few months I did speak to a recruiter for direct hire manufacturing jobs to get a feel and she said even with only just CNC programming they can find me employment with no issue's. Granted I will have to start at the lower end of the pay scale but I expected that anyways.

I've been doing tech support for a medical software/hardware company for close to 5 years now. I've been interested in the manufacturing world for a while now especially the CNC aspect of it. This year I did some looking, and found a night class for CNC at a community college that works with my schedule. The end goal being to get into a shop and get out of a cubicle lol. The classes don't start till August but I wanna get my feet wet before hand. This is the course if you wanna see what im getting into http://www.nv.edu/Credit/Automated-Manufacturing-Engineering-Technology/Certificate-in-CNC-Machining Big issue for me is I have no idea what the surrounding shops are looking for in regards to a skillset. The want ads typically dont specify. I've heard learn g code, learn Mastercam, learn solidworks, ect. Should I focus on them all or just one? Would this course be advisable for somebody who's never ran a manual machine before? https://www.emastercam.com/board/ecourses/ecourse/41-mastercam-2017-mill-essentials-ecourse/ Thanks in advance