Machine shop classes have been deleted in the area of my hometown in Murrieta/Temecula CA.

We want to change that, but we need a machine to spark the excitement and get the chips flowing so we can start learning by doing. I have some extra garage space and will park this beautiful Bridgeport 2HP knee mill in there and start getting kids in the area engaged in machining and building to seed the next generation of people who know how to make things with their own hands in our community in SoCal.

I have connections to various learning pods in the area that have popped up in the greater Temecula Valley, such as Temecula Learning Pods, and Grace Christian Homeschool and would start getting kids involved in machining immediately. 

I am currently employed as a Process Development Engineer and have been employed as an engineer at companies like Denso, Tesla, and Dexcom - each had on-site machining capabilities and there is no reason we cannot front-load CAD and machining fabrication to kids at a much earlier age.

I asked chatGPT if my garage foundation can handle a 2,000-lb machine (it can, it is 4" thick rebar reinforced), my father in law is an electrician and can wire up the required 220V - all I need is the machine and we can start making chips!

We will post our projects and progress to a domain I just acquired - wecanjustbuildthings.com

Project ideas: folding multi-tool, quad-copter drone parts (main structural body), lock pick tools, keychain fobs, over-ear headphone cans, small sterling engine or steam engine, hammer with interchangeable hammer heads, dovetail vise grips and parallel bars, metal phone cases - things that are useful and not just paper weights!

The projects will motivate us to learn things like tolerance stack analysis, metrology, and finishing techniques (grinding, reaming, plating, constraining without over-constraining, etc.).

Thanks for reading and let's bring machining to the kids of Temecula and Murrieta!