Intro to Milling w/ Ethan

In the wood shop, you have the jointer, the planer, the drill press, router tables, and sanders, plus you sometimes use the table and miter saws for sizing. In the metal shop, you have just the mill. It fills all of those roles and more. With a mill and a lathe, you can eventually make almost any mechanical part in the world.

This class teaches students how to safely use our manual mills –- how not to damage yourself or the mill, and how to be a good “mill citizen” on our shared equipment.

The student will perform a variety of cuts with different tools on both aluminum and mild steel, learning the issues to consider with them. We will also cover some basic skills, such as edge finding. We will also learn two approximate squaring techniques. These basics will give students the starting place they need to learn more precise and more advanced techniques later.

This class is required for someone to use either of our manual mills, and it is a prerequisite to all of the Tormach CNC Mill classes.