What courses should I run? EOI

General
1

Hi All,

I’m a new member and have been an Automotive Engineer of various stripes for the last 15 years, and have had trade experience prior to that. It was mentioned during my induction that there may be an interest in courses being run on site and I’m happy to do that.

I’ve thrown together a few course ideas below, which would be relatively rudamentary with the intent that each is a single hour to 2 hour class.

General engineering:
How to design a thing
How to select materials
How things are made

Manufacturing theory:
How machining works
How welding works

Automotive design/modification:
How car suspension works
How motorbike suspension works
How automotive engines work
How vehicle structures work
How to legally modify your car
How on road vehicle dynamics work
How off road vehicle dynamics work

Practical:
How to safety use hand tools
How to safely use power tools
How to safely use machinery
How to use a lathe
How to use a milling machine
How to use a mig welder
How to use a tig welder
How to gas weld/braze
How to use a plasma cutter

A number of these class elements would need to be sequential to make it work, ie; attend “how welding works”, then “how to safely use power tools”, then “how to use a mig welder” or something similar. This is because understanding a little bit of theory, and how to safely use supporting tools is critical to ensuring that you don’t damage your job, yourself or others and that you get a product at the end that you can be proud of.

Some of the content may be interesting to some people and not others, such as “how to select materials” or “how to design a thing”, but this type of content wouldn’t be required for anything else, just that it may be interesting to some.

At this stage I hadn’t intended any of the content to be large enough that you’d finish with a practical product, but rather a basic understanding of the topic or how to operate the particular tool and where to go for more information.

I’d love your feedback on what you’d find most relevant and interesting and I’d prefer to run a class or series of classes that was as relevant as possible to the most people possible. If people would like to express an interest in any of the above topics, or invent their own it would be most appreciated.

3 Likes
2

Hi Drew,

What a generous offer! I would personally be interested in welding skills. I’ve previously done arc and gas welding (poorly!) but would like to try out MIG and TIG.

Cheers!
Duncan

3

Hi Drew,
I have been a member for quite a while and have been meaning to start some projects in the metal shop but as of yet not really done anything in there. I have very little experience with any of the tools in there and don’t know where to start. What you have suggested sounds excellent and I would really like to be involved in how to use the machinery/tools

4

Sign me up for your welding classes. Tkz

5

Hi Drew

This sounds wonderful. I’d be up for the general, manufacturing and practical courses, they all sound good.

Nali

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So it sounds like we’ve got osme interest in running a welding course primarily. I’m also interested in how long people would want something like this to go. I can run something like a very basic introduction to MIG in a couple of hours with a half hour of theory, an hour of practical and then a half hour of debrief, which would probably put people onto a good track for self learning. That would work pretty well for a weeknight course if people were interested?
I expect that I’d probably need something in the order of a minimum 5 people and I’d probably be charging around $50 per participant for something like that. Does that sound good to everyone?

1 Like
7

Definately sign me up for lathe and milling classes

8

OK You twisted my. The mill plz.
All ele tric forms of welding.

9

I’d like to be proficient with the lathe and mill

10

Tkz Drew. MIG is on my list of really must do inductions. Ali is my main interest.