I am a 60ish dude with a background of city life and office work. Regardless long, long ago my parents ran a bunch of rooming houses in NYC and I helped dad with repairs of everything tenant's televisions to plumbing and carpentry. Dad had many many tools and skilled enough at what he did to build his own lathe from scratch and WW2 surplus tools (fairly common stuff back in the 50s and 60s). A few decades ago I fled city life and moved to a rural area and a cheap farm property. Although well grounded (thanks to good parents) in the basics of home repair and carpentry I quickly realized my knowledge was insufficient for large acreages and the machinery, vehicles and tools required to maintain such. I therefore, at the local community college, took classes in welding and machine shop which introduced me to lathes and mills and gave me some hands on time with both. Picked up a little MIG welder and an oxy acetylene (soon dropped in favor of Mapp for safety reasons) rig and eventually reached a stage where I would describe my skill as low to fair. One of those from China 6 inch jaw bandsaws was a must have especially when I realized both hacksaw type and wood type blade bans were available for it. Vises, grinders, cheap drill presses and assorted wood working stuff also followed. Sadly most metal work was still done either with hand tools, or hire someone, or just go buy a new part. Last year I discovered Micro Mark and acquired their 9x16 mini lathe and their 500 Watt mini-mill. LoL, 4 ton Bridgeports they ain't. But still for the projects I find myself doing here they are more than adequate. The Lathe is up and running (currently, as a lark, turning out a knurled cocking piece for an old Stevens .22, but made of brass instead of the original steel, Sounds simple I know, but to me, not. 3rd attempt underway. I am learning that reverse engineering is more than just looking at the piece and making a few cuts to match. I have learned which operation needs to be done first is very important to think about before starting the first cut.). The mill was set up okay and does a good job on aluminum and plastic and brass, but hard steel still gives me rigidity problems. I am working on that and acquiring such accessories as I can afford as fast as I can as the need arises. I have joined several groups like this one and anticipate bothering many with questions as I encounter mill and lathe issues my old textbooks don't address. Hopefully as time goes on I will also be able to start reporting successes.