A great hands-on class. Even as someone with a fair amount of experience in Fusion, I was able to absorb a great deal. I especially appreciated the open approach, the access to some incredible machines and techniques, and the willingness to share a lot of expertise. Great teachers too. Thanks.

Had an awesome experience with this class. Vince was incredible, he had lots of useful information from the real world environment perspective. Highly recommend these classes to people wanting to learn or even if you already have experience doing it. The facility is beautiful, super clean, very organized. 10/10 will recommend to everyone.

Vince is a great instructor. We recently purchased a new CNC and this class has enabled the team to get the best results from the start.

This was a really great learning experience. The instructors really brought us from ground level to operating CNC machines in only 3 days. I loved being able to see the entire design to manufacturing workflow in action, seeing how drawings can get translated to models, to toolpaths, to NC programs, and of course the end result is so satisfying. As one would expect, you start by following their toolpath instructions, and they explain the rationale behind the selections they are making, but I would definitely need a lot more practice to feel comfortable creating my own machining strategy. A good follow-up to this might be a self-paced online course with mentoring that lets you take time to do the CAD and CAM for your own project and get coaching from their team. But overall, as a 3-day intro, this is truly an action-packed class.

I had a great time in the 3 axis cnc class. Both instructors, Alex and Vince were great to work with. Being brand new to both cad and cnc, this was a tough but fun class. I was the only one in the class without any cnc or cad/cam experience, the instructors were extremely eager to help and make sure I understood the information. Probably the best class I have ever taken!

Another 3 weeks to class so at this point I can’t say anything about the hands on class. The fusion online course is rough for me. It moves too fast for someone completely new to cad. I find myself just hitting buttons to keep up and not absorbing the information

I just attended the 3 axis fusion 360 milling class last week and it was amazing. Vince and Alex are very knowledgeable about Fusion 360 and machining and are great explaining it so that a lay person can understand it. I would highly recommend this class for anybody who is interested in improving their knowledge and skills.

I’m hesitant to share my thoughts about the class. I feel like it could be beneficial if taken seriously. I went with the specific goal to learn how to setup and run the haas machine as it’s the closest to the one I own. I was fairly comfortable with fusion though I did learn some tricks that will be useful in the future, the CAM training was helpful but I was mostly focused on setting up and operating the haas. Out of a class of 8, there were 5 people wanting to run the haas. I volunteered to run a tormach but asked if I could get some time on the haas. Vince was exceptional, the man has much more patience than I do. Halfway through day 3 I finally got a chance to use the haas and ask some specific question that I needed for my own machine and parts we manufacture. While I feel like I wasn’t able to get out of the training what I really needed, it was a good experience. I believe the others in the class were there at their employers expense, and it showed. Most were unprepared and only vaguely familiar with fusion which slowed the class considerably. I signed up for the training because I lost my programmer and needed to learn how to set up the machine and improve my cam skills to keep my company going. All associated expenses were my responsibility. As I still have a full time job and had to take an unpaid week off work my out of pocket expense was around 5K. This isn’t a hobby for me, I have invested several years and a significant amount of funds into my business and things were going well until my programmer stopped showing up. My equipment has been sitting idle for 4 months now and this was what I thought would give me the necessary skills to do what I needed to get things running again. I don’t regret taking the class, just wasn’t able to get enough of what I needed to feel I got the full value of it. With that being said, since people are given access to the online courses when they purchase the hands on training, it seems like making it a prerequisite to finish the CAD/CAM training would be a huge benefit when people show up to your facility. So much time was wasted on simple tasks in the classroom that it took away more valuable time at the machines. Being a commissioned technician teaches you how to prioritize your time and focus on the tasks that maximize your returns. The 80/20 rule. Being a salary employee allows the mind to wander and follow what ever peaks your interest at that moment however trivial it may be. I appreciate the time and knowledge Vince shared with me, and overall the experience was good and helpful. I just wasn’t able to get enough out of it to justify the expense. Probably not what one expects to hear, but maybe it can help streamline things for future participants

I took the course in March of 2018. I had been working in a CNC machine shop for 9 months with a fair amount of hobby manual machining background, but very little understanding of CAD/CAM and the CNC workflow. My machine shop job only really wanted me in my capacity to load parts, saw material, sweep up etc. There were, frustratingly, very seldom opportunities to learn anything. It was pulling teeth to get any training or opportunities out of that place. I quit and took a few days of Saunders classes and transformed myself. None of this felt challenging or out of reach. By noon of the first day in Fusion CAD class with Kevin I felt that Fusion 360 was clicking. By noon on the first day in the machining class we were making chips. We had modeled our parts, programmed our toolpaths, set up the machine, and things were working. For what I needed at the time, there were no other classes that came close to delivering what I wanted as quickly or affordably. Trade school would have taken well over a year of cursory foundations to even begin with CAD/CAM/CNC. After the class I bought a 1996 CNC machine and started my business. I haven't worked for anyone else since.

Since the course is in February 2023, I haven't taken it yet, but I am confident that the course will be very beneficial. I am a 71 year old (still 18 in my mind) hobbyist and practicing attorney, but have been machining for about 25 years on manual machines. During the Covid lockdown, I started teaching myself Fusion (after a frustratingly failed attempt at BobCad), reading various books, looking at all of the on-line videos, and John's were definitely the most helpful. Also, I purchased your Fusion CAD-CAM course and found it very enlightening - learned a lot. I have become, in my view, pretty efficient in Fusion, although I don't know if that is "beginner efficient" or "intermediate efficient", but will certainly find out during the course. Taking a friend's advice and John's reviews, in January I purchased a new Tormach 770MX mill and followed that in May with the purchase of a new Tormach 8L lathe. It has been a steep learning curve with PathPilot on both machines, but I am getting there. I have purchased many of your items, fixture plate, mod vices, etc., and taken many of John's recommendations and purchased various tooling. I am very confident that, after finishing the course, my knowledge and skill base will take a great leap. Tom Williams

Awesome Experience!!!! After a brief introduction of the class, we got right into Fusion. Class-size was 8 students and 3 instructors which seemed to be perfect. By lunch time on the first day, we were machining our first part. Note: I did feel a little overwhelmed at this point due to my lack of experience with Fusion 360. I did have some CAD/CAM experience before signing up for this class, but it was not enough to navigate Fusion. SMW provides access to Fusion 360 training videos and considers it a must before taking the class. I cannot encourage this enough. You need to have a decent understanding of Fusion 360 workflow and screen navigation to keep up with Vince on the first day. The second day I felt much better as it picked up some of that Fusion knowledge. Day two and day three, Instructors continued to build and challenge the Class knowledge base with Fusion and Mill setup as we were given prints to model and tool paths to create. After each Post was saved, we took our thumb drive to the HAAS or Tormach and perform tool/stock offsets. Press START, watch the ships fly. Thanks to Vince, Alex, Patrick, and John for the experience. Cecil