Building Block 1
Core Skills
Safety, benchwork, layout, materials, shop mathematics, blueprint reading, GD&T, precision measurement, quality control, speeds and feeds.
The training system
Total Machinist
A complete pathway from no prior knowledge to manufacturing expertise. Core skills first, then hand skills, then the machines — setup before programming, programming before CAM. Every step assessed, every student tracked, ending in a certification employers recognize.
It is built to be taught, not merely assigned. Total Machinist works in conjunction with your instructors and subject matter experts to deliver comprehensive training — carrying the instruction that should be the same every time, so the people who know the trade spend their hours where their judgment counts.
Foundational Skills
Five building blocks, in the order a machinist learns them. Each sits on the one below it, and the order matters — a student who can read a print and hold a tolerance by hand becomes a far better CNC programmer than one who started at the control.
Building Block 2
Manual Machining
Drill press, manual mill, manual lathe and precision grinding.
Building Block 3
Machine Setup
Control overview, mill and lathe setup on both older and current controls, tooling, work holding and Renishaw probing.
Building Block 4
G-Code Programming
M and G code for mill and lathe, video-based projects from print to finished part, and multi-axis machining.
Building Block 5
CAM Programming
Project-based Mastercam and Fusion 360 for 2D lathe and 3D mill.
Alongside
Precision Measurement
Inspection and reverse engineering with Verisurf, on portable CMMs, hand scanners and the Renishaw Equator.
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Why not start with CAM?
It is tempting. CAM is the newest software, it is what shows up on a job posting, and it demonstrates well to a visiting board. Starting there also saves a semester.
What it produces is a student fluent in one menu and unable to read the job. They can post a toolpath, but they cannot look at what comes off the machine and say whether it is right — because nothing underneath them says what right looks like. That is not a poor student. That is a student who was handed the last chapter first.
Depth is also what the shop is paying for. Someone who understands what the machine is about to do catches the problem at the screen rather than at the spindle — and a crash can cost more in an afternoon than the training does in a year.
It is the same knowledge that decides whether a graduate stays the person who runs the job in front of them or becomes the person a shop hands a new one to. Operator, programmer, supervisor, shop owner — the same trade at different depths of understanding, each reached by knowing why, not only how. That is what the sequence is for: every building block sits on the one below it, so a student finishes able to reason a problem through instead of looking up a procedure and hoping the situation matches.
Projects that get harder as the student gets better
Attention is the scarce resource in a classroom. Total Machinist and the NextGen simulator are built to capture and keep it — not with novelty, but by giving a student something to finish and something to show for it.
Interactive, not passive
Interactive exercises, simulation and workbooks rather than a video to sit through. A student is doing something on nearly every screen — which is the difference between a course that gets finished and one that gets abandoned in week three.
Easy first, then harder
The first projects are within reach on day one. Each one after it asks for a little more, so difficulty arrives at the same rate capability does and a student is never stranded between what they know and what is being asked.
Something finished at every stage
Every project ends in something completed — a part, a program, an inspection report. Progress is visible to the student, not only to the gradebook.
Confidence is the output
A student who has finished six projects believes they can finish the seventh. That belief is what carries someone through the difficult middle of a program, and here it is earned rather than encouraged.
And every project demonstrates a fundamental skill an employer is actually hiring for — so what motivates a student on a Tuesday afternoon is the same thing that gets them the interview.
Train, assess, certify
Train
Step-by-step instruction built around real parts, with interactive exercises, simulation, video and workbooks. Self-paced, so a class of mixed ability moves at the speed each student needs.
Assess
Automated pre-tests, post-tests, quizzes and exams tied to stated learning objectives — so an instructor sees who has understood something rather than who has clicked through it.
Certify
Content aligned to the skill standards the industry already works to. Certificates are earned on performance, not attendance.
What instructors get
Education is being asked to teach more in less time. Total Machinist is a productivity tool for the instructor first — the reason to buy it is what it gives back to the person running the program.
- Skills Learning Objective reports showing exactly what each student can do
- Management tools to build classes and track progress across a cohort
- Practice testing for programs that certify through an outside body
- Blueprints and reference material in an accessible format
- Content you can align to your existing program rather than teach around
- Students who arrive at the machine already knowing what they are about to do
- Free instructor accounts, always
Instructors report saving up to 30% of training time
Not by teaching less, but by not rebuilding material that already exists. Everything is organised, in depth, and in one place — so a class can genuinely be on the same page.
Shop time spent on the shop
Students work through the theory, the setup and the programming before they reach the floor, so hands-on hours go to hands-on work. And because the course is available at any hour, a student who needs a step again goes back to the lesson rather than waiting to ask — which means the questions that do reach the instructor are the ones worth their time.
See it properly
The fastest way to judge whether this fits your program is a demonstration with someone who knows the content. Half an hour, no obligation.