Since this thread is still going, I'll throw one at you. I'm a chiropractic physician who's done some high school shop machining (messing around) but never really did anything real until I needed to buy a new table for my business as the old one broke. When I found out that the same type of table was going to cost around $16,000, I balked and to make a long story short ended up buying a rong-fu mill/drill, a welder, a grinder, a 13x40 Enco lathe, sold the mill/drill, bought an Enco 9x48 vertical mill (Bridgeport type) and a whole bucket load of other stuff until my garage and little 8x10 shop are completely full and I'm about to kick the cars out or build a new garage. I did get my table re-furbished and working like a charm. I am not, however, a machinist as I am self-taught and don't get paid anything.
HOWEVER, I am likely to be chased out of my small town practice by regulation in the form of healthcare reform and the dramatic increases in my cost which cannot be passed on due to law. Also I have never made enough to have the ability to retire after 18 years, so at 46, I am now potentially considering going into machining as a way to wear out other parts of my body and because I have found that I love it so much. I consider it quite an honor to be amoung so many veterans on this forum and have already been greatly assisted by many of you. Maybe in the future if one of you is taking old students who still have a lot left in them and more desire to learn and less concern about making money (small town Chiropractors are not rich people at $24/hr or less and very manual labor) I may be asking for a job!
Barry