Re: AGI courses
I signed up for the master course due to lack of other options. Some thoughts....
The machining course is pretty good as an add on to a hands on course at a college. I learned stuff in the videos that I did not learn at the college, but the video can't substitute for having someone there that knows their stuff. However, Darrel Holland does gear the course to gunsmithing, where most colleges are going to be more toward industry. That being said, facing, turning, cutting threads, milling, etc are done the same way. The scale and application are different. I did three semesters at the community college until it got in the way of my duties at home.
The welding course is well done. Again, you don't have someone there to show you in person, but it is better than other videos I have seen. The instructor does a really good job of cutting to the heart of the matter, which he says is puddle control. He says most of welding is practice, practice, and then more practice until you can control the puddle. He spends quite a bit of time on safety, which was good. Easy to blow yourself up with a gas rig. One advantage for me is that the welding classes I need at the college are in the middle of the afternoon. There is no way I can attend given the schedule.
The gun portions of the course vary. Bob Dunlap is knowledgeable but I have a hard time focusing when he is talking. His big emphasis is to understand how the gun works and then you can fix it.
I haven't looked at the bluing, triggerwork, 1911, Glock, or some of the other portions yet. There is a lot of material in the master course. Not only gunsmithing, but business operation info too. The job rate book was nice.
For me it was the best solution. Going to a school like Yavapai or one of the other schools would have probably been better, but I am not in a position to do that. One advantage of AGI is that I can revisit the lessons, which would be difficult to do at a college.
The DVD format will not work in many portable players or in my laptop. Home DVD player no prob, but had to buy a Sony portable for the road. Went to Best Buy with one of my discs and put it in the players until one of them worked with it.
My two cents, FWIW.
