Building Block 1
Core Skills
Safety, benchwork, layout, materials, shop mathematics, blueprint reading, GD&T, precision measurement, quality control, speeds and feeds.
Project-based machinist training
From no prior experience to skills employers recognize.
Total Machinist builds a machinist from the ground up — core skills, manual machining, CNC setup, G-code and CAM programming, and precision inspection. Every course is built around real parts and real projects, not digital textbooks.
Decades of teaching people to make things
What a program gets
- NextGen CNC Simulator, in-depth video instruction, and interactive exercises
- Customizable training system to match each instructor’s program
- Comprehensive testing and hands-on project credentials for student portfolios
- Step-by-step project-based learning with Skills Learning Objective (SLO) reports
- Automated pre-tests, post-tests, quizzes and exams to track student performance
- Free instructor accounts, always
Foundational Skills
Five building blocks, in the order a machinist learns them. Each stands on the one before it, so a student starting with no shop experience finishes with applied knowledge and hands-on experience and skills that are in high demand.
Each building block is in the order of traditional instruction and can be taught separately or in a series to achieve the Total Machinist.
Building Block 2
Manual Machining
Drill press, manual mill and lathe and precision grinding — the fundamental precision machinist skills that help make a successful CNC operator and programmer.
Building Block 3
Machine Setup
Applied skills and experience to accurately and efficiently set up, avoid costly mistakes and maintain CNC machines — including control interface, work holding, tooling, indicating workpiece and tools, and operation.
Building Block 4
G-Code Programming
M and G code for mill and lathe in real time using the NextGen CNC Simulator, and real-world step-by-step programming projects from blueprint to final inspection.
Building Block 5
CAM Programming
Project-based 2D lathe and 3D mill in Mastercam and Fusion 360. This series of projects starts at a beginner level and progressively adds more operations to prepare for the final mill and lathe assembly projects.
Throughout
Precision Measurement
Inspection and reverse engineering with the Verisurf interface to hundreds of precision measurement devices, including CMMs, portable arms, hand scanners and the Renishaw Equator.
How it works in a program
Built by instructors, for instructors
Total Machinist is a productivity tool that can be used anywhere at any time to free up the classroom and get into the workshop quicker. Used alongside instructors and subject matter experts, training is delivered consistently every time to support all students at different learning levels and entry into the program.
Instructors and their use of our system are the winning combination. Together they guarantee the productivity that allows every student to accomplish their individual potential and achievement.
Teach more in less time
Every program is being asked to cover more ground in fewer contact hours. Organized, in-depth content means the course does not get rebuilt each term and the whole class starts from the same place.
Students reach the machine ready
Theory, setup and programming are done before anyone walks onto the shop floor. Hands-on time then goes to hands-on work, rather than to explaining what should already be understood.
Anywhere, anytime they need it
A student who has forgotten a step does not have to wait for the next class. They go back to the lesson on whatever device they have to hand — and the instructor gets the questions actually worth their time.
Your expertise stays in the room
Courses are written by subject matter experts who have run the machines, and they are yours to sequence. Instructors customize classes, set the order, and track every student against the learning objectives.
New for 2026
Program a mill or lathe in a browser. On the devices you already have.
The NextGen CNC Simulator lets a student write G and M code, run it, and visualize the tool paths — with nothing to install, no lab licenses to manage, and no reason practice has to stop when the shop door closes.
Nothing to install
Runs in the browser a student already has. No lab images, no IT ticket, no version drift between machines.
Runs on what the school already has
A fully responsive application that runs in a browser on laptops and Chromebooks. Now practice and learning CNC mill and lathe programming has virtually no limitations.
Write it, run it, see it
First and foremost, the NextGen CNC Simulator is built to be a teaching environment that provides guidance like tool tips and alarm explanations, with wrong and right examples. And as a student is writing a program they can run it, check the syntax and see it happen in real time.
Who we work with
Total Machinist runs in classrooms and shops across the country, from a first high school exposure course through to college accredited programs, apprenticeship and on-the-job training.
Community and technical colleges
Align content to your program and track every student against learning objectives, so that they can earn written test and hands-on project credentials to validate their ability to employers.
Career and technical centers
A complete pathway for a CTE program, with the assessment and reporting your funding and accreditation reviews ask for.
High school STEM and Career Technical Education (CTE) programs
Affordable, no hassle, fixed-cost annual license covers your students, with free instructor accounts. It provides a well-organized assignment-based or self-paced structure that works in any learning environment.
Universities
Use as a prerequisite before engineering students access the machining labs, so they have fore knowledge before using the equipment under the supervision of lab technicians. It is a flexible learning environment that students can access at home or in their dorm rooms.
Manufacturers and machine shops
Train new hires and bring existing staff up to speed to improve confidence, morale and upward mobility. Open entry and self-paced is ideal for a trainer to fit around production.
Our final customer
Although our primary customer is schools, our final customers are manufacturers and machine shops that employ under a thousand people. Demand for talented people has never been higher, and these employers are the backbone of American manufacturing — they employ more machinists than anyone else. These are the thousands of companies that sit on our customers’ advisory boards and are in our communities.
Today, manufacturing is growing fast. At the same time our skilled workforce is retiring. To keep pace, companies are competing for the best talent. Demand is so high that high school students are hired directly from cooperative education programs (co-op).
To qualify for a competitive salary and career path, students must show up prepared to the interview and ready to go on day one. They must prove their depth of knowledge, experience and skills. That is why every building block includes assessments and hands-on projects to prove competency, and why every building block has Skills Learning Objective assessment and hands-on project credentials that an employer can examine and discuss with the candidate.
It is a competitive industry that offers good pay and career paths.
Those shops hire on evidence rather than enthusiasm. That is why every building block ends in assessment, and why every student leaves with a Skills Learning Objective report and a certification an employer can read and trust.
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