I'm also located in Oakville. I work as a Software Architect during the day, and amateur machinist by night. Not really sure what to expect from a meet-up, though it'd be nice to talk to others who won't roll their eyes every time I bring up machining in conversation. Probably why I have no friends :-D
Things I'd be interested in:
- Learn from the pros. Reciprocate if I have anything to offer.
- Trading tools/materials/equipment.
- Possible collaboration projects? Never really tried that. Seems to be what Youtubers do to promote their channels, but perhaps others do it too. Might be fun.
- Drink beer, bbq meat, complain about wives, and other man stuff.
And just a thought, but I'm always coming across stuff that could be interesting, if not for me, then for someone else. Knowing what others are looking for, group members could keep an eye out for stuff others collectively might be interested in. Like a machinist's network keeping an ear to the ground for rare deals we all hear about but never ourselves experience. You know, like the story of the one guy who bid $5 at an auction and walked away with three Bridgeports and pile of tooling because no one knew what the hell a Bridgeport is? Yeah, those kinds of deals.
Torin...