I have been a "job shop machinist" for over 40yrs now. Although I did spend a few years working for a major bearing manufacturer, first in production and soon in the tool room making and sharpening tools (HS tooling was still used then) and making jigs and fixtures. I never spent a day in a class room learning the trade other than the 2 yrs I spent at MCC in their gunsmithing program. Takes a lot more then "being a machinist" to be a gunsmith. Most machinists will only have a clue where to start doing barrel work, but will need some instruction first. Nor would they have an idea where to start making a stock by hand from a blank or finishing a synthetic blank (think High Tech Specialties, Brown Precision, MPI). The majority of the self trained hobbyists don't either, as work like this is avoided! Doesn't take a whole lota' "skill" to glass a barreled action and bottom metal, and add pillars to a stock some other company made and sold as 'finished', recoil pad and all. A machinist expects his work to come off the machine ready to sell, no polishing of the 'part' needed or expected! If the part is not ready to sell straight off of the machine, something is wrong! And a remedy must be found as 'handwork' wasn't priced into the job. So, as a metal finisher, he would need some instruction, as to proper polishing/metal pre before re-bluing as metal finishing has become a dying art. How many re-blues have I seen with screw holes dished out and lettering and numbers washed out from improper buffing? Enough to make me sick! "Squirting" on a coating (like GunKote or Ceracoat) doesn't require near the prep a good, professional bluing job does. A machinist doesn't use epoxy in his trade, so to learn to do a proper bedding with epoxy he'll need some guidance and pointers there as well. He may or may not make a good repairman. The 'school trained machinist' I have worked with over the years learned some about machining, not how to do repairs to broken down machine tools. And some shops have dedicated repairmen/machine tool maintenance men do that work. I have met several school trained machinists over the years. They might be able to quote Bible and verse, but on the shop floor it takes much more then that to get the job done, sometimes, and even more to work your way through the problems gunsmiths face every day. And, many were only acquainted with what was there for machine tools while in school. Every machine shop has some things in common, but every machine shop has many things that are not common to every other shop. So to summarize, the idea that a good gunsmith needs to be a "master, school trained machinist" just isn't so in the real world. Takes a thinking human being, capable of working his way through the problems a gunsmith faces every day. "Old School" gunsmithing is hand work, lots of hand work,,,,, and that is not in the machinists creed!