Advice to product design students - you won't realise how lucky you are.

The university I went to had a fantastic wood working machine shop, with table saws, lathes, bandsaws, thickness planers, mortisers, circular sanders, routers etc you name it, it had it.  There was a metal working shop with 3 different types of welders, various saws and tube benders, metal cutters and metal lathes. A huge ceramics area with everything for slip casting, throwing and glazing, with a kiln our tutor rather worryingly told us could fit the body of a large man standing up! It had vacuum forming machines, an enormous ply laminating machine, a spray booth with water wall (that I managed to flood on 3 occasions). The list could go on and then, I graduated.  I was fortunate enough to get 3 months in Italy working for a design consultancy as part of an exchange scheme.  Their office was in an apartment block and they didn't have a workshop.  In stark contrast to university, cardboard, wire and a pair of scissors was about as good as it got.  Then I worked in a consultancy in the uk and was lucky that they had a work bench and a bandsaw in a garage.  

My point is, if you are in university and like making models, make the most of your time there as unless you are very lucky, you will probably never be able to get your hands on as good or varied equipment again.  Also, what I didn't appreciate whilst I was at university was the amount of time I had to use and gain experience on these tools.  The majority of students in university have soo much time to focus on design, even if they think they don't.  What a luxury having the amount of time I had then would be today.  The older you get the less time you have, even if you are employed in design there isn't the time to spend days playing around making models.  I don't yet have a wife, kids or a dog and finding any time is still a struggle.