All,
I have looked at one of these courses in England and have been sorely tempted. I grew up around machine tools, welders and all the rest, & still have the set of Prugnats I started to file c. 1972, when it seemed like making my own frame was the next step. The trouble was, dad was always too busy to really tutor me on welding (he never made a frame but was a superb welder and brazer), and then (like most teenagers) my attention wandered.
I happened to finish a morning lap of Prospect Park in Brooklyn a couple of years back--and complimented the chap I was riding beside on his good-looking (on-topic) frame & asked him who was the maker. "I made it," he said with real pride.
He now works in the city, but still gets out for a couple of quick laps in the morning, and has the "recordito" from a time in his life when cycling was everything.
You have to love that.
Dean Kernan
Pomona, New York
USA