Watch My Machinist To Learn

Is it out of the question to ask a machinist to be there while he assembles my short-block? It has nothing to with making sure he's not doing right but has everything to with me wanting to learn this skill. I want to learn and be able to assemble my own short-blocks in the future. I've always had a machinist do it, then I get the block home, slide in the cam, bolt on the heads and intake and drop it in the car myself - not involved with assembling the short-block in any way, just pay and pick it up.
I'm really kind of at a turning point in my life, a crossroad if you will...where I know I don't want to be an Accountant for the rest of my life and KNOW that I want to be involved in the auto performance industry. Hell, I went off to Texas Tech, to begin with, to get a business degree so I could open up a performance shop - as I had a T-shirt company (silkscreen) that did well for about 4 years before some bad business decisions were made by my partner and I and were forced to sell. But through that T-shirt company the entrepreneurial seed was planted and knew I wanted to work for myself - that and we used to print Strictly Performance T-shirts for Richard when he had that shop by Hobby Airport.
Anyway, I'd walk into that place and BS with him and would think to myself "I'd love to have something like this one day". I know that's a little overkill, a little novel I wrote, but I'd love to see and help in any kind of way while my machinist assembles my 408 stroker...just want to know if I'd just be getting in the way or come across as I don't trust him or something. Just want to learn.

FoxMustangLvr said:

Worse people can say is no. Just explain it to him the way you just did to us. As an enthusiast you like to know what ingredients are in the cake. There is no way in this world you could just watch the guy build the short block and then go out and duplicate that skill the next day and this guy will know this. It's how they all started, they had to be taught this skill and they should know it has to be passed down to the next generation.

Do it!

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Yeah, I'd almost like to basically be an apprentice of some sort. I have a great job - I would like to go in a couple times a month and just talk to him while he shows me what he's been taught over the years. What the amazing thing is is that like on a V8 how many parts are actually moving inside the block, 3 things...a crank spins causing a rod to move up and down which in turn slides the piston up and down. It a very simple process...now valvetrain on the other hand...that's a whole different story! And grinding camshafts for custom needs...that a true master craft kind of skill! - by the way, I'm getting in touch with Freezy tomorrow to start talking about a custom grind for me, I hear Freezy is the man with a cam!