before I purchased my long arm I took a 'certification class' at a local shop where I learned all about the machine, from winding bobbins, threading, adjusting tension, quilting with it, cleaning, loading the quilt ect....once I finished my 4 hour 'certification class' I was allowed to rent time on the machine for $20 an hour. I decided to purchase my own machine and have done the same thing with people interested every since (10 years now) when someone wants to learn to use the machine and finish their own quilt they take the certification class from me (which is about 4 hours and costs $50) then they can schedule time and rent the machine to come in and do their own quilts (9 out of 10 of the people who have done this have also decided they would rather just pay me to quilt their quilts = they found it either takes too long- they realize that it takes time/practice to learn to do any custom quilting/ they find it is hard on the legs, shoulders, back/ they just decide it is worth it to them for me to do the work. once in a while one of them may have a special quilt that they really want to do themselves though- and it's $20 an hour for them to come in and do that.