[switchbak]

I read this as the OP was wanting to dip their toe into "making", not to do some self-directed learning such that they'd call themselves a MechE. Schooling would be great of course, but if your goals are very modest, I think what the OP has in mind might be fine too.

It'd be like telling someone fooling with Python that they need to take a full CS degree otherwise they'll fail to appreciate the beautiful mathematical underpinnings of functional programming. That might be true, but that's also not the goal.

Edit: clarification

[DalekBaldwin]

Yes, I was implying "to do stuff like the author of the article does" ( https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/rstory/ ), coming from a very similar situation as him -- as a software engineer with an already broad general scientific and technical background, in a small apartment, getting into the concrete particulars of designing and building cool mechanical projects on a small scale and budget.

[totemandtoken]

I mean, the last few lines I wrote still stand if that's what you want to do. I would learn some CAD software, download a few files and try to cnc or 3D print something. Even in that link, I saw a screenshot of some CAD software.

I personally use a Sainsmart 3020. It's relatively cheap and pretty small. For my goals, it gets what I want done. I used to have an Ender 3 Pro for 3D printing but had to give that up. If you want to get into the business of manually using a lathe or something, more power to you, but why when we live in an era of desktop manufacture? But regardless of what equipment you use, you need something that can inspect, possibly edit, and transfer the design file to the equipment i.e. CAD.