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.
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