Machinist as career choice

Heating and A/C.
No matter what folks want comfort. I have the licences but drive a truck. When once in conversation I let slip I had a cert and tools I had several thou lined up and a job offer. That was at an 80 (?) person SuperBowl party.
I've allways wanted to open a "Pre 73" auto repair.
Right now I'm a paycheck slave but I like what I'm doing.

 

Just because here is a lot of negative comments doesnt mean didly squat. Life is not decided by democratic vote. It is what you make it. If you want to do it then do it. If you are doing it because you heard it is good money or whatever dont. Lots of people work at jobs they have no skill or love for just because of the money. I had a doctor once like that. Not a good enough reason. That is not a job. It is just simple prostitution.
Don

 

Now for the flip side. I've been at my current job 19 years today. I run a CNC machining center with a rotary 4th axis. I have never worked less than 45 hours a week and have been up to 58-60 hours per week for up to 7 months at a time in that 19 years. It's all a matter of doing your homework before going job hunting. My place of employment deals with machines for food processing and the fast food market. People will always need to eat and drink. We are still hiring and the recession had very little if no effect on the job. As far as the automotive side of it, that would be iffy at best. Keep in mind that the average age of machinists goes up every year and lots are close to retirement age. The skills that you would learn could be skills that would serve you for a lifetime and could be applied toward the automotive end as well. Bottom line is if you can work with your hands, have math skills, are computer literate and are self motivated i say go for it. Employers will always be looking for that. Also don't be afraid to start at the bottom and work your way up, i did and it paid off nicely. GOOD LUCK !

 

Hey man, I have been a machinist at a power plant for 12 years now, we mainly do alot of repairs and sometimes have to fabricate new parts. I like the job but lately we have been having a hard time finding parts for some of the equipment up here because they are so old. Machine work is great though, if you can't find some parts you need, most of the time you can make them. See ya, JOKER JASON.

 

My dad was a machinist at a company that worked on Navy and private boats. Low pay, hard, dirty work. Good people, though.

My brother worked for the same company for a couple of years.. I remember once he spent a week pulling ballast out of the hull of a big boat. 50lb lead slugs, crawling on his belly, in the dark. I bet he lost 20 pounds that week. Another time my dad spent 2 months building cat walks about 40 feet up the side of the warehouse at a tuna cannery. Talk about stink. I think at the end of the 2 months he had to burn all his work clothes.

He did get to build some really cool stuff.

- Joe

 

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/esp/engineering_stimulus_package.html

Computer Solid modeling is the kernal of the modern cnc technology paradigm. Also the modern mechanical engineering paradigm. once the 3d compute model is finished, you simply import it into mastercam or gibbs or camworks or what ever other "cam" you have handy and mouse the solid model to get the cam program to output tool path.

if theres one thing to go out and master its solidworks, these days. excellent springboard into any other area in American Commerce that still makes stuff.

like anything else worthwhile, it takes practice. for me, i need a classroom and good teacher. learning software on my own is way too difficult for my type of brain!

jim

 

^This. There was steady growth in the IT sector, at a natural rate, before the dot-com boom. The boom was an arbitrary period of unreasonable growth. It showed the world that there was a TON of money to be made in IT, by anyone who showed up. A huge number of people went to school for it. By the time the got out with a degree, the whole thing had collapsed. After a few years of contraction, the sector is back to what it might have been, in terms of size, had the boom never happened. Trouble is, between technological improvements, off-shoring and the glut of workers, wages have fallen. My old company from the '90s is paying $14/hr. for what they used to pay $40 (in 1998).

I used to make, no joke, $82.50 per billable hour, building and maintaining high-security networks for huge international banks. I am apparently unemployable in the IT sector now.

Now, I make about $12, but, at least I enjoy my work, and the occasional meal.

 

If I were looking to get retrained I would probably look at getting a job in the medical field....we're all getting older and will need medical attention someday! My wife is in school right now and got hired at a hospital last year in the surgical field as a sterile processor. Out here they make about $25 an hour....the field she is training in will be more like $35/hr once she gets hired of course. If you don't mind the blood and stuff, surgical field is a good place to be....build cars in your spare time!

 

It's a dying trade, i'm 24 and a machinest, and i build guns and hot rods in my spare time, I'll be screwed in 20 years. I'm not saying dont get into it,if you are a hot rodder it is good stuff to know and play in, just dont expect a career.

After this economy comes back dont expect skilled machinest posts to open up, it's all just changing to burger flipping. I'm looking to jump ship, but all working type jobs are a thing of the past, and i have no idea where to go, I would go postal if i had to work in an office.

Anyone hiring local?

 

One final comment

It's always hard as a young person to figure out their way into the adult world. I think these tough economic times make it even harder.

One of the suggestions by other posters I reccomend is to go and talk to the people already in the career you would like to have. It's not unusual for kids to work through school, get a good job, and their first day on the job is their first time doing such a job. How would it feel to work four years to land a good job, and then find out after a week that it's nothing like ehat you expected or wanted.

Definately go out and talk to as many people already doing it as you can!

theres also lots of careers out there that if you dont know somebody in the trade, you may not even be aware that such a trade exists. there's lots of stuff thats business to business only that is invisible to those not on the inside.

good luck. I like your approach and wish you the best.

I've also found that the nature of the job is one aspect, but the people you work with is another that i think is stronger. many organizations these days are cut throat and darwinian and choke people with internal competitiion and rivalries. especially in this down turn, you can advance just as much by getting as colleague busted for a mistake than your own hard work! I personally like teamwork, but in so many places teamwork is the exception. its more likely to be cutthroat competition, at least in a corporate type of company.

It's an employers market out there right now, too. They know they gotcha by the nads and take advantage of it all they can.

jim

 

Great post and great advice!

The tool and die trade is alive and well in the USA, you just have to look around a bit to find it.

 

If I had to retrain now, I would be looking at a plumbing or electrician, or HVAC program. Out here in small town America, it's hard to get someone to do that work. I tried for 6 months to hire a plumber, gave up and bought some tools and a book and added my own bathroom. I do my own wiring too.

I have a friend with an HVAC business who can't find a GOOD person to hire. He's ready to retire, thinking about selling his profitable, turnkey business, and will probably not be able to find a buyer.

The Lennox dealer in my town closed up about a year ago, they were the only HVAC place in town, until the owner retired......he couldn't sell the place.

 

Just "retired" out of the trade myself, spent 31 years with one employer laid off a total of 3 months and spent about the same amount of time on strike over the years. it was a great trade at one time not sure anymore. Running an NC machine will bore the hell out of anyone with 2 brain cells. I was lucky that I did a lot of non-production work on old manual equipment which kept me interested. If you're set on the trades I'd consider being an electrician and try to do high line work, my neighbor retired from Bonneville Power a couple years ago and is constantly going back as an outside consultant running crews and supervising their safety programs. As the electrical grid gets upgraded and replaced they are finding it very difficult finding guys with the right skill sets. The wind power guys are also getting busy training guys at the CC level.

Guess before I started plunking any money down for training I'd want to know percentage level of guys actually finding work after completing their programs.

Good Luck!

 

That's not a legitimate reason to shy away from an advanced education. it used to be that a high school education was enough. You think there weren't old timers back then who were saying "when i was a kid on the farm, they started working you hard at 12. We didn't need no reading and writing to make a living, what do you even use it for?" And their thinking was pretty much relevant for a time before 1900, but there thinking was completely outdated by the 1950's.
Because before 1900, most Americans lived on farms and rarely or never even saw a newspaper.


There will continue to be an increasingly larger gap in this country, between the have's and the have-nots. It's a simple fact, and you can't do anything about it. Just because you don't see commercials on TV telling you about it doesn't mean it's not accurate. And it's not some sort of Y2K conspiracy theory, it's a socioeconimic fact.

Planning a career in 2010 without some sort of advanced education or credentials is as good as expecting to compete with illegal immigrants for employment opportunities for the rest of your life.

 

there are no such thing as machinist anymore the new breed are called "operators" (the load and un-load a pre-programmed machines). most if not all of the big tool & die companies around here in philly/nj area gave up the apprenticeship program (training) years ago when CNC came in.
sad because I have asked an machinist/operator to do a job manually on a mill, lathe or radial they are stumped and can't even set it up (dumber then a hammer)?
I have worked with "machnist" who can't even read a micrometor or a vernier or even a scale below a 1/16th", one guy was an QC inspector and had to check hi pressure compressor heads for tolerances to the .001" , we found out he was taking the blue prints and laying the full scale print on the piece to see if the holes lined up, later we found out he was legaly blind!
Its a dieing but needed field in my eyes. the CAD thing is the way to go but who's gonna do the manual work if everyone coming out of school (young and old) is a CAD desinger ot IT man?
As for welders I can't say much for the rest of the country but where I work here in PA we need welders, we can't find welders! the ones we find can't pass a background check or can't read a blue print or just don't want to do any manual labor! If your a welder and can pass the above specs...we start at $25 an hour. (code welding vessels, SST mixing tanks,SST piping - small stuff to railroad size tanks).
in the end do what makes you happy, if I had to give you advice I'd learn somthing in the big 3 catagories that are needed:
medical
food
water & heat/ac
everyone needs these things to live we can do with out the other shit,the heating vent/ac fields pay great and the certificate traing is a breeze if your mechanical and have half a brain. a guy I know payes guys $60-80K a year with company truck/benifits ect and he's always busy.
Paul

 

Become an accountant. Every accountant I know in a manufacturing/factory company has retired well before the age of 65 (70 or more when we retire, I'm 39) has their health intact from NOT having to bend over and run machines, set up lathes and mills, etc... And the best of all, they can afford to buy the steel and materials from the "shop-floor" guys, bring it home, and still have the energy to work on their rods. Every now and then, I walk from the machine shop floor into the accounting office, see them all sitting around laughing (and scouring ebay), drop off the paperwork for some materials purchased, and I think to myself, where did I go wrong. Heck if you are good with numbers for machining, your good with numbers for accounting. My $.02

In reply to shadow's post, now a days, if you don't have the 2 year paper (AAS degree), you won't get in, unless you already have the experience. Where I am, if you're not hired as a machinist already with prior experience, you can labor for years and not become qualified for machinist pay. So if this is the same everywhere, how can one get the experience without going to votech?

 

Gramps,was a tool ,die, mold maker for Manhatten Rubber Curtis Wrights, Bendix Avavaition,,,,,my dad was also,,,,work for Dad in a small job shop..punching Warner Swasey # 2 and 3'sfor 8 -10 hours a day gear hobbs ,,, mills and so on,,,I great education ,,,, left it because I made more moneyin a different field,,,,,,but have used machine tool knowledge ever day in plant operations,,and enjoy running a lathe, mill or any other machine now more than ever,,

 

be a machinist for a class 1 railroad, 25 bucks an hour plus good bebefits

 

try apliance repair everyone has a washer dryer and a fridge
a friend of mine does it and charges a 175 dollars to fix a dryer and tells me the part only cost 20 bucks the whole time he is fix ing something the phone is ringing for the next person thats freaking out

 

Look this website over and see who is hiring for what jobs where. It is construction oriented, but there are lots of temp to permanent and outright permanent jobs in power generation, petroleum refining, etc.

Note that all of the jobs require education, training and experience. But, some are hiring B level and helpers.

The guys on this board are "precision appreciative" by nature, and rebuilding a turbine or a gear box is basically no more complex than rebuilding a V8 engine. If you can mike a crank, you can mike a pump shaft.

The new smog regs will drive even more power plant and refinery furnace work.

Also, look at salary.com and see what work pays what.

http://www.roadtechs.com/petro/wwwboard/index2.html

........slide

 

Lots of good advice on this thread. My 2 cents: Once you have the requisite education and have established yourself in a career that you like, don't hesitate to continue your education along the way, even if it is on your dime and your time. The more that you can improve your skill set, the more valuable you are in the competition for employment and advancement in your field. It is a given that young people entering the job market today will have to reinvent themselves several times during their lifetime in terms of occupation, training and skills due to economic and market changes.

Good luck. You seem to be on the right track and should do well.

 

DE ANZA college in Cupertino has a CNC program. You learn the basics up to adavanced CNC programming. Nice facilities, good program.

 

Some people have negative experience, some positive. It all depends. Contrary to popular myths machining is alive and well. The workforce is aging and there needs to be someone to pick up the slack. Problem is back in the days guys used to learn on the job from other guys....those days are gone. You have to go to school. There is a need for Tool Makers, real machinists, and NC programmers, CMM operators, etc.
Aerospace, Defense, and medical industries are still big employers of machinists. Also check out different engineering companies and job shops. I work in a defense plant. We outsource the easy stuff to outside job shops and do the difficult multi-axis stuff in house because thats what pays the bills.
My advice to you is go to school, learn all you can, focus on programming. There is so much emphasis on NC these days, it's really tough to get buy without it, on the other hand you need those basic manual machine skills too.

 

Too many machinists these days think all you need are CNC skills and don't want to learn the manual side of the trade, and I think that's a huge mistake. You need to learn to walk before you run, and manual machining is the place to learn all the basics. You need to learn how to hold on to parts, feeds and speeds and choosing the right tooling long before you ever push the "Cycle Start" button on a CNC machine. The consequences are MUCH lower and more forgiving on manual machines, ask me how I learned that. But as a machinist, I can say I love what I do and only wish I had more time to go back to school and learn more. You'd be amazed at how many shops will pay a premium for someone with both manual and CNC skills. I work at a shop for a lumber company, but have had offers to go to work at other shops with a more hi-tech standard for more money had I been willing to relocate. It also makes me better at car stuff because I now understand tolerances and how to measure accurately. Go for it.

 

There is some adavantage to having good manual skills but the reality of the trade is going to as much automation as you possibly can to survive in to todays market.Our business,mold making, would die if we had guys making parts on manual machines.Its really sad to see the direction is going as i started in the trade using tracing mills and rotary cross slide tables to make many of the cavitys required.Now days we need good programers,planers and assemblers.Very few things are done by hand any more.

 

Sorry. i didn't read through all the posts, but no matter, I'll share anyway!

I've got a few years on you and back then I decided that being a machinist was what I wanted to do. I made some connections and went to work for three years for a great guy, learned a lot, went on from there. Thing is; if you are good, you can find work. If you are great, you can conker the world!

 

Ie just retired at 70, as an electrician in a nuke plant. I was chasing the job degradation from job to job till I got into the electrical power industry, jobs like these will also realize adjustments.The only jobs that will be around much will be in local maintenance and repair jobs that can,t be contracted out overseas. I found that i really liked to work with my hands even tho I really liked my time as a locomotive engineman, but troubleshooting and repairing was a lot better for me. We are in competition with the world now and many hi skilled jobs have been shipped overseas. even tho our home based jobs are lowering wages, means that prices for many things will havto eventually drop [like housing] and that isnt good news for our recovery.its just the way the world is going now. I have heard the saying 'a rising tide raises all boats' but they never say anything about a 'lowering tide'.

 

I'll tell you I live in Wichita, and I went to trade school about 5 years ago for HVAC/R, When I got out of school I couldn't find a job here in town. There were so many people that had trained for it, that Wichita was overpopulated with them. I went back into aircraft, now I'm unemployed.

 

I'm a time served machinist, been doing it for 40 years now, working manual lathes, mills all sorts of machinery, I have worked in Indycar, F1, aerospace, military, I built up a good range of skills and a reputation. 25 years ago I started doing CNC machining, programming, setting the whole bit including Cad/Cam. For the past 9 years I have been working as a factory manager, I love it, engineering is my life, I love making things, at the end of the day I hold a part in my hands and know that I have made a contribution, as I write all the programmes here for all the operators, that feeling also happens when they make something that I have been a part of. Recently I have designed and made a range of Hot Rod parts, including Sprint Car steering box's. I'm proud of what I do. Here are some rules if you want to be a machinist; Be good at manual stuff before going on to CNC, any monkey can push a button, CNC works best seen through manual eyes, it gives possibilities that will astound you. You don't really need to ask if it's a good idea, engineering is an art form, did Picasso ask if painting was a good Idea, if you feel it you can do it, if you are good at it, finding work is not so hard, finding good machinists is.