Any machinists out there?

[Kyle_in_Tex]

The best CNC machinists are the old ones that were formally trained on manual equipment.

Been in it since 1978 and had 3 years of it in grade school before that. Became full time programmer in 1990. Nowadays, I run prototypes where I have full control over ordering stock, tooling, and make the parts myself in the best way I see fit with the machines we have.

I wish I had a Wire EDM with 5 axis in the barn. Just don't have the 150 grand needed to buy one. Slow, but sure.

 

[Chooglin]

I have been doing it for a little over 30 years now and have been running cnc vertical mills for the past 20 of those 30.I can honestly say,I dont get the satifaction of making parts with a CNC machine, like I did with the manual machines.

It has become difficult for these younger folks to come into a shop and get the training needed to become a good productive machinist.many shops dont support the schooling ,nor do they want to take the time to train them.

Although this country has lost much of our manufacturing out there,new machinist will still be needed for this trade in the future and I would hope that shops would be there to give them the support and schooling needed to get them there......................just my thoughts.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I have been doing it for a little over 30 years now and have been running cnc vertical mills for the past 20 of those 30.I can honestly say,I dont get the satifaction of making parts with a CNC machine, like I did with the manual machines.

It has become difficult for these younger folks to come into a shop and get the training needed to become a good productive machinist.many shops dont support the schooling ,nor do they want to take the time to train them.

Although this country has lost much of our manufacturing out there,new machinist will still be needed for this trade in the future and I would hope that shops would be there to give them the support and schooling needed to get them there......................just my thoughts.

The demand will increase as more "on shoring" gains ground on "off shoring" that has been a way of doing business for several decades. China inflation rate is eroding their labor cost advantage day by day thankfully bringing manufacturing back to the USA little by little. The same thing is happening to out sourcing software development to India.

Yes a machinist in the USA may not make the $$$ of the go go years in the USA today but still a few times more than min wage and these returning jobs help our tax base. While our spending has dropped the value of the US dollar it has in effect cut exports labor cost.

By the way a shaper is so slow and can be hard to mount the work piece but in their day they could do a lot of tasks with the right operators.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

There is a shop about 35 miles south of me that runs production work on CNC's. It is a new, modern, shop, deliberately put in a small town on I10 for the low labor rates by the locals.

I just talked to a buddy who knows of the shop. Here's the pay rates:
Operator -$9-11/hour
Set up man -$14/hour

Not sure of any health or other benefits, but this is not a "living" wage.

I can understand a "trainee" maybe at the low rate for a few months, but I find it hard to believe they can keep people at those rates.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Thats really pathetic - quite possible they cant afford more.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Thats really pathetic - quite possible they cant afford more.

I expect that is the case. What would an operater in China make per hour? We know it is getting high enough some are doing more on shore today.

We have to start thinking about pay on a global standard than the pay scale that drove jobs off shore initially.

 

[sweettractors]

IMHO, When we loses the ability to operate machine tools, We are just 1 step closer to being a "Non Player" in new Global R&D and future production of anything. We become a user/taker nation and not a producer nation. This is going to be a catastrophe for the economy and future military defense projects of our country. I mean, get a grip, do we really want China producing our aircraft, tanks, offensive and defensive weapons? Ken Sweet

 

[sal64]

The demand will increase as more "on shoring" gains ground on "off shoring" that has been a way of doing business for several decades. China inflation rate is eroding their labor cost advantage day by day thankfully bringing manufacturing back to the USA little by little. The same thing is happening to out sourcing software development to India.

Yes a machinist in the USA may not make the $$$ of the go go years in the USA today but still a few times more than min wage and these returning jobs help our tax base. While our spending has dropped the value of the US dollar it has in effect cut exports labor cost.

By the way a shaper is so slow and can be hard to mount the work piece but in their day they could do a lot of tasks with the right operators.

you are right, i am starting to see some jobs come back, i got back a couple of jobs i use to machine 10 yrs ago, the only thing is im doing them cheaper than ten yrs ago just to get work and beat china out. very little profit. should be fair trade not free trade.

 

[Bison]

There is a shop about 35 miles south of me that runs production work on CNC's. It is a new, modern, shop, deliberately put in a small town on I10 for the low labor rates by the locals.

I just talked to a buddy who knows of the shop. Here's the pay rates:
Operator -$9-11/hour
Set up man -$14/hour
Not sure of any health or other benefits, but this is not a "living" wage.

I can understand a "trainee" maybe at the low rate for a few months, but I find it hard to believe they can keep people at those rates.

I would not even come out of bed for that pittance

 

[czechsonofagun]

I know a local blacksmith, who outsourced his hand railing manufacturing to India. He designed it, but it is cheaper to do it this way and the housing market will never ask where it came from.

 

[Taylortractornut]

One reason Im buying some more equipment is the few factories here all sold out their tool rooms when the old machinists retired. I hope tp stick it back to some of the sweat shops that still pay minimum wage for tough jobs.

I hate to say it but 15 is a big wage in this county. I make a little over that but have benefits and a company ride. I walked out of an interveiw one time at a fastener shop that the owner stated that he didnt know one machinist that was worth 9.50 an hour. needless to say his remaining machinsts are all crackheads.

I know that in 15 to 20 years my current job will run out when the landfill is capped. I hope to have enough in the shop or Sawmill to be able to fallback on them. I already got 2 calls on mill work this week.

The big thing with homeowners here are getting back into having skilled work done. I have a friend that builds tram lifts for lake front homes. He has alot of customers that like being able to see the work being carried out from layout to the pickets being twisted in a jig.

 

[sandman2234]

I have a small shop, that doesn't get much use. More storage than shop I guess. I actually went out and produced a part for a friend who lives in a trailer park today. He and his wife came over and were AMAZED at the "stuff" I had. Built the part he needed with the mill, bandsaw and some junk out of the backyard. People who have no tooling/machines have no idea how nice it is to be able to walk out to the shop and build a part you need without having to buy something.
Mills I have, but a little short on Lathes. Fray, two Maho's and a Bridgeport while the lathes are a Southbend 9 and a #4 Warner Swazey. One of the Maho's has never been unloaded off the trailer (tarped) due to lack of space.
David from jax

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Here is a new wrinkle on the machinist trade. In my younger days I worked on industrial refrigeration and other equipment. We did not do the machine work, we did the field work to erect new, trouble shoot new and existing systems, and overhaul existing systems. We had to rely on the designers, patternmakers, foundrymen, and then the machinists who made the parts to make us look good. For the most part stuff somehow fit right after all those steps and hands in the pie. On the old slow machinery there was a lot of tolerence to work with but when the new high speed, tight tolerance, small spaces to work stuff came along the trade got very precision. We learned to use micrometers, dial indicators, calipers, tight wire line-up, straight edges, bearing scrapers (for babbit bearing hand fitting), bluing, plasti-gage, along with being a refrigeration technician, electrician, welder, sil-brazer, millwright, and all around mechanic. We worked on compressors of all types, pumps of all types, steam turbines, boilers, motors, electrical controls, piping, fans, later-on electronic controls, pneumatic controls, and all such. We even got into cyrogenic liquid nitrogen freezing tunnels. When labor rates started the upward spiral we started sending bearings, shafts, and etc to a machine shop for re-pouring babbit and in line boring and shaft grinding. Still had to put it all back together. Some big ammonia machines; every part had to be moved with chain falls as they weighed more than two guys could manouver. Some flywheels weighed in the tons, with big, wide, long flat belts. We even converted old hand lubricated open crankase compressors to automatic oliing systems. Today every thing is parts changing, but the precision is there for assembly except the tooling is now lasers and such for lining stuff up. The high speed stuff now you just change out the whole thing for a rebuit one and some factory does what we did in the field. Thats the difference between a shop charging $150+/hr for field workers who can do everything/anything; versus some factory paying $20/hr to narrow skilled assembly line workers.

Oh, for the good ole days when you were proud to put in a day+ of rewarding effort for a paycheck.

Ron

 

[ultrarunner]

We used to rebuild Vacuum Pumps... now it is more cost effective to just exchange the smaller ones..

One of the big savings is time... less down time for the customer.

 

[SandburRanch]

I was never a machinist by trade except for a couple of months before entering the service for my uncle (SAM) and then for a couple of years machining weld pipe fittings until I could save enough money to enter college. There just wasn't enough money in the machinist trade to keep me there and I eventually retired as a gas compressor and large engine mechanic.

But the experience in high school machine shop class was invaluable. We had a shop that was set up from WWll surplus and got to make things like this rack and pinion nut cracker. With a quick glance any machinist can tell what equipment was used to make it. In those by gone days the Brown and Sharpe mill was probably my favorite to set up and operate.

 

[ultrarunner]

My Step Grandfather was a Tool and Die Maker from Germany...

After my Grandparents passed... the family had put out a lot of things for Goodwill...

I asked his son and daughter if I could retrieve a few things and they told me to help myself.

I now have an assortment of hand made kitchen items he made close to a 100 years ago...

Things like a garlic press, assorted nut crackers, scrolled serving trays and more...

Unless a person had some back ground in the machine trade they probably wouldn't appreciate it...

When I was about 12, he and my Grandmother were visiting and I was tearing down an old Model A block in the garage... he didn't think much of old cars... even though he drove a Model T from Michigan to California in the 1920's...

The one thing he noticed is that I didn't have a proper vice and said every man needs a vice... not sure on what level he was referring...

Anyway, about a week later, I get a brand new Wilton machinist vice in the mail...

He wasn't one for gifts and believed a person had to make something of themselves and being given everything ruins character....

So, all these years later... I remember him every time I'm using the vice in the shop...

 

[tommu56]

I'm not a machinist but an old school electrician that learned from VoTech and up through the ranks to now do every thing from conduit to PLC programing.

I keep repeating to management in out plant what will we do in 7-10 years the machinists mechanics and electricians there are 5 that are 60 or better 15 in the 50/60 age bracket 6 in the in the 40/50 1 under that no one under 30.
I see it as a trend in America that none of the schools are pushing trades.

My take from high school on through is there is a few things that people want and will pay for food, flush and electric, and car repairs.
and if you are in one of the above trades you will always be able to put food on the table and a roof over your head, but I'm starting to doubt that.



tom

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm not a machinist but an old school electrician that learned from VoTech and up through the ranks to now do every thing from conduit to PLC programing.

I keep repeating to management in out plant what will we do in 7-10 years the machinists mechanics and electricians there are 5 that are 60 or better 15 in the 50/60 age bracket 6 in the in the 40/50 1 under that no one under 30.
I see it as a trend in America that none of the schools are pushing trades.

My take from high school on through is there is a few things that people want and will pay for food, flush and electric, and car repairs.
and if you are in one of the above trades you will always be able to put food on the table and a roof over your head, but I'm starting to doubt that.

tom

The high schools here long ago cut the shop classes... mostly citing liability.

The Community Colleges still have offerings and imagine they will continue.

 

[scgargoyle]

I've been in the machine trades my whole life, starting in production machines and screw machines, graduating to cutter grinding, and then mold making for the last 30 years. I've run the old pre-WWII dinosaurs as well as the latest linear motor CNC EDM machines. I still love making stuff!

A production shop I worked in had an old shaper that they ran one job on, every day. They would never bolt it down, so after a few months, it would work it's way to the wall and they would get a forklift and pull it back a few feet. Seems like it would have been easier to bolt it down and be done with it.....

 

[wdchyd]

I started out in high school industrial arts learning metalworking and fast-forward 40 yrs I machine lots of weird one-off stuff....

from the old south-bend manual lathe days to automated CNC.....

Turning, milling, welding always seems interesting and sometimes challenging....

while most of my work is lathe turning, I'm no stranger to the milling machine....hoping to jump into a CNC Mill soon....

I make hyd rods from chrome plated stock as long as 24 feet...

Here's a video of me making a hyd rod for one of our members here....3 Minute Hydraulic Rod - Tractor Videos - Kubota, John Deere, New Holland and More