Machinist career in the works thoughts?

so far i have started a machining program at a community college working on a 2 year in machining. i just graduated highschool this past spring and started college this fall. i eventually want to program and layout parts on a CAD program we use mastercam in particular. any parts that i could make for my truck a 2000 tacoma 4x4 3.4L any thoughts about being a machinist? any machinist?

 

Good money, good knowledge, but alot of work in schooling/education..and something called practice.



Good luck which ever way you decide to go in life

 

i agree with you there sir. its something that i enjoy friend has an old manual end mill and i love making stuff on it. i go to school and actually enjoy it.

 

bump

 

I have a friend who's a machinist. He works mostly in an automated shop--sits on his ass a lot (or so he says). But he likes it and he does get to work with some really cool machines.

I'd have to say that many trade, like machinist are portable. Meaning you can do that job in a lot of places which gives you great freedom to move around. Although depending on what you like, you may need to stay near a "hub" if you like to run fancy stuff and build state of the art kinds of things.

I'd go for it.

 

hadnt thought about the freedom to move about good point there. im working on ir just as hard as they instructors will let me

 

dude great field to get into get your welders cert on top of that youll be set. i thought long and hard about persuing that straight from high school instead of the airforce. go for it man just be prepared for alot of math lol

 

right i actually have taken one class in welding and have thought about working on a couple more of those but either way i still have to get the basics

 

any other input?

 

bump

 

There are a lot of ways you can go with it. I say if you like it, it is a good career choice

 

yeah a lot to it but i like it but i dnt want to be a machine babysitter running the same part every day i want to make different things

 

Best thing you can do is get some experience, find your niche, and open your own shop

 

id love to do that actually

 

It's funny. A friend and I were just discussing this. The way their shop works, there's a crew that comes in and pulls all the parts that ran last night, cleans up the machines and takes care of any necessary maintenance. A couple of hours after they get there, the day shift starts. These are all machinists. Some of them run production stuff and others, one off stuff. Each has a cube and a computer where they set up the jobs they'll perform that day. Before they leave, long running jobs will be set up and started and the cycle repeats.

Pretty amazing.

 

I'm a buyer of machined parts. Up til about 5 years ago my supplier was slammed with work, couldn't find decent machinist to hire so he could expand his operations. Now he's struggling for work. All the machinist I've known the last 20 years have called begging for work. Everything is going robotic or off shore.

 

Yep I used to work at a precision sheet metal shop..they cut 5 jobs because 1 guy could run the five 3 axis's all by himself.


Even the laser cut tables were ran by 2 guys..and there was 6 of them..

Although, 45 people a shift still worked there..pretty good amount.


The machine shop had 3 guys in it though..and was always busy doing little nick nack parts for orders.

 

i want to get into haas big anyone in the machine world has heard of that. i want to do cnc but you have to crawl before you can walk.

 

A friend of mine is a drafter at Homeshield. It's not quite apples to apples but I figured I'd mention this.

His shop uses programmers and machine operators. They'll have 1 programmer for like 5 machines and each machine will have its own operator. They'll let almost anyone be an operator.

Might be worth a shot getting your foot in the door as an operator somewhere while working on getting your CNC training???

 

I've been a machinist since high school and so far it's been a heck of a fun journey. I did the same thing as you, graduated high school and went to a community college to gain knowledge and experience. After I graduated I landed a good job at a large Aerospace company where I'm curently employed. I have been priviliged to work with some pretty bight people over the years, mostly the old timers have some nice tricks under their sleves. I have to thank my former instructors for letting me use the CNC equipment past midnight trying to finish an operation, a part, that's the way I learn. It didn't take long for me to start fiddling around with NC equipment and make all kinds of cool parts for cars, motorcycles, tatoo guns... you name it. It's a good carrear, I don't see myself doing anything else. What I recomend is don't get stuck as a machine operator, become an experimental machinist or a good programmer. Good luck with your carrear and if you have ANY questions feel free to ask = ]

-Andres