Machinist work? Good for future?

[09zkrankin]

Re:

Machinist work has been good to me, I'm 24 and making about $20 an hour with 2 years school. As others have said though experience seems to be worth more than schooling. I know of local shops who will not give you more than $10 til after 3 yrs. But for the most part $20-$25 is pretty common after a few years exp. I'm trained in cnc machining, programming, and conventional machining, the big money is in programming.

I work for General Electric, in the oil and gas division, siemens is our biggest competitor

 

[Gittinit]

I've been the last 3+ years working die repair. I was fortunate enough to get in this position from an assembly position and I love it. On a negative note my job is on its way out . I'm not willing to relocate for work because our family's roots are here. (North east Arkansas) I would be willing to travel some but prefer not to. Working as a machinist in a electric motor production facility has been nice but I'm burnt on anything to do with big business.

Im gonna ride this job out as long as I can but I will be looking at working in a smaller shop after this.

 

[ranger11]

Re:

I work in an electric motor shop crazy there's a few here that do similar. Our machinist start at 15 with no experience, the guys that have been here 20+ years only make mid 20s. I think thats common to our area though.

 

[Neal3000]

What percentage of machinists retire with all appendages intact?

This could be your life too someday

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gxH8U_49QnU

 

[HotwheelsYJ]

Re: Re: Machinist work? Good for future?

What percentage of machinists retire with all appendages intact?

This could be your life too someday

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gxH8U_49QnU

100% of the smart ones do!
I've been programming / machining over 16 years now & still have all my digits. The only near misses I've had are when I got in a hurry

 

[GONOVRIT]

Funny, I have a good friend that works as a maintenance engineer at Siemens in Charlotte. Built a nice jeep and is a closet machinist. Think he has everything but a cnc at home :****: Does a little bit of side work but mostly toys with all of it for personal entertainment.

 

[Toddy]

No mater what it is learn a craft and you will always have a job. May not be a high paying job but you will be able to get a job. Most craft jobs will take some experience to get the good paying jobs.

Which prosthetics company you trying to get on with.

 

[01tj]

Glad you brought this up im in the same boat,I work for Eaton corp and they offer free tuition so I was looking in to machinist or engineering,but after seeing starting pay for machinist can't take that kind of a pay cut,so might go for engineering degree and try and land a internal job were im at.I saw you said you work for siemens we build some saftey switches for yall didn't know if we ever sent stuff your way?

Where do you work for Eaton Corp at? I just recently left the Eaton Corporation. I started out in the Hydraulic sector as a CNC Machinist did that for a few years, and then transferred to the Electrical sector as a Drafter. Having experience in both areas, I now work in Design and Development. I really enjoy designing the parts in Solidworks, and then being able to make all the prototypes.

 

[hold my beer watch this]

Where do you work for Eaton Corp at? I just recently left the Eaton Corporation. I started out in the Hydraulic sector as a CNC Machinist did that for a few years, and then transferred to the Electrical sector as a Drafter. Having experience in both areas, I now work in Design and Development. I really enjoy designing the parts in Solidworks, and then being able to make all the prototypes.

Cleveland,Tn electrical division good job I just get bored fast.I think machinist would be an awesome trade to learn,always some diff to design and build.

 

[01tj]

Cleveland,Tn electrical division good job I just get bored fast.I think machinist would be an awesome trade to learn,always some diff to design and build.

I've got an Engineering Graphics degree. When I did CNC machining it was production work. Pretty much the same thing over and over, an toss a few set ups/ tear downs in the mix, with a little bit of manual mill and lathe work. Luckily I was able to alot of machines there and diagnose alot of problems so I was able to change it up some. Once I got the opportunity to move up to the Engineering Department at the Electrcial plant in Greenwood I jumped on it. I was a drafter for about 4 years there, didnt mind it and the pay was pretty good but it was still pretty much production work. Where I'm at now its a good mix of design and shop time, between the two I'm not always doing the same thing. Machining was definetly a good experience for me, and if I had to I at least could go back to work there doing it.

 

[TNGreg]

Like others have said , school might get your foot in the door. But experience will get you paid. The shop I work at has been having a hard time hiring and keeping young machinist, because of the pay scale. Also alot of kids getting out of school dont have the work ethic to do machinist work. I have been in the trade going on 23 years and the type of work we do has changed alot over the years. I mainly run manual lathes, mills, surface grinders, and jigbore/jig grinder machine. We do alot of close tolerance, low quanity parts for all types of customers. We also have a CNC dept. with 4 programmers and about 35 machine operators. With a few years experience you could probably go anywhere and get some type of job. I have made a decent living in a machine shop but would encourage a young person to become a machinist.

 

[TacomaJD]

No mater what it is learn a craft and you will always have a job. May not be a high paying job but you will be able to get a job. Most craft jobs will take some experience to get the good paying jobs.

Which prosthetics company you trying to get on with.

Where I currently go for prosthetic care, Fourroux Prosthetics in Huntsville. They are growing rapidly. Started in Huntsville, then opened a 2nd office in Memphis, TN at the beginning of 2013, then now they are currently undergoing opening 3 new locations (Nashville TN, Birmingham AL, and I forget the 3rd). The way they were talking was that I would be a patient care coordinator, which does a lot of marketing sales, scheduling, etc. I think I'd be great at it and actually enjoy it, but they been yanking me around and won't give me a straight answer and I'm kind of just like "whatever" with the whole thing now. I know they got a lot of **** going on, but a 20 minute real conversation could give me a straight answer on what to expect instead of me bugging them every time I'm there or calling/texting about updates. It seems as if a lot of the world works that way nowadays. I'm a handle it all at once if it can be handled, to prevent further wasting time on it in the future.

 

[offroadwerks]

I'm in my 4th semester of a 2 yr program(Precision Manufacturing and Machining Technology) and will come out of there with a Associates degree in Applied Science. I did a 190 hr internship at a die shop that payed $14 hr. Top pay in that tool

room was about $30 hr and that was the Cnc programer that had been there about 30yrs. Lots of older guys there about to retire. Laid back atmosphere with lots of precise work. I enjoyed it a lot. The guy training me made around $25 hr and

worked tons of overtime. Right now I work part time in a smaller tool and die shop after classes every day making $12 hr and am getting a ton of experience. It would be considered a job shop i guess, lot faster paced ! Basically running different

types of milling machines, drill presses etc.... squaring blocks, heat treating, grinding, drilling tapping etc.... I'm waiting on a oportunity to work with the cnc guys there. I have had classes on writing programs, solid works, master cam, cnc

lathes and cnc mills, wire machines plus all of the conventional machining equipment. I love it !!!! It has been a tough couple years studying a lot and struggling being broke but its about to pay off. I would def recomend it !!! Glad I took the

plunge to go back to school in my mid 40s .. I'm just happy to be getting experience knowing that when I graduate I should be making decent $$$ doing something I really enjoy!! I say don't be a puss JD and go for it !!!

 

[TacomaJD]

I'm in my 4th semester of a 2 yr program(Precision Manufacturing and Machining Technology) and will come out of there with a Associates degree in Applied Science. I did a 190 hr internship at a die shop that payed $14 hr. Top pay in that tool

room was about $30 hr and that was the Cnc programer that had been there about 30yrs. Lots of older guys there about to retire. Laid back atmosphere with lots of precise work. I enjoyed it a lot. The guy training me made around $25 hr and

worked tons of overtime. Right now I work part time in a smaller tool and die shop after classes every day making $12 hr and am getting a ton of experience. It would be considered a job shop i guess, lot faster paced ! Basically running different

types of milling machines, drill presses etc.... squaring blocks, heat treating, grinding, drilling tapping etc.... I'm waiting on a oportunity to work with the cnc guys there. I have had classes on writing programs, solid works, master cam, cnc

lathes and cnc mills, wire machines plus all of the conventional machining equipment. I love it !!!! It has been a tough couple years studying a lot and struggling being broke but its about to pay off. I would def recomend it !!! Glad I took the

plunge to go back to school in my mid 40s .. I'm just happy to be getting experience knowing that when I graduate I should be making decent $$$ doing something I really enjoy!! I say don't be a puss JD and go for it !!!

I'm def not gonna be a puss and will be back in school very soon, just probably to finish my Business Management and Supervision degree if I don't decide to try something totally different like engineering. The Machining thing was only to be a backup, not an actual career. It's obviously not a terrible choice, there are just other things that interest me more. I was completely unfamiliar with the machinist job market and how it worked. I honestly thought there might be a chance that I could take some machinist classes and then be qualified for a pretty good paying job. Not that $10-14 is rubbish, I just was figuring it to be a little more....but really after giving it some thought, it makes sense where experience is what earns more money in that field.

I'll see yer nappy ass at Hale Saturday!

 

[TacomaJD]

Re:

It's a **** ton of theory and projects and takes up an extraordinary amount of time to do well (at least at TTU which from what I understand is a particularly rigorous undergrad program compared to a lot of other schools)

basically a BSME teaches you a little about a LOT of subjects. My concentration was in mechanism design/motion.

Other concentrations include anything from microstructure analysis, HVAC design, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, etc

ME is an extremely broad field, and the coursework you pursue steers you toward a concentration.

The upper division courses I took were mostly project classes in which we formed groups or teams and went through the entire design process from initial problem to delivered product.

3 projects I can remember right off hand were:

Design/build a tractor frontend loader with self leveling, stabilization, and digital weight readout and warnings (we built a fully functional 1/3 scale)

Designed/built/delivered a lightweight collapsible chair/safety restraint for a handicapped child so his mother could safely carry him in a regular shopping cart and still have room for groceries (she had been having to keep him in a special stroller and push the grocery cart separate)

Redesigned and rebuilt several pieces of the the basketball teams mechanized training equipment to make it throw balls more realistic and capable of multiple types of throws.

I have a few friends with BS in Engineering, I just like always asking what they thought the most difficult part of all their classes was. I've done a bunch of reading blogs and whatnot online from current and post graduate engineering students, moreso to get an idea of what to expect/prepare for. One guy just finished his Civil Engineering BS and I recall him bitching a lot about Fluid Mechanics.

I'd at least like to get an AS in Business Management, then maybe can pursue Engineering later on. I just really have a love for Business in general - making **** happen, things coming together, decision making, leadership, etc. and I think that's an area where I would accel naturally.

 

[matth_85]

I have a BS in Business Administration with Marketing/Management emphasis. In my area once I got out of the car business in 2012 I couldn't find a decent job after looking for 5-6 months. I went back to school in 2013 for Engineering Graphics and landed a job estimating for a commercial insulation company this past summer. It has turned into a project manager role. I also started back taking classes towards my BSME in January. It will take some time but I will have the Associate ME in December.

My current job, is just that...a job. I want to get into more of a design roll somewhere. The machinist career would suite me just fine as well. I did machine tool in HS and loved every minute of it. There just isn't much hands on stuff in our area that pays what I want to make. I know money isn't everything but toys are fun and money buys toys....

 

[TacomaJD]

Re:

I guess Business Degrees are kinda like Machinist, education is one thing, but experience is worth more. A Business degree would help me tremendously to move up within my current employer one day. Aside from that, my 9 years in the energy field and shipping haz-mat material, would pair well with a Business degree for several other jobs energy/power related related ( I believe, anyway). I'm really interested in Engineering, so if I can talk myself into it, I may do that instead of Business.

 

[onepieceatatime]

Re:

Get your CDLS and drive a truck. Never seen a one legged truck driver!

 

[TacomaJD]

Re:

I have in house cdl's at work. Applies to nothing else but Siemens - Fort Payne lol but I got em. I have to be certified to drive our F-450 flat bed and 30 ft gooseneck deckover. Nothing more than a driving test pulling the trailer, dot physical, and a monitored driving record. Kinda dumb, but company policy.

 

[Toddy]

Where I currently go for prosthetic care, Fourroux Prosthetics in Huntsville. They are growing rapidly. Started in Huntsville, then opened a 2nd office in Memphis, TN at the beginning of 2013, then now they are currently undergoing opening 3 new locations (Nashville TN, Birmingham AL, and I forget the 3rd). The way they were talking was that I would be a patient care coordinator, which does a lot of marketing sales, scheduling, etc. I think I'd be great at it and actually enjoy it, but they been yanking me around and won't give me a straight answer and I'm kind of just like "whatever" with the whole thing now. I know they got a lot of **** going on, but a 20 minute real conversation could give me a straight answer on what to expect instead of me bugging them every time I'm there or calling/texting about updates. It seems as if a lot of the world works that way nowadays. I'm a handle it all at once if it can be handled, to prevent further wasting time on it in the future.

Thought it might have been Fillauer. I know most of there business is based in Chattanooga now. Used to hang out with them when they lived in Knoxville.