Any machinists out there?

[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