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View Full Version : Any Machinist here?



Ranz1
02-08-2005, 04:22 PM
I have a few questions on becoming a machinist. If someone here is one and can point me in a direction on how i can become one, please e-mail me at ranz1@earthlink.net Thanks, Ant

RiverDave
02-08-2005, 05:04 PM
What do you want to know? :)
RD

76BARRON
02-08-2005, 05:10 PM
Check out your local College,or stop by a local machine shop and ask!
Many people call,fax,email and somtimes that will work but nothing beats a face to face! Here in So. Calif. speaking english(no joke) helps. Go out and make some noise,squeaky wheel gets the grease. Shops like to see motivated
people. GOOD LUCK!
76

HCS
02-08-2005, 05:12 PM
Be careful what kind of mechinist you become. Some get no respect and don't get paid shit. My buddy was shop forman for Rex Hutchinson Racing engines after being his mechinist for many years. He got paid chump change.
He quit and went out on his own because of the low pay.

76BARRON
02-08-2005, 05:19 PM
HCS hit the nail on the head ! BUT ! I will say this , It makes for great play
or HOBBY TIME! :D

HCS
02-08-2005, 05:43 PM
HCS hit the nail on the head ! BUT ! I will say this , It makes for great play
or HOBBY TIME! :D
I tell ya! He can make one fast engine. He knows his shit that's for sure.
His Sanger hydro with two 4's can smoke alot of blown motors. :crossx:

RiverDave
02-08-2005, 06:11 PM
Be careful what kind of mechinist you become. Some get no respect and don't get paid shit. My buddy was shop forman for Rex Hutchinson Racing engines after being his mechinist for many years. He got paid chump change.
He quit and went out on his own because of the low pay.
Well maybe he shoulda tried being a machinist instead of a mechinist.. ;) :D
But to agree with what HCS said.. The market is pretty whored out, and machinists don't make nearly as much as they should.
RD

Pee Dub
02-08-2005, 09:51 PM
Horse sense skill......Jackass pay

WILDERTHANU
02-08-2005, 10:07 PM
The market is pretty whored out, and machinists don't make nearly as much as they should.
RD
Wow...LMAO, maybe in boat parts. Depending on who you work for, its an awesome trade. My family dates back 4 generations cutting metal. My brother and I are the first generation born here to continue the family business. You really have to be quite educated these day to make a decent living, especially if you want to live in s.cal. I would suggest starting out here http://www.trainingcenters.org/. You can do very well for yourself in this industry if you put put your BRAIN into it!! Like anything else, you must really apply yourself....its up to you how much money you make.

76BARRON
02-08-2005, 10:14 PM
mechinest....thats my so. cal accent :D see what I mean about english!
I'v been here to long :D

HCS
02-08-2005, 10:14 PM
Well maybe he shoulda tried being a machinist instead of a mechinist.. ;) :D
But to agree with what HCS said.. The market is pretty whored out, and machinists don't make nearly as much as they should.
RD
That's why I'm a parts guy. The pay is better so I didn't want to be a machinist . :rolleyes: Which is pretty sad to think about. That's one of the main reasons he quit Hutchinsons, I was making 5 more bucks an hour than he was selling auto parts. Go figure, what do I know I'm just a parts guy. :squiggle:

Dimarco21
02-08-2005, 10:19 PM
Wow...LMAO, maybe in boat parts. Depending on who you work for, its an awesome trade. My family dates back 4 generations cutting metal. My brother and I are the first generation born here to continue the family business. You really have to be quite educated these day to make a decent living, especially if you want to live in s.cal. I would suggest starting out here http://www.trainingcenters.org/. You can do very well for yourself in this industry if you put put your BRAIN into it!! Like anything else, you must really apply yourself....its up to you how much money you make.
I agree. It's just like all the "trades", there are people who just go through the motions of machining. Then there's people who use their grey matter and make a good living at it.

Moneypitt
02-08-2005, 10:36 PM
There are different types of Machinists. If you want to make it you life long profession, then you MUST learn some sort of computer programing. Mastercam, gibbs, or any of the others out there will give you a "saleable" item on your resume. Learning the grassroots machinist trade will give you an ability to putz around with machines, but you will be under paid and hungry. Learn the programing technics, and CNC set up, and tool management, (speeds and feeds), and how to use your every physical movement to its greatest advantage. Find a trade school in your area that has a very defined machinist class. Somewhere you can learn it all, cause, believe me, nowdays you gotta know every aspect of the industry. As an example, we have a drawer with about 1000 inserts in it. All different uses, different speeds, feeds, different material, different SFM, different chip handling abilities.......I mean start out looking to learn everything, or look into selling used cars to make a living........MP
PS on a different note to the machinist here, Have you ever seen a Haas "super 4" tear it's own door off and pull it onto, and over the mill table? I saw it happen at work. Scaried the hell out of the guy running it, sounded like nothing I've ever heard in a machine shop......It seems the door rollers were loose, and that allowed the doors to sag inward, just enough for the mill head to grab one on it's way down in "rapid" (which on that super is hauling ass), snaped the roller assys, and jerked it right on in...........MP

wsuwrhr
02-08-2005, 11:31 PM
There are different types of Machinists. If you want to make it you life long profession, then you MUST learn some sort of computer programing. Mastercam, gibbs, or any of the others out there will give you a "saleable" item on your resume. Learning the grassroots machinist trade will give you an ability to putz around with machines, but you will be under paid and hungry. Learn the programing technics, and CNC set up, and tool management, (speeds and feeds), and how to use your every physical movement to its greatest advantage. Find a trade school in your area that has a very defined machinist class. Somewhere you can learn it all, cause, believe me, nowdays you gotta know every aspect of the industry. As an example, we have a drawer with about 1000 inserts in it. All different uses, different speeds, feeds, different material, different SFM, different chip handling abilities.......I mean start out looking to learn everything, or look into selling used cars to make a living........MP
PS on a different note to the machinist here, Have you ever seen a Haas "super 4" tear it's own door off and pull it onto, and over the mill table? I saw it happen at work. Scaried the hell out of the guy running it, sounded like nothing I've ever heard in a machine shop......It seems the door rollers were loose, and that allowed the doors to sag inward, just enough for the mill head to grab one on it's way down in "rapid" (which on that super is hauling ass), snaped the roller assys, and jerked it right on in...........MP
All perfect points. I would like to add some advise/ideas of my own.
Machining is what you make of it. I have made a good living at it since I started in '87.
If you want to be the guy standing in front of the machine, you might as well work at Micky D's. If you want to be the guy MAKING the machine run, then you will make a good living.
The reason I decided to try metalworking is because you can find a job/career in ANY town, in ANY state, in ANY country even.
Machining breaks down language barriers. I have made many a part from Bulgarian, Japanese, and German prints, just to name a few.
Mastercam is the most popular(IMHO) and the most universal. You need good geometry and trig.
Always look at a part/manufacturing process as if it can be done a better way.
Brian

wsuwrhr
02-08-2005, 11:35 PM
PS on a different note to the machinist here, Have you ever seen a Haas "super 4" tear it's own door off and pull it onto, and over the mill table? I saw it happen at work. Scaried the hell out of the guy running it, sounded like nothing I've ever heard in a machine shop......It seems the door rollers were loose, and that allowed the doors to sag inward, just enough for the mill head to grab one on it's way down in "rapid" (which on that super is hauling ass), snaped the roller assys, and jerked it right on in...........MP
Now that will wake you up in the morning.
Brian

wsuwrhr
02-08-2005, 11:42 PM
I agree. It's just like all the "trades", there are people who just go through the motions of machining. Then there's people who use their grey matter and make a good living at it.
I have worked with lots of flakes, and alot of good guys too.
But you can always tell the guys who DON'T REALLY KNOW what they are doing. It is kind if funny how you can have a guy who says they have been machining parts, have all these intricate parts in their box from past jobs, and they don't have the slightest idea of basics, like the simpliest of .nc code
G40, G80, G90, G91.
I don't miss that at all.
Brian
Machining has been good to me, and it is a good trade.

Dimarco21
02-09-2005, 12:11 AM
I have worked with lots of flakes, and alot of good guys too.
But you can always tell the guys who DON'T REALLY KNOW what they are doing. It is kind if funny how you can have a guy who says they have been machining parts, have all these intricate parts in their box from past jobs, and they don't have the slightest idea of basics, like the simpliest of .nc code
G40, G80, G90, G91.
I don't miss that at all.
Brian
Machining has been good to me, and it is a good trade.
Now a days (in the silicon valley) the majority of "machinist" are button pushers. All the skilled machinist's are few and far between. I have been in the trade since 1988, and have seen alot of changes in that time.....and not for the better.
I have made a good living at it (not including all the free bitichin' boat parts). It is a great trade, it's satisfaction of making something from nothing.

wsuwrhr
02-09-2005, 12:17 AM
it's satisfaction of making something from nothing.
Yet another reason I got into machining.
I still dig it today.
Most recently I built a BILLET Yamaha Banshee case from two blocks of 6061.
Brian

RiverDave
02-09-2005, 03:26 PM
Wow...LMAO, maybe in boat parts. Depending on who you work for, its an awesome trade. My family dates back 4 generations cutting metal. My brother and I are the first generation born here to continue the family business. You really have to be quite educated these day to make a decent living, especially if you want to live in s.cal. I would suggest starting out here http://www.trainingcenters.org/. You can do very well for yourself in this industry if you put put your BRAIN into it!! Like anything else, you must really apply yourself....its up to you how much money you make.
I was a mold maker for a # of years. Apprentice / journeymen is about as far as I got in that program. I remember one day I was looking through the classifieds becuase I was unhappy at the shop I was working at. Knowing that a "top" mold maker makes about 27 bucks an hour (back then).. I saw an add for city bus driver 40.00 per hour. That was the day I realized I wasn't going to be a mold maker anymore.
Now a top mold makers are arguably the best machinists in the world... They have to make things on a daily basis that most machinists would bawk at, and on top of which they have to make it backwards. To be at the top of the mold making field, you pretty much have to know how to run every machine in the shop to a degree of excellence that's almost unheard of.. and on top of that most likely be running 2 or 3 at once. Pay is shiznit for the most skilled machinists in the world. I will say though that there's nothing like seeing a fresh mold that you built from the ground up get finished and running it's test cycles.
RD

WILDERTHANU
02-09-2005, 05:20 PM
Who says you have to work for someone else. The guy running the machine, be it programing, set-up, running parts, ect. is not going to get "rich". So you gave up on being a machinist because you couldnt make enough money working for the other guy. Well now you have the right idea, go into business for yourself....good luck by the way.

cyclone
02-09-2005, 05:54 PM
Yet another reason I got into machining.
I still dig it today.
Most recently I built a BILLET Yamaha Banshee case from two blocks of 6061.
Brian
Here's something that has always bothered me. I have been under the impression that aluminum parts are built out of a "billet" or large solid chunk of aluminum. Or is it that "billet" is a type of aluminum?
Take a "billet" steering wheel for example. Is it machined from a solid billet of aluminum or is billet a type of aluminum?
I always thought most people just turned it into a slang term and that billet isnt a type of aluminum. am I crazy?

wsuwrhr
02-09-2005, 06:54 PM
Here's something that has always bothered me. I have been under the impression that aluminum parts are built out of a "billet" or large solid chunk of aluminum. Or is it that "billet" is a type of aluminum?
Take a "billet" steering wheel for example. Is it machined from a solid billet of aluminum or is billet a type of aluminum?
I always thought most people just turned it into a slang term and that billet isnt a type of aluminum. am I crazy?
Billet would describe to me as, not a casted peice of aluminum, so in that sense of the word yes I would consider it as a specific type of aluminum.
Unfortunately alot of the time it used as slang.
Some people will call ingots, or large casted parts, billets. Although they are not.
I have always known billet as a extruded sheet, solid block form. Not a casting. I would accept certain forgings to be billet also.
Billet is different from castings in that they are "pressed" into shape, not poured into a shape. It could be compared to "cast" crankshafts, versus "forged" crankshafts.
Billet is stronger because the molocular properties of the material, no porosity or "inclusions" which are impurities in the material.
The banshee case is cut from two solid rectangle blocks of 6061 T-6. 15"x9"x4.5", and 14"x9"x5"
I got into a discussion with a company that manufactures cams, they sold me a "billet" cam, when I got it it was a cast cam, had a parting line and everything that indicates to me that it came from a mold. They told me that it was a steel billet, I disagree, but most people wouldn't know the difference, so I guess whatever it takes to sell parts I guess.
Brian

cyclone
02-09-2005, 07:16 PM
Billet would describe to me as, not a casted peice of aluminum, so in that sense of the word yes I would consider it as a specific type of aluminum.
Unfortunately alot of the time it used as slang.
Some people will call ingots, or large casted parts, billets. Although they are not.
I have always known billet as a extruded sheet, solid block form. Not a casting. I would accept certain forgings to be billet also.
Billet is different from castings in that they are "pressed" into shape, not poured into a shape. It could be compared to "cast" crankshafts, versus "forged" crankshafts.
Billet is stronger because the molocular properties of the material, no porosity or "inclusions" which are impurities in the material.
The banshee case is cut from two solid rectangle blocks of 6061 T-6. 15"x9"x4.5", and 14"x9"x5"
I got into a discussion with a company that manufactures cams, they sold me a "billet" cam, when I got it it was a cast cam, had a parting line and everything that indicates to me that it came from a mold. They told me that it was a steel billet, I disagree, but most people wouldn't know the difference, so I guess whatever it takes to sell parts I guess.
Brian
I get the differences between a solid and cast product. Its just that some companies advertise something as being a billet part and I was wondering what the real deal was. Like how some wheels have a cast aluminum center welded to a forged aluminum outer hoop but are still called "billet" wheels.

wsuwrhr
02-09-2005, 07:18 PM
I get the differences between a solid and cast product. Its just that some companies advertise something as being a billet part and I was wondering what the real deal was. Like how some wheels have a cast aluminum center welded to a forged aluminum outer hoop but are still called "billet" wheels.
And they are full of shit too. haha
Sorry about the explanation then, I thought it was your question.
Brian