[widgitmaster]

How did you learn the Machinist trade?

[lakeside]

CETA Training program though Mas Dep. of Employment and Training 1981 Quincy,Mass. 6 month Then on to first job as tool and cutter grinder $4.20/hour

[orionstarman]

CETA Training program though Mas Dep. of Employment and Training 1981 Quincy,Mass. 6 month Then on to first job as tool and cutter grinder $4.20/hour

Yep! That's how I did it too. 6 months at MD job training program in 94 then on to my first job. Started out on a Bridgeport and a turret lathe. One month later the boss comes out on the shop floor and hand's me a copy of a program and a tool list and tells me to setup the Moriseki MV80 (god that was a big machine) turns around and walks away. There I was, just standing there looking at the machine thinking "now what the hell do I do." With a little help from the guys in the shop I managed to get it done without crashing the damn thing.

Bounced around a few shops over the years. Some good, some not so good. Now I'm at the place I'm going to retire from. If this place ever closes they are going to have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.

[WhiteTiger]

Books and hands on. Had a bit of an early advantage though as I was being paid by John Bean May & Barret to install and maintain automotive alignment, brake and engine machinery when I was still in school. (long story, not worth the telling)

First actual machine tool exposure was right after high school, running lathes and mills finishing and tuning cast rolls for the printing industry. Just kinda growed from there


Tiger

[Geof]

Traditional apprentice program which was actually a contract between the company that I was indentured to and my father. The apprenticeship term was 10,000 hours and for the first three years included one day every two weeks attendance at technical school and two nights a week night school. Because I lived in the country I did correspondence schooling instead of night school. I started a few months after my 16th birthday and because I completed all my exams with acceptable marks I had the term reduced to 8,000 hours. My papers for Completion of Apprenticeship and my New Zealand Trade Certificate as a Fitter, Turner and Toolmaker were dated on my 21st birthday.

I don't think these kind of apprenticeships are at all common now, anywhere.

The interesting thing is that two years later I moved to Canada and in the first job I got there I finished up supervising apprentices 5 years older than me.

[cadfish]

Working on getting a call from the owner and hoping I will get my very first machine shop job, washing cars gets tiring after a while, 3 years.

[rando]

I've learned everything hands on. I started in a local fab shop fresh out of high school as a helper. After a month, I was bumped up a dollar, and was a welder. I worked there for only a year, and recieved $5 an hour increase in pay. I decided after that year, that I had a long term home. Agter working there for 5 years, the shop owner was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer didn't do him in as fast as the chemo did!(prsnl oppinion)During the time of his ill fate, his so was in the process of running the biz right into the ground! I left. Shortly after the owner's death.
I got a job in a machine shop as a welder, and the machinist was a terrible drunk. While he was off on a weeklong binge, we got a big order of some pretty simple lathe work. The boss was all frantic, as he had no one able to do the work. This was only a three man op, not counting the owner up front. He didn't even know how to operate his lathes! After having watched the real "machinist" make that part a few times, I vollunteered, undr the condition that he be understanding of my lack of skill in that area.
After completing a couple, I had my feeds and numbers down, and actually made better time than the original machinist ever had. The owner sliped me a c, and gave me a two dollar raise. The machinist was informed that he no longer had a job! And yes, this was a little premature, as I still had alot to learn! As for the machinist, he told a few mutual frinds I "took" his job. When I saw him snear at me one day, I confronted him. I told him, that I had a lot of respect for him, and I did not ,in fact TAKE his job, he gave it to me.
I got in a tiff with that guy over commissions he was screwing me out of, and got a job where I am now.
I've got the manual end down, and am the General Manager in a shop where most of the guys have done the work twice as long as I, and it surprises me some of the questions they have. I think sometimes they are testing me. Little do they know, that I am in fact still learning on a daily basis from them, and all of their know how.
We currently run two cnc lathes, and two retro mills, one with a rotary table, and one with only three axis. I learned all of that from guys like you(posters in forums), and trial and error. I still have a long woy to go.

Did I leave anything out?
:cheers:

[brownandsharp]

NTMA,
8 months pre-employement training. then they sent me to work @ $8 an hour, employer sent me back to NTMA for cnc programming 1 & 2, then I went back for mastercam 1 & 2.
now I make 3 times that.
Thanks NTMA.

[warfreak]

NTMA,
8 months pre-employement training. then they sent me to work @ $8 an hour, employer sent me back to NTMA for cnc programming 1 & 2, then I went back for mastercam 1 & 2.
now I make 3 times that.
Thanks NTMA.

Hey i went to NTMA also ..... just graduate feb 07 lol whats up fellow alumni!???:wave:

[sdantonio]

How did you learn the Machinist trade?

I think "did" is the wrong word in my case.

I would say, still learning and have a long way to go.

The woods are long and dark and deep,
and I have miles to go before I sleep.

[Flatline's Up!]

reading books and breaking things...

still doing a lot of both after these few years

[2muchstuff]

To start, high school metalshop, after that bought a lathe then trial and error.

[mxtras]

For me it was two almost worthless years of community "college" then 14 years at an Austrian machine building company - first as a tool and cutter grinder, then a machinist, then machine assembly and finally Engineering.

Lots of broken cutters, scrap parts and many years later, I am still playing.

Scott

[vacpress]

I wouldnt even begin to claim being part of the machinst 'trade', however I think like most peiople here it was a lfielong interest in mechanics, robotics, electronics, etc.

The real catalyst was building music equipment when I was a teenager, this required me to get a bandsaw and drill press to fabricate the complex analog circuits and faceplates... However, I have always been obsessed with robotics, and when I realized I could build usefull robots(almsot 3 years ago now) I was immediately obsessed.

The other catalyst has to be Industrial design school. I didnt learn a huge amount from the instructors, but the environment was invaluable to a self-starter like myself. Seriousely, want to learn alot of practical skills? Goto any school that has a shop you can access. Beleive me, the community college shop may be much better than you think!

Robert

[widgitmaster]

It's amazing how many "Self Taught" machinists there are !

Eric

[alduns]

It's amazing how many "Self Taught" machinists there are !

Eric

If you take in consideration the lack of good educational systems on this planet, it would be easier to except that a select few, generally high school or college drop-outs, who have taken it on themselves to learn this trade and do something with it. We are true "craftsmen", not bookworms with a theory!! -al

[wawatobi]

I wouldn't call myself a machinist but I spend several hours every day working with a milling machine and make the bulk of my living from the machine. I'm a goldsmith. I'm also self taught.

[dannystooblue]

It's amazing how many "Self Taught" machinists there are !

Eric

I think that even for the guys that are proclaimed self taught there are probably a group of very talented machinists that have shared a lot of knowledge with them. I started in trade school in high school, then off to the shop to study real world, then to another shop to see some more world and so on. Early on I would change jobs every 12 to 18 months (I was somewhat immature I think at the time), but it gave me the ability to learn from so many different people so many different things. It seems that shops sometimes get stuck in a rut of only working on or going looking for certain types of work. I remember one place all I did was lathe work, one I learned a little about fabrication, production, and and mechanical workings of custom machinery. I would recommend that anyone early in the trade that they embrace the help of the seasoned machinist in the shop and put their own pride aside long enough to learn something new.

[spunky1974]

Started as a very small kid building dirt track race cars. Later, I had to build alot of specialty equipment for my other trades......I do them ALL. Yes, I said ALL. Anyway, after making everybody else money....and not me, I said screw all of "you" meaning my bosses and came home. So, now I tinker at home. I thought about going to work in another shop but most shop owners around here are "PRICKS". Yes, I said "PRICKS" meaning they would rather hire unqualified help....So, I'm going to keep the learning curve going at home.

[cheetahcnc]

Got along very well with a retired tool and die maker from Clifton Precision, while working together at a machinery dealer. He gave me a few pointers about sharpening drill bits. Just when I thought I had it down pretty good, he stuffed the one I finally had sharpened, into the grinding wheel, and told me that if I get that one to drill, I can sharpen drill bits. A little info on the lathe, some more on the mill, then the surface grinder, I was hooked. I stop by to visit him every now and then, once took him to a historic gear hobbing shop, for him to see some familiar stuff from years back. Great guy who gave me the push on the two wheeler, which got me off to a great start. The rest was self taught with a bit here (and literally here on CNCzone) and there over the years from friendly, knowledgeable machinists.

Jim