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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking > MetalWork Discussion > How did you learn the Machinist trade?

View Poll Results: How did you learn the Machinist trade?

Voters
800. You may not vote on this poll
  • On the job training

    189 23.63%
  • From a family member

    45 5.63%
  • Apprenticeship program

    133 16.63%
  • Vocational Tech School

    167 20.88%
  • Self taught

    251 31.38%
  • Military training

    15 1.88%
Page 1 of 10 123
Results 1 to 20 of 186
  1. #1

    Cool How did you learn the Machinist trade?

    How did you learn the Machinist trade?
    www.widgitmaster.com
    It's not what you take away, it's what you are left with that counts!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    1625
    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

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    313
    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

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    12177
    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.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    100
    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.
    cadfish
    http://www.burgiengineers.com/

  6. #6
    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.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    938
    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.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Posts
    36
    reading books and breaking things...

    still doing a lot of both after these few years

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    746
    To start, high school metalshop, after that bought a lathe then trial and error.
    If it's not nailed down, it's mine.
    If I can pry it loose, it's not nailed down.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Posts
    1810
    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
    Consistency is a good thing....unless you're consistently an idiot.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    1147
    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

  12. #12
    It's amazing how many "Self Taught" machinists there are !

    Eric
    www.widgitmaster.com
    It's not what you take away, it's what you are left with that counts!

  13. #13

    Cool

    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19483
    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19602
    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19425



    According to all my polls, there are a lot of "Self Taught" "Tool & Die Makers" with "Drill presses"

    Now that is a scarry thought!

    Eric
    www.widgitmaster.com
    It's not what you take away, it's what you are left with that counts!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Posts
    402
    When I first looked at all the polls you started, I thought you were planning a break-in. But it is a good disguised and performed anthropological research! Now get in your shelter for all the stones and sticks that will be thrown.

    Carel

  15. #15

    Cool

    Quote Originally Posted by fkaCarel
    When I first looked at all the polls you started, I thought you were planning a break-in. But it is a good disguised and performed anthropological research! Now get in your shelter for all the stones and sticks that will be thrown.

    Carel
    Actually, I was trying to put the Machinist back in the picture, most people don't realize that it was the Machinist who opened the doors to CNC machining.

    Today, a CNC machine's skills are only as good as the software you program!
    Yesterday, a machine's skills were only as good as the opperator running it!

    Unfortunately, as the CNC machines have evolved, the machinist's trade has devolved! There is such a void of training as the result of CNC automation, the old skills are no longer in demand!

    Foruunately, I'm retired now and it longer effects my livelyhood. Today I just tinker, and have fun in my shop! But cutting metal was my first love, and it still is!

    Eric
    www.widgitmaster.com
    It's not what you take away, it's what you are left with that counts!

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    52
    City and Guilds of London Apprenticeship program (UK 1970s) from then on new stuff from every shop that I have worked in.

    Forrey

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    1147
    Quote Originally Posted by widgitmaster
    Actually, I was trying to put the Machinist back in the picture, most people don't realize that it was the Machinist who opened the doors to CNC machining.


    Eric

    I thought the egg-heads at MIT came up with NC....

    Them, and, i am sure, the warmongers in govt...

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    12177
    If you take the term Machinist at its widest definition, Machinists came up with everything because they made the machines that made everything possible.

    But I suppose the comment about warmongers is accurate because the impetus behind the development of the first lathes and boring machines was to bore cannon barrels. James Watt adapted techniques from cannon manufacture to the boring of the cylinders for his steam engines.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    866
    funny thing is that I just noticed the title under my name just changed to machinist, since I've gotta say I'm not one. I've been learning in the Mechanical engineering shop as much as I can. Someday, I'll get my mill working and get better at cnc. Still not very practiced at using a lathe. Someday I'll get my lathe working and I'll get better at that. Seems to be a theme running through this post.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    12177
    Quote Originally Posted by unterhaus
    funny thing is that I just noticed the title under my name just changed to machinist, since I've gotta say I'm not one......
    I noticed when I first joined my title, as everyones, was chip sweeper, which I never was then apprentice which I have not been for a long long time.

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