How long have you been machining?

[Guest]

Since 1979 as a machinist trainee 3.50 an hour to start.LOL

I got $4.85 in 1979 as an 18 year old trainee. The place I worked at actually paid low wages for the area which seemed to be common for places that had structured training programs. They are still in business to this day and probably still pay their top people less than market rate. In my job hopping travels working at 8 shops before becoming self employed I ran into many alumni from the first place I worked. A lot of people used them to get trained and experience then moved on because of the low pay. That was in the suburbs of Southern California, most factories in that area and time that had skilled labor jobs paid well over minimum wage for trainees.

 

[mccolld]

$4.86 was good dough for an 18yo in '79 imo.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Guest]

I expect that it might get locked, as "to chatty" by our Milacron, but I'd be interested in hearing from some of the FOGs here abouts that do BOTH CNC AND manuals. Which you like better, and why? I do both, or can, when I have time. I have to say I really "enjoy" the manual side better. Something about the "feel" for the tool cutting, actually turning handles. The CNCs are great for making parts and chips, but i get kinda detached. No passion, no feel. It is nice to just type in some numbers, and know where you are gonna end up though.

What is a FOG? I can understand Limy's slang because of working with quite a few guys from across the pond back in the mid 80's. I guess my handful of trips through the Texas pan handle did not catch me up well enough on Texas slang.

As for manual vs CNC I do agree that you learn a lot by the feel, on the other hand I believe my pain tolerance has lowered as I aged and I don't enjoy hot chips landing on me as much as I used to. I have a bad back so I don't like putting on work boots and I over heat easily so I can be found in tank tops, shorts and sandals as long as the temp is 45F and above. Considering that I am very vulnerable to flying debris. Also the aches and pains accumulated from years of reckless behavior as a youth can make hours of handle cranking physically annoying. So at an old 56 I now prefer to just push the green button and red button while leaning on the work bench.

 

[Ox]

What is a FOG? I can understand Limy's slang because of working with quite a few guys from across the pond back in the mid 80's. I guess my handful of trips through the Texas pan handle did not catch me up well enough on Texas slang.

My guess is the opposite of an FNG.



----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[JO 753]

I started making stuff in 1964 and got my 1st 'machine' for Christmas in 1966 - A Mattel drill/lathe. Then I got a Dremel and carved alot uv plastic, aluminum and steel parts for my inventionz with it for many yearz. Lots uv stuff that shoud hav been dun on a mill. It wuznt till the mid 80z that I finally got an Emco Unimat 3 lathe & mill. My 1st job az a machinist wuznt until 1985!

 

[johnmbacsik3]

I grew up in my family's machine shop, but I didn't start machining until I was 18 when my dad fell sick and I felt an obligation to help my family. As I started learning from some of the old school machinists here I began to really get into machining. I realized that I can build anything I could visualize as long as I had raw material, my drawing tools, paper, and good tooling. Over the last decade, I have done countless mill and lathe setups, learned to program, setup, operate, and fully diagnose & service our two Mori Seiki CNC lathes as well as our conventional Bridgeport and Gorton Mills and Hardinge and Warner & Swasey lathes. I enjoy machining because it gives me an advantage over the other people I go to school with for Mechanical Engineering... I can draw ideas and make them come to life which has always been something I enjoyed doing since I was a small kid playing with Legos. I just wish my dad had been more involved and taught me what I had to learn on my own from a younger age, even he agrees that there is no telling how advanced I would be skill-wise. From what I have read, I seem to be the spring-chicken of everyone who has commented as far as years of experience. I like to think, that 10 years has shaped me into a well rounded engineer, but everyday always has something new for me to learn. I will be learning until the day I die and that makes for a interesting life, definitely not dull.

 

[coupeute]

January 1961, 15 years old, started my machinist indentured apprenticeship with one day a week at Trade Tech school. Spent three months a year with the welder learning to arc weld and oxy/acc welding. Machined aircraft parts in California and went into withdrawal systems when I was in Uncle Sam's Kite Club and couldn't get my hands on a lathe or mill. After the service, got a job building Top Fuel Dragster chassis and had to learn Heli-arc (Tig) welding. Still machining and welding everyday. There are " bolt er uppers" and then there are fabricators.

 

[aura]

My Father put a mill smooth file in my hand when I was 7, He taught me how to deburr a 3x3x3 cold roll steel block, No way I could pick up the tote box full of blocks so they were placed on the bench for me by machinist Jack Beaumont, He was doing the next operation on the B&S Horizontal milling machine nearby. I was just about able to keep up with him. I entered my B&S apprenticeship 1966, Skipping most of the first years introduction to machine tools, Because I never stopped working for Dad and the education went on, I learned machine tool rebuilding from him, alignment, squaring, scraping, spotting or flecking, frosting, So when I started at B&S they put me in the tool room and right to work. I retired at sixty six, four years ago and I still have a small shop mixed media wood and steel. I rebuild and repair machines as a hobby.

 

[Jaxian]

Did you mean in a row? I have been at it like 3 hours this morning so far. I can finish the day but I don't see how some of you guys have been doing this for years. When do you eat?

 

[Lightmod]

I'm Out, LOL.
Started in 84'.

 

[qwhit]

Started in the summer of 1968 as a operator, went to vocational school for 2 years, worked in the industry for 10 years, taught Precision Machining foe 30 years and now have my own small shop doing repairs for a agriculture community.

 

[halfmoonbear]

45 years and still learning.

 

[alphonso]

At 7 or 8 (1951 or '52), the shop foreman on the farm said "If yure gonna be fuckin' around in here, yure gonna work. Get over here and drill the rivets outa these sickle bars." Drillpress on a long bench with guide to run the bar thru. Stood on a crate to reach the handle. Didn't take too long before i figured out that i needed to wear jeans instead of shorts on that job. By 10, I was overhauling engines and working on nearly all the equipment that was brought in.

Started my current money losing proposition 39 years ago.

 

[Clive Hugh]

I started my apprenticeship January 1965, prior to that they employed me as a trades assistant, best thing I ever did.

 

[reubenT]

Visited a man who had a lathe in his basement when I was 14 I think. (not quite 40 years ago) I thought that was a wonderful machine. But limited resources and no connections kept me out of it for a long time. But after attempting too many custom manufacturing projects without proper equipment, decided I needed something to work with. So in the last few years I've been collecting old stuff as I find it. Started with an ancient FE Reed lineshaft lathe, then two small Index milling machines. Then a 2 HP Fabco milling machine, and a 3 HP American 18x48 lathe which is also flat belt drive with electric add on, but one of the later ones as it's a single flat belt pulley off the left end of gear box and all gear drive internally. I'm frequently using them for repairing and making things. Yesterday and today I was making a bandsaw blade tooth setting device for sawmill bands. I much prefer hands on manual control of what I'm doing. Don't think I'd like those computerized things, takes the fun out of it I think. Although I know in mass production they are indispensable. Also have small foundry set up and plan on making things like external combustion engines in moderate sizes for practical work application, also using old methods with charcoal fired cupola.

 

[Barrie99]

Hi

I started my apprenticeship at British Railways Locomotive Division in Derby in August 1969 so its been a while

Barrie

 

[Barrie99]

F*****g Old Guys

 

[hagar]

I started a gun-smithing business in 83 using only hand tools. Even at that time I knew I needed to automate but the investment was beyond me until I was able to purchase a Jet 13 X 40 in 92.In the mean time I learned to make everything with hand tools and a 1/2" drill but it was good for me as I learned to produce square corners and make surfaces parallel by hand.Thereafter I started buying other machinery such as a Logan 12 X 36 flat belt drive that still cuts accurately, a 1947 Atlas horizontal bench mill,two Logan shapers 7" & 8",power saws, sanders, grinders, heat treating furnace etc. All of these are small like the Atlas horizontal mill at 12" but for the type of work I do serve quite well. Almost all of the machining I learned from books as I have always been an avid reader and now the internet makes it even easier.My uncle was a machinist and in 58 he bought an Atlas lathe for his home shop. I didn't get to use it but I did a lot of observing and asking questions which also helped a great deal. I am a small one man shop as I have always been but now I have a firearms manufacturing license and do armory work for law enforcement. Without the machining ability I would not be here now as I would say to be anything more than a parts changer with firearms you must be able to modify and fabricate parts.

 

[jszalas]

Goodness, I really am still just a child!

I started in 2011 in a technical program at my high school. That was mostly manual stuff and some basic CNC.

I'm doing primarily CNC machining at the shop I work at now. They also just started showing me how to do some welding (also got a peak of that recent solar eclipse with those fancy masks).

It's all fun stuff.

 

[dbmeyer08]

lol I'm with jszalas. I just hit my 10 year this spring. I started in 2007 through my high schools Manufacturing cluster internship program in my Junior. Showed interest in machining and did lathe work and minimal work on the Bridgeport. My teacher referred me to a small local grind shop looking for interns. Started there cleaning up around the shop and running the Dedtru grinding carbide inserts for punch dies. Then they moved me into I.D. Grinding where I spent 6 years doing that and ran 4 Parkers. Ridiculously old machines but they coul hold a tenth all day! Three years ago I relocated for family reasons and got my foot in the door at quickly growing company. Hired in to Jig Grind which I really learned a lot from. Did that for a year along with leaning to surface grind and some O.D. grinding. Now I'm in the die area again and surface grinding running two CNC 24x60 chevaliers. I wish there were more young guys getting into the trade because the experience all you old tiimers have is amazing to me. Keep it up