Anyone here a tool and die maker?

[Instan00dles]

Right now I am taking a computer course at the local community college and I am getting sick of computers, I have been using them and playing around with them since I was 10. I need something new to learn to re-speak my interst in things and my college has a tool and die couse to get you intorduced to the machinery and can/cam. I am wondering if anyone here is doing this as a job and how they like it.

 

[Ornery]

CNC machinist for 25 years. Pay never got up to what I thought it should be. Usually, a programmer will write programs for a few machines and work together with the operators to get things rolling. I was lucky enough to just program, setup and operate my own machine. That was my preference, because I HATE baby sitting other people. I'd hate like hell to just write code all day, too.

I wish more mechanical engineers would get some idea of what it takes to make parts. Just because you can put something on paper, doesn't mean you can whip it out in reality. It would be a great course to take, to get a handle on what goes on in manufacturing etc., but I'm out of there.

 

[radioouman]

Originally posted by: Ornery
CNC machinist for 25 years. Pay never got up to what I thought it should be. Usually, a programmer will write programs for a few machines and work together with the operators to get things rolling. I was lucky enough to just program, setup and operate my own machine. That was my preference, because I HATE baby sitting other people. I'd hate like hell to just write code all day, too.

I wish more mechanical engineers would get some idea of what it takes to make parts. Just because you can put something on paper, doesn't mean you can whip it out in reality. It would be a great course to take, to get a handle on what goes on in manufacturing etc., but I'm out of there.

I agree with your last paragraph! Interestingly, I have a four year mechanical engineering degree, but I started off with a two year degree and had a nice job working on the floor machining parts after I got that degree. I have a good hands on understanding of making parts, and some of the crap that comes out of design really makes me laugh! Starting on the floor is a great place to learn.

 

[KGB1]

Thought you meant the BAND TOOL

Sorry man cant help you out

 

[308nato]

I worked in a machine shop for many years as a tubing bender/pressman.

The politics in a shop are no different than in an office. But, take the course. There is no substitute for knowing how to make things. The knowledge will be useful no matter what you do with yourself.

 

Many, many years ago i graduated from a Regional Vocational Technical School as a machinist, I lasted exactly 6 months in the profession, I quickly became disallusioned because I stood infront of a drill press drilling hole after hole after hole, that's all I did.

I chose the automotive profession after that, much, much better

 

[Farmall]

<-- is a moldmaker, I build plastic injection molds - mold shops and die shops as well as production machine shops all have a lot of the same machinery.

I have previously worked in production but lasted only three months - hated it!!
Built dies for 3+ years and liked it quite a bit.
Now for the last 8+ years I have worked in the mold industry and find that it is the area that is the most challenging and gives the most variety of work. I have done about 5 years of programming, would not want to do that on a full time basis - I was able to build tools and program together.

I think its a great field to work in and would recommend it.

 

[tarheelmm]

everyone is a tool

 

[Farmall]

Originally posted by: radioouman

Originally posted by: Ornery
CNC machinist for 25 years. Pay never got up to what I thought it should be. Usually, a programmer will write programs for a few machines and work together with the operators to get things rolling. I was lucky enough to just program, setup and operate my own machine. That was my preference, because I HATE baby sitting other people. I'd hate like hell to just write code all day, too.

I wish more mechanical engineers would get some idea of what it takes to make parts. Just because you can put something on paper, doesn't mean you can whip it out in reality. It would be a great course to take, to get a handle on what goes on in manufacturing etc., but I'm out of there.

I agree with your last paragraph! Interestingly, I have a four year mechanical engineering degree, but I started off with a two year degree and had a nice job working on the floor machining parts after I got that degree. I have a good hands on understanding of making parts, and some of the crap that comes out of design really makes me laugh! Starting on the floor is a great place to learn.

I couldn't agree more, working out on the shop floor should be mandatory for anyone who is working in design. You see it all the time where a engineer can draw something on Cad and fully expect that it can be built just as its drawn. I have had to sit down a number of times over the years with the design departments and discuss the whole issue of design vs build. One good thing is generally speaking engineers are relatively open minded for discussion and will change their design habits to fit the build end a bit better.

 

everyone is a tool

Yourself included you little pea brained wonder.

 

[Instan00dles]

Well I know some jobs can be boring but I loved doing this kinda stuff in grade 9 and 10 but I had to move to another school where there was no metal shop. thats when I started using computers. anyways I am going to switch courses, I need to do something different.

 

[Chaotic42]

I think that this is exactly what Squisher does. You might want to PM him to see what he has to say.

 

[Howard]

I would like to check out this field. Anything I need besides a mechanical engineering degree?

 

[Instan00dles]

Originally posted by: Howard
I would like to check out this field. Anything I need besides a mechanical engineering degree?

I think it is cool to beable to make stuff out of metal.

 

[geno]

Anyone here a tool

Yeah, they're not hard to come by aroudn here

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: Howard
I would like to check out this field. Anything I need besides a mechanical engineering degree?

That's funny. A tool and Die maker with a engineering degree. Mister, if you want to work in a shop, you could start from the bottom and work your way up. If you've got a good aptitude and attitude, you could be spitting out parts on your own in no time, without even graduating high school!

I went to the auction of our shop a few weeks ago. Met a fellow there who was real nice. Throughout the day we kept bumping into each other and chatting. He eventually purchased a Bridgeport for about $1,250.00. He said he wanted to put it in his garage to mess with cutting metal and what not. His son was really excited about it. We set a date to meet later in the month, so I could sell him some tooling for it. When I asked what he did for a living, he said he was an orthopedic surgeon! I guess all kinds of people are interested in this stuff.

 

[Bignate603]

I'm working on being a MECH E (freshman) and I think what they can do with machining is AMAZING. I did an internship at a small company and they contracted out to one place alot. There was this german guy who could barely read but could make the most precise things imaginable. He was literally amazing. His name was Horst, and was psycho about getting everything done, he would work himself to death. He had a cartoon behind his workbench...
It said:

"God put me on this earth to accomplish so much. Right now I'm so far behind I will never die"

 

[Farmall]

Originally posted by: Ornery

Originally posted by: Howard
I would like to check out this field. Anything I need besides a mechanical engineering degree?

That's funny. A tool and Die maker with a engineering degree. Mister, if you want to work in a shop, you could start from the bottom and work your way up. If you've got a good aptitude and attitude, you could be spitting out parts on your own in no time, without even graduating high school!

I went to the auction of our shop a few weeks ago. Met a fellow there who was real nice. Throughout the day we kept bumping into each other and chatting. He eventually purchased a Bridgeport for about $1,250.00. He said he wanted to put it in his garage to mess with cutting metal and what not. His son was really excited about it. We set a date to meet later in the month, so I could sell him some tooling for it. When I asked what he did for a living, he said he was an orthopedic surgeon! I guess all kinds of people are interested in this stuff.

Ornery, What do you plan on doing now, you going to stay in the trade or try something different?

 

[Farmall]

Originally posted by: Instan00dles

Originally posted by: Howard
I would like to check out this field. Anything I need besides a mechanical engineering degree?

I think it is cool to beable to make stuff out of metal.

I think its pretty neat when parts from a mold I have built shows up in the stores. A while back I was in HD and seen a motor housing that I had built the mold for. You would be amazed at some of the tooling that gets built now. One thing I have noticed over the years is the complexity of the tools/parts is always getting more difficult.

 

[tjr2mental]

I got into the tool and die trade right out of highschool and started on the floor learning how to run 10 foot arm drill presses! I ended working my way up to running our Tarus CNC, then the CMM. A few years later I got to learn Autocad, Unigraphics, and Catia so I could write my own programs. Once I proved to the owners that I could be trusted with working with myself and the engineers from the big three I was bumped up to being incharge of all the designs, all the cnc machines, the checking of the parts (PPAP and the like), and the buyoffs of the dies. I was starting to get antsy about learning somthing else that was new, so they gave me the job of getting them QS-ISO certified. Woot!

Decided last year that the job was getting old as there was nothing new for me to learn, so now I am going to school to be a teacher. Looking back at it I think I would have been happy just being on the floor as a builder as that is what I enjoyed the most. Nothing like seeing a car or truck going down the road and being able to name off the parts that you built that are on it. It is a dirty job with long hours at times, but most of the time the hours just fly by. That and you work on so many diffrent parts of the die that everything seems new because each die is diffrent from the last one that you built.

Depending on where you live you can make a great deal of money in the tool and die trade. By the time I left I was making 26 a hour. Not to bad for someone without a college degree.

 

[Ornery]

"Ornery, What do you plan on doing now, you going to stay in the trade or try something different?"

Something different, but I don't know what.

tjr2mental, most people would have made a career out of any one of those positions. Pretty damn awesome. I'd be more inclined to do that. Learn a position till I could do it in my sleep, then just coast along. Basically, I'd like to just parlay a skill into as much money as I can get for it, and stick with that. I'm not looking to keep things "interesting". When I come home from work, I like to forget all about what's done or due there. No way I could work on an assembly line, doing the same task over and over, though. There's gotta be a little variety. I like to move around a bit, too. A cubicle job would kill me.

I'm following the best job topic to get some ideas...