CNC machinist: Most hated job list

10 most hated jobs list...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44038159?slide=3

9. CNC Machinist

CNC machinists operate computer numerical control machines. For the uninitiated, this is a machine that operates a lathe or a mill. On the upside, it renders obsolete processes that used to be performed by hand, at a slow pace and with high risk to the operator’s life and limb.

Now that the CNC operator has had most of the physical hazards of manufacturing replaced by a machine, there’s not a lot to do but push buttons and perform equipment inspections to make sure the coolant is at a safe level. Since it’s a specialized skill, the job offers no room for advancement, which caused respondents to report a high degree of dissatisfaction.

hahaha !!! and we built em, we are propper geeks :lol:
i guess its a bit diffrent for us.. theres plenty of art in what we do, the poor sods on the factory floor clamps in the next slab presses go and prays that something goes wrong so he can go for a fag while someone with a better job comes and fixes it

I think they are mistaking a floor monkey for a CNC machinist. Which given the source and the current academic want to look down on us practical/applied skill areas, I expect as much. Now talk to a real machinist who gets to deal with setting up the machine and work in the many areas that a machinist is trained to work in beyond the feed and punch game and those folks get a whole lot less bored. They also in the US bring home a much more secure pay check. It all depends on how you look at it, what questions you ask and what biases you take into the research. Personally know more then a few who don't like the sometimes very long hours of special jobs, but they don't mind the comp' time and the pay check at the end of the week ($25/hour is nice).

For my part most hated parts of wood machining.

1. During apprenticeship stoking the fire and going for messages
2. Being the operator of the old Edge type edge banders that needed the glue pots cleaned every shift
3. The DOS machines going on the blink and not letting you in to change anything
4. The price of spares from Italy
5. The waiting for spares from Italy

A could go on

Dairsie

Thing is, CNC's in an industrial environment tend to lend themselves to high volume, repetitive type work sometimes doing thousands of components in a single run, and in some cases running totally unmanned having been pre-programmed beforehand and running automatic barfeeders. The advent of automatic probing systems means that their is little need for inspection in some cases as the machine decides for itself if the barstock is the right size to start with, decides if the components produced conform to spec / size etc. To a large extent, it's about competing on price with the likes of the Chinese and other Eastern economies who earn a fraction of the wages of western workers. Even CNC programmers (not just operators) are becoming redundant as drawings are downloaded to machines from CAD files on a laptop.

Speak to someone like a toolmaker who has a far broader engineering knowledge and a better knowledge of machining (and fitting) processes and can find their way round manual and CNC machines, and you might get a different answer; plenty CNC operators I can think of would be puzzled if they had to do a job on a manual machine.