Precision machining: a career description

I love making things with my hands so an obvious choice for occupation would be some form of engineering. Working with metal also interests me so I herd of precision machining from a person from Mid Florida Tech school that told me what it was and that’s about it. Machining involves taking a raw piece of metal and boring, drilling, milling, grinding, and turning until you end up with a desired product. Also, these parts are to exact specifications of the blueprints. Precise measurements are taken to ensure correct manufacturing.

I already knew quite a bit about this because this is one of my interests. I would like to know more before I choose to spend my time and money on the education to do this line of work. My first obvious question would be how much they make. Money is important to me so I feel it’s necessary to know up front what you will get. Something that goes hand and hand with money is work hours. Time is money so that is equally important. I can work with computers well so I would like to know how technology plays a role in machining. These are all question I hope to find answers to in my quest for knowledge on this career.

This research is being done to answer my questions so I can be as prepared as possible to do this for a living. I feel that if I know all about it there won’t be any surprises or disappointments later on.

My research begins with a long and drawn out trip to the Winter Park High School library and computer lab. I am very experienced online so this did not pose much of a challenge to me. We started out using a website called “ Bridges” that helped people get information about different careers and job orientated information. I found the bulk of my information here on precision machining. This gave me information but not really any examples of it or pictures of this trade. Nest, I went to Lockheed Martin’s website and looked at experimental aircraft and weapons. I found that most experimental projects involved new parts never made before, that’s where the machinist comes in. Next, I visited the university of Arizona’s website where they held a contest to see who could build the best working practical machine. They designed and built some kinds of experimental projects. There were things that fly and things that drill and things that swim. I noticed that most everything was made from scratch. So no store-bought parts were used. That means that the parts were all manufactured. At this website I also came across many job opportunities as technicians and service consultants in the custom fabrication field.

There were quite a few companies that were local that supplied pieces and parts to airplane builders and mechanics. Some machines are so expensive that the parts must be custom made. All this translates into a good outlook for this type of work in the future. Insuring job security is also something good that a machinist can look forward to. Most of my answers to my question cam form the web site from Arizona’s university. Machinists make from sixteen to twenty-three dollars an hour and higher with experience. Starting right out of collage you can expect to make on average of about eight-teen dollars an hour. Hours are like any other job, nine to five unless you have extra work to make up.

You go to college for a minimum of one year attending a vocational school like mid Florida Tech. Technology plays a huge role in this field in that all the robots are computer controlled and operated my people. People still tell the computers what to do but he steady arm of a robot is helpful when quality is of the essence.

After all this research I have come to some conclusions. I am very interested in precision machining. I am looking for more money than precision machining can offer. There are careers like mechanical engineering that offer more money for less hours. I will have to research that new career next. I think it is important to be happy with what you do. I will do some thinking as to what my priorities are in the future. I really do think I might seriously consider precision machining as a career.