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1.3 What Do Machinists Do?

D.M. Donner

A view of the work area inside a CNC lathe. The spindle on the left has a piece of steel bar in the chuck, and the tooling turret near the top has all the cutting tools installed.
Figure 1.8. A 3-axis CNC lathe with live tooling is a common machine found in most machine shops. / Image Credit: Damon Donner, CC BY 4.0

Common machinist duties found in job postings today, such as these on the Career One Stop site, include:

  • Fabricates, maintains, repairs, and/or alters metal parts and metal objects using a variety of hand tools, metalworking machines, arc or gas welding equipment, and following instructions, specifications, technical manuals, etc.
  • Sets up and operates metalworking machines such as lathes and milling machines to machine parts to established specifications.
  • Compares finished work to specifications using measuring instruments such as scales, calipers, and micrometers.
  • Reviews plans, specifications, diagrams, etc. to determine the dimensions and tolerances of metal components to be machined and to determine the tools, materials, and equipment required to complete assigned projects.
  • Measures, marks, and scribes metal stock following blueprints, diagrams, and/or specifications, and uses square rule and scribe to prepare metal for machining operations.
  • Performs related duties such as cleaning work areas, tools, and equipment; maintaining records and logs; and drawing sketches of metal parts or metal components to be machined.
A work piece is bolted to a trunnion with a thru bolt and custom aluminum tower.
Figure 1.9. This part required custom workholding to secure the dark colored cube to the multi-axis trunnion, which allows for multiple sides of the part to be machined at once. / Image Credit: Damon Donner, CC BY 4.0

Attributions

  1. Figure 1.8: A 3-axis CNC lathe with live tooling by Damon Donner, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
  2. Figure 1.9: A work piece is bolted to a trunnion by Damon Donner, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0

License

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Introduction to Machining Copyright © by SBCTC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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