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/sci/ - Science & Math

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5340775 No.5340775 [Reply] [Original]

ask a machinist in training anything.

>> No.5340797

Do you plan on getting a Mech E degree in the future?

IMO, a Mech E with training as a machinist is one hell of a force to be reckoned with.

>> No.5340824

>>5340797
i had thought about it but college is expensive and so thats a ways away.

>> No.5340826

>>5340797

Yeah really! It should be more normal. I am not an engineering student (economics and math) but I have gotten trained on machine tools, welders and I know a lot about soldering and electronics.

I meet a lot of engineers at my university who look down on machining, or soldering or whatever. Like, thats some plebian thing?

Thats REALLY bad. All the good engineers are good actually constructing as well as engineering. In a sense the practical skill must preceed the engineering, because actually being physically involved with it gives you insight into what can be feasibly engineered, and what cant.

>> No.5340832
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5340832

>>5340826
thats the way i see it, IMO having the know-how to create things certainly helps with being able to create other things on paper. plus im man enough to admit that i am not super strong with math (im freeze when doing algebra).

>> No.5340833

Does that mean you just ran a young girl over with your car and are now tormenting yourself and hallucinating?

>> No.5340838
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5340838

Mah nigga.

Do you plan to work as a machinist after you complete your training? Or maybe study engineering afterwards?

Pic related, a few projects I made when I was in machining school.

>> No.5340841

>>5340832

The thing is, that as a machinist, you're going to find situations where understanding the physics and math behind what your machine is doing, is going to be a great help for you. There might even be situations where you'll find you're fucking useless without basic understanding of trig. It's a great situation to be trying to build up your math skills, since you're not just chugging equations that seem pointless to you.

A machinist without any sort of math and science know how, is basically just a babysitter for a CNC machine. Make sure it doesn't crash into the bed, handwheel it for the tight finishing passes, mic the part, then run the next program.

You want to be the guy who can sit down, look at a part, and think to himself "Fuck, I totally could open up Solidworks/Inventor and make an even better version of this if I wanted to".

>> No.5340842

>>5340838
the vice looks dope btw. I plan on working for awhile just to get some money and maybe get into engineering, although me going back to school would depend on if i made enough money to comfortably do so (I dont want to be a struggling student at 30 years old).

>> No.5340845
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5340845

>>5340841
Im taught trig as part of the program and not just the basics, we get pretty in depth with it.

>> No.5340849

>>5340845

Gotcha. Sorry, my opinion is from the perspective of an EE student who's played with a bridgeport a few times. I know machinists who can do fucking amazing things, and are a million times the engineer I currently am, so i've got an immense amount of respect for the trade.

>> No.5340850

>>5340841
oh i almost forgot we also get taught welding and some mettalurgy. (there is a CNC program here which thats all they teach though i took the manual machinist program because fuck that button pressing shit.

>> No.5340866
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5340866

>>5340842
I suggest you find a job with some small company/job shop rather than some big company like GE, etc. You will learn a great deal from the experienced machinists you work with.

I worked at a small tool and die shop over the summer and I was amazed at the kind shit my co-workers pulled off on a daily basis. They were so fucking fast It's almost unbelievable. Now all the tricks that I learned from them are being applied here at engineering school where I work as a lab technician. Even though I only worked for one summer I probably know more about machining than 99% of all other engineering students and faculty members on campus. I'm not trying to sound like an arrogant prick or anything, I'm just saying that based on what I've seen here so far.

If you find work at a big company, you will start off as a machine operator, not a machinist. There's a big difference. Sure, big companies pay more and you will get benefits, but at the expense of learning jack shit.

>> No.5340867
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5340867

>>5340849
EE was another possible career choice of mine (so was history teacher lol).

>> No.5340872

>>5340866
I would actually love to work in a small shop rather than a big comapany (around here it is Boeing) more because i only like to socialize with a couple people at a time (im in a class of 4 for my quarter and in total since i do the night shift there are like 15 studets)

>> No.5340879

>>5340866
Yeah, where I worked It was just me and two other machinists. Good shit.

>> No.5340882

>>5340797
I took 4 semesters of welding and manual machining while I was in high school, and ended up taking a few classes at a college on the side while I did my undergrad on milling.

Working on my Ph.D. now in aerospace.

>> No.5340892

Hey OP, EE fag here again. I've got another "actual" question for you.

What's your schedule and tuition like?

>> No.5340893

>>5340882
thats god tier level of machinists. Aerospace is top tier machining next to tool and die making. ur my hero, next to my proffessor (he has the best stories)

>> No.5340900

>>5340892
I got to school at 1:30 pm and leave at 9pm with "lunch" at 5:30. I go to school quarterly all year round with breaks inbetween quarters. tuition is ultra tame compared cont.

>> No.5340903

>>5340892
tuition is no more than 2600 a quarter and that was the most expensive quarter.(This does not includes cost of tools you are required to get).

>> No.5340910

>>5340893
Oh, dude. The level of machining that goes into an academic, research project can be pretty low. Certainly some projects, usually the more industry-related work, has some very sophisticated machining involved. However, I work in more fundamental flow physics. I spent two years on M.Sc. studying the turbulence behind a square pin in a water channel - literally the only piece of equipment was a square pin.

I'm not a machinist either, but I definitely think my machining experience has been an asset. Either being able to make a part myself, or getting a pretty elegant part designed that both does the job I need and that the shop can get done quickly. There are some people in my lab that can't draw physically relevant designs, that have no intuition for how things go together or how things are made.

>> No.5340915

>>5340903

What sort of tools do they expect you to have? I'm assuming like safety stuff, a 1" mic and a caliper, but what else?

>> No.5340919

>>5340903
I'm also curious as to what tools you had to buy. That was not a requirement for us, even though I did buy some tools of my own.

>> No.5340922
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5340922

>>5340915
well yeah a 1" mic 6" calipers a toolbox to hold the tools we end up making, and alot of stuff that is not required but suggested (all the tools are "suggested" but the shop has most of these things but why compete with other students for them?)

>> No.5340926

>>5340919
I bought calipers, a mic, a steel ruler, a toolbox, and some wrenches for my first quarter.

>> No.5340933

>>5340842
i thought machinists were paid shittily in their first years, or maybe thats just in australia. i know for the first 5 years youre looking at 25000 aud (prettymuch par with usd), and afterwards 40000 and up.

>> No.5340936

>>5340933
well it depends on where you get hired and to do what (my teacher got 32000 his first year then jumped to 85000 his next couple then back to 28000, just depends on the job)

>> No.5340959

>>5340933
Because of the nature of their work, machinists pay is usually tied closely to the industry they work in, borrowing costs, interest rates, exchange rates, and so on. This is similar for most manufacturing jobs.

>> No.5340962

>>5340936
>>5340959
cheers, i didnt realise it was such a complex pay system, ive only encountered the "start small and get more as you move up the ranks/ years of service"

>> No.5340966

>>5340962
To an individual machinist, of course, they're likely to see their pay go up at any given company, and never go down. However, the prospect of being layed off in down economic times is always looming. Its only really statistically that machinists wages are closely tied to exchange rates and borrowing costs.

>> No.5340970

>>5340962
machining is a broad field so pay will be a broad field as well with all the different things you can do.