Need to hire a mechanic for performance shop in Orlando

Man I remember working as a machinist one summer in college it must have been maybe '92? Tons of experienced guys looking for work after the cold war ended.

Now its all gone full circle.

If the current dungeon climate keeps up Ill be an old aerospace guy looking for work before too long

 

We’re seeing a massive restoring endeavor, particularly with machining based manufacturing, but there’s a significant problem, they don’t need machinists like they once did. Most newer facilities only need a handful of true machinists these days, and operate primarily from machine operators/production techs. With just a handful of machinists and engineers as troubleshooters, oversight, etc. The pipelines for true machinists are still drying up, even as we’re seeing significant reshoring. It’s quite the quandary, but manufacturing and skilled trades evolve. Spend meetings with HR personnel every month having to explain the difference between machinists vs machine operators…

 

I made the same move in 2006. Sounds like you're applying your degree in a field that doesn't pay. I'm a Mechanical Engineer in med device and making way more than anyone I know in the trades. I'm sure geography plays into it as well (live in the Boston area). Where do you live? Move out here and you'll get that pay jump. Plenty of opportunities.

 

Send them my way, I have the shop, insurance, capabilities but not enough business to take it full time yet and I want to leave my current job in a bad way

 

True statements, at least in the production field. You can create a reasonably proficient button pusher fairly easily, if you've got the experienced people to oversee it. I'm speaking more in the custom field, particularly in my area. True machinists make the best programmers. Some of the production shops I know of can support 20-30 machines, with only a few people doing toolpath. For custom you need a person who knows what the tool is doing, and how the material is reacting, to be a good programmer. The pay scale for those type of people has gone up exponentially, with availability pretty scarce. All of the machine shops around me are looking to farm out work, as they can't keep up. Some of that is labor shortage related, but most is just the volume of work.

 

Funny, as I'm kind of on the same path. Wanting to step back from my primary business, and focus on doing stuff that's fun. It's just hard to balance both. I just had a shop up in Fondue du Lac contact my secondary business to outsource custom work. The volume was decent, and the rate was better than average. I just don't have the time to manage that right now. I'll try to remember to look up their contact info and you can reach out to see if there's a fit.

 

Cleveland. I like my job, so not really looking for changes. Pay is still good, just not in the 6 figures. I have some experience to build up before that happens anyways.

 

We now have some of the largest manufacturers and machine shops in the nation, attempting to recruit from overseas with H-1B visas, for people who really understand machining. It's an absolutely wild thing to witness, I'm dealing with a major automotive supplier attempting to do so now, but they're not the only skilled trade where we're seeing that occur. Over the past few years, we have even seen visas used to bring foreign skilled trade workers in to construct heavily automated modern factories. There's no doubt from me that a true machinists tends to make the best programmers, but that is a hotly disputed concept. When I poll manufacturers across the country, it's the small minority of manufacturers that believe in investing in their employers to learn some of the fundamentals of the trade that instill that knowledge. It's the same rationale of why many of the skilled trade pipelines have dried up.

 

We want our crew to understand all aspects, or as much as possible. They start just swapping parts in the machines, and doing basic setups. They get to observe and are mentored in what is actually happening after they push that button. Once they've mastered more complicated setups, and have a basic understanding of materials, tool loads, and use of different tools for geometry types, we give them some G code experience, even though we don't use it in our normal day to day. Then we start letting them do basic toolpath using Fusion 360. Pockets, drilling cycles, simple surfacing. If they show promise, we'll step them up to Powermill, which is a much more complicated but infinitely more capable programming tool. Then it's on to advanced surfacing and tooling strategies. If they still have a desire to learn, we bring them into the design side. Let me tell you, having a designer that understands how something is actually machined, is invaluable. The other benefit, is they don't get bored doing the same thing over and over. Most of my mold shop people can do an entire project from design to production ready (inclusive of polishing). I never understood the shortsightedness of companies who don't want to provide that path for an employee to grow. I've got some people that I have to kick out of the building, as they get so wrapped up in doing something, they lose track of what time it is.

 

www.new-industries.com

Not sure if they're still looking, but worth a try. You should check out their work first.