Metal shop/ Welding/ CNC courses

[DaveH]

Any thought or experiences in taking these kinds of courses from a community college?

What's the general employment oppotunities concerning these trades? I hear see both people layed off, and supposedly there's a shortage at the same time?

Thanks

 

[Matt Shade]

Hopefully someone in the field can give better info. But from what I've seen it seems like getting the basic certificate like you would get at a community college will get you the basic jobs. You will find work, but won't be getting the best paying or most interesting positions in the field.

For CNC, you will come away qualified to get a job running a machine doing batches of parts. Basic set up, and keeping the machine running for the duration of the run of parts pretty much. If you want to get the jobs with more variety, doing proto types or specialty jobs, your going to have to have alot of experience in the field and probably need more advanced training. Possibly a degree in engineering in some cases as those are the guys you'd be working with. Just as an example I passed a small tool and die shop awhile back that was advertising for help. This was a small shop where just a few guys would be responsible for running everything. They wanted someone with basic training and at least 5 years experience.

I think that welding is a little bit more of an open field. There are a lot of welding jobs that don't have that high of a technical requirement. If you can get training in basic welding and fabrication, you should be able to get a job doing basic welding and fabricating fairly easily. Passing the certification tests seems like it will open the door to a fairly wide range of jobs in a wide range of fields (fabrication, construction, factories etc.) This all seems to be the less interesting, lower paying positions though.
To get the better jobs your gong to have to have enough training and experience to get the jobs requiring X-ray quality welds, or other specialties.

I think that when you see these positions getting laid off, its the folks at the bottom end. The folks who are mass producing parts on a mill, or doing basic structural welding. These jobs disappear as the the economy slows down and production and building slow down.
The shortage is for people with higher training, who can do the more technically demanding jobs, or take management and quality control positions.

 

[bhyde]

Dave,

I have several years experience with CNCs. Matt is correct in the fact that you would need training. Either from a college, or a shop that is willing to take you on. In my case, it was a shop that was willing to train me. I started on manual mills in an engine machine shop along with some experience with the machining in the engine side. At that time, operators and people with experience in this area were almost non-existant. Starting in a CNC shop, I was a button pusher for several months. I spent alot of my own time learning as much as I could. In 2 years, I was programming CNC lathes by hand. Since then, I have ran CNC lathes, Mills, Wire EDM's and a stereo lithography machine. Now I work for a large PC, Printer manufacturer. My title has changed from a lowly machinist to Modelmaker/Toolmaker. The tools that I use daily are the exact tools that mechanical engineers use. (3D CAD, high end graphics workstations) Prototyping parts from drawing them in CAD to programming them in CAM then off to the mill.
Unfortunately, the manufacturing sector is dying/dead in the US. Alot of this is being offshored at break neck speeds. This is not to say that you could't get into this field at all. There is a high rate of unemployment in this field so it would/could be difficult.
Welding might be a better choice, however, it (at least in this state) is a low paying job. Specialty welding would be a better choice, but high stress.

Not too sure about any metal shop courses. The small shops in my area have been taken over by shops with CNC's. Most of these shops have manual machines to compliment the CNC's.

In the end, I will probably be able to retain my job in this field because of the level of experience that I have. Probably will have to sacrifice wage in the future.



HTH



Bill

 

[DaveH]

Thank you that's very helpful. I was looking to take some classes based on personal interest but wanted to have it possibly useful as well.

 

[Mike G]

I'll agree with everything bhyde has said.

Since my disability retirement from the FD, I've been working full time in a machine shop. I was grinding the machine tools, as well as making form tools. (I did this on the side while I was on the FD and have 11 years of tool grinding experience) I now have a tool grinding apprentice, and I'm also running a CNC mill. I recently began programming my mill (which is a requrement in my shop; we do have programmers, but they are overwhelmed). I was suprised how easy it became after a while to actually do the programming once I understood how everything went together. I did have to study here at home, and I visited my machines website and used their programming tutorial. We do run setups that were programmed by others, but most new parts are programmed on the shop floor if they aren't too complicated. (The shop I'm in has 32 CNC mills/lathes/ EDM's, and several other manual machines)

You can go HERE to get a taste of CNC programming.

Also, if I had to do it again, I'd probably find another field. Not much money here in Eastern Washington for even journeymen machinists. I certainly won't recommend the field to anyone who needs to make a good living.

 

[underaged!]

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but I remember reading a flyer for the Welder's union. I believe it said that they would be taking in less people when it comes around my time (2007). Which is really strange beause my father, a civil engineer, says there are a whole bunch of projects comming up for the next ten years or so all over the island, especially Waikiki.

I still really want to do it though. All I know is I don't want to have a desk job...