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1.3: 1.3 What Do Machinists Do?

  • Page ID
    50510
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    3

    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 1.9. 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 1.10. 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

    The original version of this chapter contained H5P content. You may want to remove or replace this element.

    The original version of this chapter contained H5P content. You may want to remove or replace this element.

    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

    1.3: 1.3 What Do Machinists Do? is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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