For further information regarding these job classifications and the host of others not discussed, consult the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Employment Security. That publication is available in the reference room of any good library. Most federal and state employment and labor offices also have a copy for reference purposes. Contact the State Department of Labor (consult your local telephone directory) or the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training (BAT) office nearest you. A list of the main state offices and the regional BAT offices can be found in appendix C.
Generally, most workers enter skilled crafts after several years of intensive on-the-job training (OJT) combined with classroom instruction. Formal apprenticeship programs are the most common means of acquiring craft skills.
The information in all the following job analyses is general. All wage information was extracted from an industry-wide survey conducted by the National Tooling and Machining Association in 1993 with 3,000 companies providing data.
Skilled metalworkers typically have opportunities for overtime work on a regular basis-the work week averages fifty hours. They have full-time work throughout the year as compared to some skilled workers who work only 50 to 80 percent of the year because of poor weather or poor economic conditions. For instance, in a special study of twenty-six skilled occupations conducted by the Bureau of Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, tool and die makers ranked seventh in net lifetime earnings, close behind dentists, physicians and surgeons, several types of engineers, and owners and managers in finance, insurance, and real estate.
MACHINIST ALL-AROUND
As the name implies, these highly skilled mechanics are capable of setting up and operating virtually all the standard machine tools of the machine shop. These machinists are capable of following a blueprint and finishing with a usable part. They can skillfully use all the bench and hand tools, harden and temper tool steels, sharpen the various tools and tool bits used in the shop, measure and cut metals within a thousandth of an inch or finer, use shop mathematics, read blueprints-in short they are at home in all the operations found in a machine shop. They can carry through from start to finish a wide variety of work without close supervision. In working, they consult blueprints and specifications or they may receive oral instructions.
All-around machinists plan the sequence of operations necessary to complete a job. This may require lathes, millers, shapers, drills, hand tools, and other apparatuses. Knowing the properties of metals, they select and use them in accordance with needs. They may have to harden certain parts, grind them to close dimensions, and do filing, scraping, and fitting before the job is complete.
Many of these machinists are doing maintenance work in production plants where there is ample opportunity for exercising ingenuity in keeping the plant's production machinery and equipment in working order. Others become experimental machinists, working in laboratories, development and engineering plants, and the like.
The all-around machinist may become a toolmaker, die maker, supervisor, master mechanic, or methods planner. Wages vary from $9.00 to $12.00 per hour, depending upon the locality and grade of machinist. The most skilled earn as much as $21.00 per hour. Machinists can find employment in almost any locality and any manufacturing industry.
All-around machinists should not be confused with machine operators who merely set-up and operate a specific single machine tool. These less skilled machine operators will do jobs that are more repetitive and production oriented.
TOOLMAKER
The mass production of metal goods depends largely upon the use of jigs, fixtures, gauges, and other tools. For example, to produce the bolt holes in the crankcase of an automobile engine, it is necessary to use a drill jig. It might be a boxlike structure of cast iron into which the crankcase can be clamped. The drills are fed into the crankcase through drill bushings immovably fixed in the jig. Since each crankcase would be drilled like this, the distances between holes in all of them would be the same as the diameters of the holes. The jig must then be made with the utmost precision. Similarly, when the crankcase is machined on a mill, it is clamped in a fixture which ensures that all the cases are milled exactly alike. Similar principles govern other machining devices and tools used in manufacturing.
The toolmaker is an expert, all-around machinist who has specialized in making these production tools. Since these tools must be made to the utmost precision, the toolmaker becomes accustomed to working to dimensions that often must not vary to the half-thousandth of an inch or even finer. Consequently, the toolmaker must possess the highest degree of skill in the machine shop. He or she must be able to read and interpret the tool drawings or specifications; plan the procedures and operations that will produce the tool; make the necessary calculations; secure the tool steels and other necessary materials; operate any of the machine tools necessary to make the parts; harden and grind these parts; assemble, fit, adjust, and otherwise complete the tool; and do all of the other work entailed.
The work is interesting and varied and allows the toolmaker room for ingenuity and inventiveness. Promotion may be to tool designer, methods planner, or other supervisory positions. Wages vary from $ 10.00 to $ 12.00 per hour, depending upon experience, specialization, locality, and other considerations. Some of the most skilled might make over $25.00 per hour.
DIE MAKER
The die maker is a toolmaker who has specialized in the making of punches and dies. These are high production tools that are set in presses to stamp out from sheet metal such products as the clip that holds the fountain pen in your pocket, the hooks and eyes used in clothing, or the metal body of your automobile. The dies are made to the finest of precision measurements and often cost large amounts of money.
What we have said of the toolmaker can be repeated in the case of the die maker as each represents the highest degree of skill in the machine shop. Some die makers become very specialized and make, for instance, watchcase dies or jewelry dies.
TOOL AND DIE MAKER
The tool and die maker analyzes specifications, lays out metal stock, sets up and operates machine tools, and fits and assembles parts to make and repair metalworking dies, cutting tools, jigs and fixtures, and gauges and machinist hand tools. He or she applies knowledge of tool and die designs and construction; shop mathematics; metal properties; layouts, machining, and assembly procedures; and studies specifications, such as blueprints, sketches, models, or descriptions, and visualizes products. He or she computers dimensions and plans layout and assembly operations and sets up and operates machine tools such as lathe, milling machines, saws, and grinder to machine parts, and verifies conformance of machine parts to specifications.
MOLD MAKER
Mold makers are highly skilled machinists who specialize in building tools that shape plastic materials or soft metals while in a liquid state. Today it is nearly impossible to avoid everyday contact with plastic articles. The ballpoint pens we use, the steering wheels in our cars, the cabinets for our television and stereo sets, and our telephones are made of plastic and produced in quantity by precision molds. The widespread use of plastic products, which continues unabated, has created a shortage of skilled mold makers which is growing more serious.
Mold making has been called an art as well as a skill. The mold maker must possess the same skills and competencies previously described for die makers and toolmakers. In addition, a mold maker must have a strong working knowledge of plastics and a practical knowledge of thermodynamics. Plastics and other materials used in molds are heated to a workable temperature and compressed in a mold, which may have a built-in heating and cooling system to regulate temperature.
INSTRUMENT MAKER
The instrument maker is a highly skilled, all-around machinist on the level of the toolmaker who works with inventors, scientists, and experimenters to develop their ideas and designs. Working from sketches, drawings, and verbal instructions, the instrument maker makes a model or prototype embodying these designs, often to very fine limits of measurements and shapes. The scientist, inventor, or experimenter uses this model to test ideas and then returns it to the instrument maker for correction, modification, and changes until the final form is arrived at or the idea is discarded.
In addition to manual skills, therefore, the instrument maker must be well grounded in the basic sciences and mathematics and capable of working without supervision from sketches and other information. Wages vary from $9.00 to $12.00 per hour.
