That depends entirely on the industry and areas of production. As one example, consider how skilled machinists can take a quite varied path:
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Good Machinists Have Inquiring Minds
By Dan O'Brien Jim Hazenstab pauses a moment before answering what led him to become a machinist: He always had intense curiosity about how machines worked. His route to becoming a machinist, though, was tougher than most. Diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) at an early age, Hazenstab says most of his teachers couldn't see his academic ability as they wrote off his enthusiasm for tinkering with machines. "I was a classic case," says Hazenstab, now the president of Hazenstab Machine Inc., Salem. "I graduated high school with a 2.3 grade point average, but my IQ was 140." It wasn't until his senior year in high school that Hazenstab enrolled in courses that directly applied to the life of a machinist his father's chosen trade. "In my senior year, I was taking subjects I liked. I could understand the applications of trigonometry, chemistry and calculus because by that time I was practicing it," he recalls. All are important to understanding the fundamentals of the machinist trade, Hazenstab says. He was introduced to machining at age 12 by his father. By eighth grade, Hazenstab says, he was showing some of his shop teachers how to repair equipment. In 1977, the elder Hazenstab founded the company in Ellsworth, which machined parts mainly for the region's steel mills. "When the mills closed, business dropped off. By 1980, I was partners with my dad and was the only one in the shop. I don't think I was paid between 1980 and 1985," he says. Today business is much improved as his company machines components for a diverse range of customers in the electrical, steel and aluminum industries. While dollars were scarce, the experience proved invaluable, Hazenstab says. Although a vocational education may be a useful starting point for a machinist, many new graduates, fearing ridicule, won't ask questions. This, in many cases, is what separates good machinists from mediocre ones, he says. "My father used to say that there's only one stupid question, and that's the one you don't ask," Hazenstab remarks. "You have to want to learn this trade and have a basic desire to understand how things work." In addition to a vocational and technical education, Hazenstab says it usually takes between three and five years of on-the-job training until machinists fully master their craft. "You need creative talent, mechanical ability and a desire to make something," he says. Hazenstab Machine, which employs 18, has the capability of mass producing small machined parts through its computer numerically controlled (CNC) operations and prototype parts with the company's traditional lathes, grinders and mills, he says. On many occasions, trial and error is the best teacher when it comes to machining a part to perfection, Hazenstab says. One such project involved a prototype for General Electric Co., he recalls. "We developed several models before the part was right." The company worked in tandem with a GE engineer and the prototype took almost four years to complete. Ultimately, the component became an integral piece of GE's mass-production line for pressure-sodium light bulbs, he says. A good machinist learns from mistakes often his own, Hazenstab notes, and experience gradually helps improve the quality and speed of the work. "My dad used to say, 'If you're not making scrap, then you're not a good machinist.' You need to envision the part in your mind, figure out how it will work and then build it," he says. Despite the introduction of CNC equipment and other technological advances in the industry, machining is nevertheless an art form that depends heavily on individual talent, says Glen Beatty, a machinist at Mills Machine Co., Warren. Beatty, who entered the trade in 1972, says he's qualified to operate CNC machines but prefers to work with manual equipment such as grinders, lathes and mills. Since the company works strictly with close-tolerance prototypes and doesn't machine parts in quantity, CNC technology is not required at the shop. "We work with real close dimensions, and this takes an extreme amount of patience," he says. "There are things we've had to repair because they weren't done right the first time through a CNC machine." If he's working from an engineer's print, Beatty says he can probably make just about anything a customer wants. Therefore, today's machinist must maintain a high level of professional expertise, says Tom Rasey, Mills Machine's shop supervisor. "There's a big difference between someone who strictly runs a CNC machine and one who operates a manual machine. A lot of the guys coming out of school now are not taught the same skills as 20 years ago." A superior machinist, Rasey adds, is part engineer, part artist, part metallurgist and part inventor. "It goes beyond a skill. There's a certain gift to it." All these talents come into play when working on complex and sophisticated projects, Rasey notes. He points to a prototype part the company machined and built from scratch for a cutting line at Delphi Packard Electric Systems in Warren. In such cases, Mills Machine usually works with a Delphi engineer. Together they will decide on changes or improvements to the component. "When we get it done, we send them the model part and they'll build their own," he says. Such demands, however, make it increasingly difficult to find qualified employees in an extremely tight labor market, Rasey says. Most of the five employees at Mills Machine work part time, and many of them are retired machinists who devoted much their lives to the trade. "We've got some of the best machinists in the area working for us. There are a lot of people who call themselves machinists, but some don't even know how to turn on a machine," he states. Although employed by the industry since the 1970s, Beatty says it wasn't until 1990 that he earned the status of journeyman machinist, a classification conferred only when the worker has logged his requisite number of classroom and machine hours. "To become a journeyman machinist, it takes 144 hours of classroom time and 8,000 hours' machine time. It took me about four years," he elaborates. During such a program, a machinist's skill is monitored on just about every piece of equipment, including lathes, boring mills, drills, threaders and CNC mills. "Journeyman papers are as good as a college education," he says. Beatty adds he would have received his certification earlier except that the company he started with in the '70s didn't sponsor a journeyman program. Shop supervisor Rasey, who performs all the assembly work on the company's prototypes, says the average salary for a journeyman machinist is $15 an hour. "There's decent money to be made. It's one of the last skilled craftsman positions out there," he states.
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