The Perils of Working For Friends

[Bill]

You just hit the nail on the head ... shops are reluctant to train. Where do you think machinists come from, anyways? Or carpenters or electricians? Kids coming out of public schools sure aren't (on average) 'much to look at'.

Give 'em some training (sort those screws, take the burr off these parts, measure these pins) and insist that they also attend whatever classes are available locally just to keep their jobs. In their 'free-time' at work, let other employees assign them tasks / teach them how to use tools - select steel - run the saw - weld saw blades - use the hoist - measure accurately - and so on. I learned screw profiles from 'the boss', how to remove burrs and pressurize the Karto sprayer from a 'permanent bench hand', make CNC edits by watching the boss and then sneaking them in when he wasn't around. ;-) (makes you a VERY careful operator!)

Chatting with the DeVlieg 43K72 operator alerted me to spindle drop and rebuilding that stinky-butt machine from a basket of parts woke me up to a WHOLE LOT of alignment issues -- straighness of ways, adjusting gibs and so on and on.

Plan to reimburse them somehow ... either in wages (one raise for an "A", another for a "B" nothing for a "C" and extremely shaky ground for anything less than a "C".[gpa for the semester]) or similar pro-rated tuition / books money if you plan on retaining them after training, though.

Best shop I ever worked at for this paid for the tuition upfront (from a pre-approved list of trade-related classes) ... reimbursed for books on a sliding scale and pegged wages to the final GPA for the school year.

[Bill]

You just hit the nail on the head ... shops are reluctant to train. Where do you think machinists come from, anyways? Or carpenters or electricians? Kids coming out of public schools sure aren't (on average) 'much to look at'.

Give 'em some training (sort those screws, take the burr off these parts, measure these pins) and insist that they also attend whatever classes are available locally just to keep their jobs. In their 'free-time' at work, let other employees assign them tasks / teach them how to use tools - select steel - run the saw - weld saw blades - use the hoist - measure accurately - and so on. I learned screw profiles from 'the boss', how to remove burrs and pressurize the Karto sprayer from a 'permanent bench hand', make CNC edits by watching the boss and then sneaking them in when he wasn't around. ;-) (makes you a VERY careful operator!)

Chatting with the DeVlieg 43K72 operator alerted me to spindle drop and rebuilding that stinky-butt machine from a basket of parts woke me up to a WHOLE LOT of alignment issues -- straighness of ways, adjusting gibs and so on and on.

Plan to reimburse them somehow ... either in wages (one raise for an "A", another for a "B" nothing for a "C" and extremely shaky ground for anything less than a "C".[gpa for the semester]) or similar pro-rated tuition / books money if you plan on retaining them after training, though.

Best shop I ever worked at for this paid for the tuition upfront (from a pre-approved list of trade-related classes) ... reimbursed for books on a sliding scale and pegged wages to the final GPA for the school year.

[CW]

The reluctance to train is for a reason. It costs well over $100.00 per hour to train somebody. Finding someone that wants to learn is hard. Many that claim they want to learn, after finding out it is real work, lose enthusiasm. Over the past couple of years, I have attempted to train about ten people. All washed out except one. The plan that you suggest assumes someone wants to do the work. Very few do.

[Prometheus]

Sounds a bit like how I learned it- reading the manuals while longer jobs were running as a lowly operator (load/unload and push the start button only), looking up general speed and feed information on the internet at home, and working up from simple offset changes to full setup and programming over the course of a couple of years. Might have done it quicker with some mentoring, but since that wasn't happening it was a matter of just watching others set up the the machines and (very gingerly) taking that over without permission until I got it down pat and could prove to the boss that I had earned the job title. Place I'm at now is better than the others about that, though- I got hired as a setup guy for the lasers and CNC punches, but since they run so well between setups, I've got the foreman getting me up to speed on everything else in the shop while the parts run, and it's moving things along much more quickly.

I still prefer the work of carpentry and cabinetmaking- but after this rotten year with layoff after layoff, I've gone back to a machine shop, and it's amazing how appreciative they are to have someone who knows what's going on these days. Guess it doesn't matter so much what you prefer once you look at the difference in overall treatment- the couple of machine shops I've been at have given me good raises on a real regular basis and promotions, the construction contractors have expected me to spend more money on tools than I was making and never wanted to pay one cent more than they absolutely had to- and the merest mention of paid vacations or health insurance sent them into apoplectic fits. Seems "benefits" = "free beer (when the boss feels like it)" to the local construction industry, and I'm not into it anymore.

I guess the cabinetmaking will just have to go back to being a weekend avocation- I always made more money at it like that anyway. Makes the home woodworking shop a whole lot more fun again, too.

[CW]

electricians?

[Prometheus]

Actually, I really do- the wife and I have been discussing relocating, and Seattle and Portland made the top slots on the list. You like it out there?

Ahh, now you've got that idea rearing it's head again. Tell you what- if you're still looking in about a year and nine months (when the wife finishes her degree,) you might just have yourself a new machinist in the area. Worrying about finding work right away has been the biggest concern we've had over the idea- I'm far past the stage where starving and sleeping in a tent seems like an adventure to me!

[CW]

[B A R R Y]

Some schools may be starting to notice:

[CW]